Book Review: Out of the Shadows by Emma Carrie

Exciting Start to Series

Teenager Emily Brelin’s adoptive mother has just died, and now Child Protective Services needs to find her a place to live. At least, that’s what they think. Emily needs to stay off the grid, to make sure her past doesn’t find her. That means staying out of the system.

Detective Victoria Tacket didn’t even know her friend Dr Jennifer Brelin was ill, let alone that she’d adopted a teenager. And why has Jen nominated her as guardian? She’s not fit to be a parent—which she tells CPS. But then Emily disappears, and Vick knows she has to find the missing teen.

Emily is a fascinating character, with more skills that people would expect for her age—including the ability to lip-read. She takes the lead in this game of hide and seek, and her willingness to run away and disappear introduce a lot of questions. Who is Emily? Why is it so important she stays out of the system? Who is looking for her … and what will happen if they find her?

This is the first book in a series—thank goodness, because I want to know what happens next! It doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but the end definitely leaves some unanswered questions for future books. (Cliffhanger endings too often give me the impression the author didn’t know how to finish the book, which breaks the illusion that it’s real).

Out of the Shadows is a fast-paced read with plenty of suspense. The plot and writing are solid, and the characters are excellent. If there was a failing, it was that it was too quick to read (I read it in a single sitting, because I couldn’t put it down). Not a novel to start late in the evening …

Recommended for those looking for Young Adult suspense (and especially for those looking for Young Adult books with no romance).

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Emma Carrie at her website, and you can read the introduction to Out of the Shadows below:

Featured Novel: The Babel Conspiracy by Sylvia Bambola

The Babel Conspiracy by Sylvia Bambola, was the first book I've read from this author. It will not be my last… it is very well written and at times, you won't want to put it down. Looking forward to reading more of this talented author! 

~P. McGuire

The Babel Conspiracy 

by Sylvia Bambola

About the Book:

The Babel Conspiracy is a tale of intrigue and love. Two women engineers struggle to develop the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft amid ever intensifying global terrorism and muddled personal lives. Trisha Callahan has an abiding faith in God, and “those roots of middy blouses and pleated skirts, prayer books and incense-filled churches went deep.” This faith is tested when she finds herself in love with a married man. Audra Shields sees herself as a modern Lady Chatterley, “liberated but not forsaking breeding, intellect, or femininity.” When she becomes involved with a dangerous stranger, she begins to question her lifestyle. 

Both women try sorting out their personal problems while racing the clock to finish a project fraught with sabotage and murder. And who’s behind it all? When the Department of Homeland Security and the Mossad finally figure it out, the answer surprises everyone.

PURCHASE

Amazon

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What readers are saying:

“It has been quite a long time since I have read a book such as this one, one so pertinent to today's landscape of life. The author has written an excellent novel that could have been pulled from tomorrow's headlines - from both political and scientific advancement points of view. . . . I highly recommend this book for those who love intrigue, suspense, fiction, and a little bit of romance. The book is well paced, has plenty of action, and good character development.” Rachel Helms

“The Babel Conspiracy by Sylvia Bambola is a very thought provoking novel about the way that things could be in the U.S. in the near future. We need to humble ourselves before the Lord and pray for America in these perilous times. The characters were well developed and the story shows God's love and redemption.” Linda Rainey

About the Sylvia Bambola:

Sylvia Bambola is the award winning author of eight novels, including Rebekah’s Treasure (2015 CSPA Book of the Year/Christian Historical Fiction) and The Salt Covenants (2015 Reader’s Favorite

Bronze Medal Winner/Christian Historical Fiction). A resident of Florida, she teaches women’s Bible studies and has two grown children.

Where to find Sylvia:

Website

Goodreads 

Facebook

Twitter

Review: Dubosity by Christy Barritt

Excellent Suspense!

Savannah Harris left her life as an investigative journalist following the death of her husband and daughter, but she finds herself getting deeper than she’d like when immigrant workers harvesting local crops begin to disappear and there are whispers of murder.

Dubosity is an excellent thriller, with enough of a touch of romance to keep me happy. There was plenty of suspense, especially as the reader knows Savannah is being watched … but we don’t know by whom. But there are plenty of likely suspects, including landowner Landon Kavanaugh, and Clive Miller, who is new in town.

Savannah is an intelligent and likeable character, despite abandoning God and withdrawing from life following the death of her family, and it was easy to want her to determine the identity of the evildoer, rediscover her faith, and get her happy-ever-after.

The writing was excellent. I have read one or two of Barritt’s earlier books, and while they were good, they were shorter works of fiction, and this was better: the longer novel gave more opportunity for subplots and character development, and it was well done. Recommended for suspense fans.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Deception on Sable Hill by Shelley Gray

Excellent. 

Shelley Gray is more commonly known as Shelley Shepherd Gray, bestselling author of Amish fiction. I haven’t read any of her Amish fiction, but I think I’ve read the three contemporary romantic suspense novels she’s published as Shelley Gray, and they are excellent. Excellent writing, strong characters, and hard-hitting plots touching on some major contemporary issues.

Deception on Sable Hill is, as far as I can tell, Gray’s second historical novel, following Secrets of Sloane House. It’s part of her series set in Chicago during the 1893 World’s Fair, although the Fair isn’t a major feature. Anyway, Sable Hill is the exclusive part of town, although Miss Eloisa Carstairs has found out that exclusive doesn’t necessarily mean safe ...

In hindsight, Deception on Sable Hill shouldn’t have worked. While it’s entirely believable that Mrs Carstairs was so self-absorbed that she didn’t notice the anguish Eloisa was going through, it’s much less likely that she didn’t notice Eloisa spending far too much time with that police detective. It would be unusual for a lady of Eloisa Carstairs’s station to spend time with an Irish police detective under normal circumstances … but this is a novel, and Eloisa’s circumstances are hardly normal.

Maybe it shouldn’t have worked, but it did, and that’s a testament to Shelley Gray’s consistently excellent characterisation and strong writing, Even if logic says the plot shouldn’t work, Gray managed to convince me it did, and I was swept up in a romantic suspense novel set against the backdrop of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (a popular topic, it seems: Deeanne Gist is also writing a series set in and around the Fair).

Deception on Sable Hill is the sequel to The Secrets of Sloane House, but can easily be read as a standalone novel (I own The Secrets of Sloane House, but haven’t yet read it. This reminds me I must). Recommended for those who like historical romance … especially historical romance with a mystery/suspense twist. Recommended.

Thanks to Zondervan and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Shelley Gray at her website.

Review: Twisted Innocence by Terri Blackstock

Twisted Innocence is the final book in a trilogy, and the three books do need to be read in order, and (I believe) in quick succession, because Twisted Innocence builds on and concludes the overall series story arc. While I have read the previous two books, it was several months ago, and I had forgotten most of the details. As a result, I found the first quarter of Twisted Innocence slow, as though it was trying to tell new readers what had gone before without falling into an excess of backstory that those who did remember the earlier novels would find tedious and unnecessary.
 
Twisted Innocence focuses on Holly Cramer, the once-irresponsible younger sister of Cathy, Juliet and Jay. She’s now a more responsible woman: a single mother to five-week-old Lily who is working two jobs to try and earn enough money to cover her bills. She is mugged one night, and then finds out that one-night-stand Creed Kershaw knows he is Lily’s father, and is wanted in relation to a drug-related murder. And it seems Leonard Miller, the man who murdered Cathy’s fiance, is back in town …

There were good parts and bad parts to the story. The pace picked up once I got past the first quarter, which made it easier to read. The whole subplot about Michael in prison seemed unnecessary, as though he was only there so someone could observe one specific incident (the scenes where Cathy was petitioning to have Michael released were particularly tedious). However, there were flashes of brilliance:

“How come I didn’t get the decorating gene?”
“It’s not genetic. It’s Pinterest.”

Who can’t relate to that?

There were also reminders that despite the “global village”, some things are still country-specific:

“She scooped [baby] formula into the only clean bottle she had and mixed it with bottled water.”

When I had my babies, while living in London, it was impressed upon us that we were always to fill the bottle, then add the formula powder (so we knew exactly how much water we had, to ensure we added the correct number of scoops) and never to use bottled water. Any midwives care to comment on this?



Overall, while Twisted Innocence was a good finish to the series, it would be better if I’d read all three books in quick succession, as it didn’t work well as a standalone thriller. Thankfully, now you can, and for the same price as buying one of the books: Zondervan has released a three-in-one volume.

Thanks to Zonvervan and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Terri Blackstock at her website. 

Review: A Cry from the Dust by Carrie Stuart Park

Recommended for Suspense Fans

Gwen Marcey is a forensic artist currently employed reconstructing three skulls, remnants of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah. An act of vandalism and a ritualistic murder land Gwen in the middle of a criminal investigation, and she doesn’t know who to trust: it’s Utah, the evidence points to a group of militant Mormons—it seems most local law enforcement officials are linked to the church—and no one believes Gwen.

A Cry from the Dust is a fascinating blend of fact and fiction. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, the murder of 120 men, women and children by members of the Mormon church, is a real historical event subject to a real-life cover-up. This makes it ideal as the basis for a suspenseful contemporary crime thriller, as the secrets from the past and the events of the present begin to intertwine in a fundamentalist conspiracy that could lead to another act of domestic terrorism on the anniversary of the Massacre: 11 September.

The plot is complex, with seemingly small events gradually growing in importance. Gwen is a fascinating character: a woman with an unusual and intriguing professional background combined with a difficult personal background (cancer, divorce and a rebellious teenage daughter) which means people think she’s got mental health issues. She’s intelligent and brave, my favourite kind of heroine.

There was one thing about the writing that was slightly ‘off’, although I was more than half way through the novel before I worked out what it was. Most of the story is written in first person, from Gwen’s viewpoint, but there are occasional short scenes in third person viewpoint, from minor characters. I’m not a fan of mixing first and third person viewpoints, and while I’ve seen it done better I’ve also seen a lot worse. This was the only glitch in an otherwise excellent novel, and I look forward to reading more from Carrie Stuart Parks.

I'm Reviewing at Suspense Sisters!

I'm over at Suspense Sisters Reviews, reviewing The Bracelet
by Dorothy Love. I thought it was going to be a run-of-the-mill historical romance, but it turned into something much different.

Click here to read my review.

Review: Mortal Insight by EB James

What's in the water?

Steve Keller is seeing dead people. Only they aren’t dead—an error which means he finds himself on leave from his job as a detective with the Sexual Crimes unit, and on the psychiatrist’s couch. This isn’t helping his non-relationship with his ex-wife, or her kooky mother.

But a blind date and a chance encounter force Steve to look deeper into a new soft drink, and he doesn’t like what he finds: evidence of unsafe additives in the food chain, a high-level cover-up.

Mortal Insight is a fast-paced suspense novel. There are two unique hooks: Steve’s unexplained visions, and the mystery ingredient in EN+, the new non-alcoholic drink which is taking the nightclub scene by storm. It is well-plotted, with plenty of twists and turns as Steve and his colleagues try and puzzle out the mystery.

The writing was solid, and although Mortal Insight isn’t specifically Christian fiction, the author is a Christian and this is reflected in some of the characters. I think my favourite character was Dorothy, the mother-in-law who turns out to be not as crazy as Steve first thought (her friends, on the other hand …).

Mortal Insight is the first novel from author EB James, who is actually Australian author Meredith Resce, best known for her Christian historical romance novels. I thought Mortal Insight was her best yet, and I hope we see more novels from EB James. Recommended for fans of fast-paced suspense.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about E B James at the website of her alter ego, Meredith Resce.

Review: Just Over the Horizon by Susan Rush

An Unusual Christian Romantic Suspense Novel

Sarah Reeves is a visiting hospice nurse, and has just moved to a new three-month assignment where she meets handsome carpenter Nate Williams while looking less than her best. A lot less than her best, but that doesn’t prevent the two becoming friends as they care for Nate’s adopted father. Sarah gets more involved in the community, and is even asked out by a handsome young doctor, and she finds herself torn, and perhaps even wanting to settle in one place.

There were quite a few typos and glitches in the writing, but not enough to detract from a powerful and unusual story. In a way, it’s nice to see people die naturally (!) in Christian fiction, which more often features death through murder and violence. There is tragedy and death in Just Over The Horizon, but it’s dealt with in a beautiful way. I especially liked the idea that sometimes we have to remind ourselves that dying is sometimes a process, and we need to make that process as easy as possible.

But it wasn’t all maudlin. There was also a healthy dose of romance, a potentially less healthy dose of suspense, and the obligatory happy-ever-after ending (do not despise the happy-ever-after ending. It’s the reason I read romance). An enjoyable novel with an original viewpoint.

Thanks to Susan Rush and Astraea Press for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Susan Rush at her website.

Review: Five Days in May by Ninie Hammon

Highly Recommended

Five Days in May starts with the end: the “Big Ugly”, a massive tornado that strikes the town of Graham, Oklahoma, in May 1963. It then goes back five days to show in detail the lives of the townspeople—and it’s typical of tornados that there is no warning. The reader knows what’s coming, but the characters are tied up in their everyday lives.

There are four main characters: Princess (Emily Prentice), who is due to be executed in five days for murdering her baby sister; Mac, the widowed preacher who’s lost his faith in God; Jonas, Mac’s father-in-law, who is caring for a wife with “old-timers” disease; and Joy, Mac’s teenage daughter, who has her own set of problems. There are also some fascinating yet disturbing minor characters, including Wanda and Jackson.

The characters are excellent, especially Princess, who has a distinct and engaging voice, and who “sees” things in a way that’s a cross between the movies Green Mile and Being John Malkovich. Joy is a typical teenager, so tied up in her own problems that she can’t see the wood for the trees. Mac is the typical father of a teenage daughter, in that he can’t relate to her and can barely hold a conversation with her (I could relate—Mac’s relationship with Joy had a lot of similarities to the relationship between my husband and my daughter).

The plot was complex, a tangled web of relationships. While I did guess one of the major plot points before it was revealed, that only added to the tension. Was I right? What would the characters think and say when they found out? I was right, but the reaction of one character in particular surprised me. Another behaved exactly true to character … but justice was served in the end, albeit not in the tidy way I perhaps expected.

There are ‘rules’ of writing which say authors should limit the number of viewpoint characters, and shouldn’t use omniscient point of view. Hammon ‘broke’ both rules in Five Days in May, yet in such a way that it didn’t detract from the story at all. Rather, it added considerably to the tension (especially given how unhinged some of these characters were …)

While Five Days in May isn’t specifically Christian fiction, there are strong Christian themes of love and sacrifice underpinning a story that is, quite simply, brilliant in both concept and execution. Recommended.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Ninie Hammon at her website, or check out our interview. And here's the book trailer:

Review: Hacker by Ted Dekker

Outstanding YA Sci-fi

Nyah is seventeen, brilliant, and has lost everything. Her father and brother died in a car accident which left her mother brain damaged. She’s been accepted into a medical trial which is going to cost $250,000—money she doesn’t have. She has a plan, but is left running for her life after it goes horribly wrong.

Nyah teams up with Austin, the only person she’s ever met who is smarter than her. Austin’s dying of a brain tumour, but he’s got a plan … which is a cross between Fringe and The Matrix. He’s trying to find a mysterious person known as the Outlaw, as Austin believes the Outlaw will be able to heal him. In order to find the Outlaw, Austin is hacking into the most complex computer on the planet: his own brain.

The plot is fast-paced as the danger grows ever closer to Nyah. The characters are excellent and the writing outstanding. Dekker is one of the few authors I’ve read who have managed to pull off the combination of first person and third person point of view (first person from Nyah, third person from Austin and other characters). It shouldn’t work, because it’s a technique that reminds us we are *only* reading a book. It shouldn’t work, but it did.

This is only the second Ted Dekker book I’ve read. I like suspense, especially romantic suspense, but the previous Dekker I read (Three) was so full of psychological suspense I didn’t think I could put myself through that again (the only other book that’s come close was Abomination by Colleen Coble). Anyway, while Hacker was full of suspense, it was a mixture of physical and psychological, and I was better able to cope with that (although there was one scene where I closed my eyes. I don't like drills). I still don’t know if I’m brave enough to read Dekker’s older books, but I certainly enjoyed this one.

Hacker is the fourth book in The Outlaw Chronicles, but is easily enjoyed as a standalone novel. I wouldn’t call it Christian fiction—Dekker’s presentation of life and death in Hacker seems to only allow for a pleasant afterlife. Despite this possible drawback, it’s excellent YA science fiction, recommended for teens who enjoyed tech-based Sci-fi.

Thanks to Worthy for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Ted Dekker at his website.

Review and Giveaway: Friend Me by John Fabion

Melissa Montalvo is an ambitious young software development specialist who has just been given her dream job—a project to create virtual online friends in an IT start-up, working on the next Facebook or SecondLife—only better. The friend you can share anything with, because they’re not real. More intimate.

Rachel and Scott Douglas are the parents of two small children. Rachel is a stay-at-home mom who feels isolated—her husband works all hours in his job as an investment advisor, and she doesn’t have any close friends. So when she finds a new website, VirtualFriendMe, she is intrigued enough to sign upland recreate her best friend, Suzanne—who died two years ago. There should be something inherently creepy about creating a virtual version of a dead person, but the author manages to make this seem not only believable, but a logical course of action.

Meanwhile, Scott is feeling the pressure at work, and decides to create his own virtual friend after Rachel tells him about the site. Only Scott chooses a female friend, Alicia. She’s loving and supportive and he can tell her anything. She seems almost real. Then he sees someone in real life who looks like Alicia—coincidence, surely …

Friend Me was a mix of Single White Female, The Net, with shades of Nick Lesson’s real-life story. Parts of it made awkward reading, as in many ways Melissa was the best character. She was intelligent, hardworking and ambitious, a woman succeeding in a male-dominated industry. There was just the problem of her warped ethics and questionable business practices.

In contrast, Rachel’s life ambition was to get married and be a mother. To paraphrase the current retirement planning campaign with my bank, a man is not a life plan. In the author interview at the end, Fabion said she was the hardest character to write. It showed, in that Rachel was the character I had least sympathy for (which is curious, as I’m also a wife and mother. Perhaps that was because Rachel let her family role be her whole identity, and that seems unhealthy. But now I’m trying to psychoanalyse a fictional character, a virtual person if you like).

I thought Rachel was immature and needy, worrying that she wasn’t a good enough wife and mother (don’t we all?). The couple are supposed to be Christians, but there’s little mention of God, church or prayer, and it felt like Rachel was trying to please Scott and herself, not God. In contrast, Scott read his Bible at work … at least until he created Alicia.

Friend Me is a sobering reminder of how seemingly small acts can have unintended and unforseen consequences, as Scott and Rachel find. It’s an excellent first novel, with good characters that invite the reader to feel a range of emotions, and an unusual suspense plot that raises some interesting issues. Not for the faint-hearted. Recommended.

John Faubion is celebrating his debut novel, Friend Me, with a Kindle HDX giveaway!

One winner will receive:

• A brand new Kindle Fire HDX
• Friend Me by John Faubion

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on February 22nd. Winner will be announced February 24th on John Faubion's blog.

Don't miss a moment of the fun; enter today and be sure to stop by John's blog on the 24th to see if you won.

Indie Review: The Earth Bleeds Red by Jackson Paul Baer

Thriller Debut

Scott, Jessie and Ashley Miller are the perfect family. Scott loves his wife and eighteen-year-old daughter, and little interrupts their idyllic life … until Ashley disappears one night while visiting her boyfriend, Brandon Johnson and the reader realises the early introduction of an ominous tone was foreshadowing her kidnapping … or her murder.

Miller is Catholic and appears to believe in karma as much as he believes in God. In the beginning, The Earth Bleeds Red isn't so much Christian fiction as relatively clean general market fiction written from a Christian world view, but by the middle we see Scott rediscovering his faith. I haven’t read The Shack, but I suspect there are similar elements in the plot. The difference is The Earth Bleeds Red doesn’t have any of the theological ‘issues’ reviewers reported with The Shack, the faith journey feels real, and the writing is good. Better than good.

I did not see her sleep, or wake, or even fade away. I did not see my girls talking, or keeping to themselves. The things I did not see are all I remember.

The first portion of The Earth Bleeds Red is written in first person, from Scott’s viewpoint, and the writing here is strong and full of imagery:

She dreamed in a world where everything was black and white, and no one carried their own shadow.

The second part of The Earth Bleeds Red was written in third person, and the writing here wasn’t as strong. I think these sections could have been better integrated with the first person section to build suspense (as it was, the third person scenes acted almost as flashbacks, which detracted from the forward motion of the story). While the plot was generally structured well, there were sections in the middle which dragged.

However, I really didn’t like the end of the story. I don’t want to give away spoilers, so I’ll try and be vague, but I think there were a couple of a couple of minor plot points that detracted from the overall ending, at least for me. One of these came out of nowhere and (I thought) should have been signalled earlier. In addition, there is some sensuous content and some swearing including use of the ‘f’ word.

Despite this, the story overall was well-plotted and well-written with interesting character who were forced into an impossible situation.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Jackson Paul Baer at his website.

Review: Critical Reaction by Todd M Johnson

Solid Legal Thriller

Attorney Emily Hart is surprised to receive a telephone call from an old college friend requesting her help on a case against his employer—he believes he has been exposed to radioactive materials, a claim his employer denies. It’s more than she can manage, so she asks her father to assist. Ryan Hart is an experienced courtroom attorney who has lost his will to fight since the death of his wife while Emily was in college.

Kieran Mullaney is an employee at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a site that manufactured plutonium in the days of the cold war. It is now closed, with the only employees involved in monitoring the site and the buildings to ensure they are safe before the entire complex is demolished. But there have been a series of ‘accidents’ at the plant, and it seems there is something more going on…

Critical Reaction is a combination of Karen Silkwood and Erin Brockovich written in the style of John Grisham, with a slight Christian flavour. It’s well-plotted with a (mostly) good cast of characters, and reinforces why I’m glad to live in a country where our natural geography means we don’t need nuclear power plants.

And that was the bug for me in Critical Reaction. There’s a secret project going on at Hanford, and the author took great pains to point out that the person within the plant managing the secret project was a New Zealander. This didn’t ring true on several levels (and I’m not just saying that because I’m a Kiwi), and because I didn't believe it, it took away from the suspense. What didn't I believe?

I don’t understand why a Kiwi would go to America for university when a US college education is so much more expensive than here. I don’t understand how he was allowed to study in America, let alone get a job—it’s hard enough to get an American study visa, let alone a work permit. I don’t understand how someone who was brought up in a nuclear-free country would get a job in the nuclear industry. Between David Lange’s famous speech and watching The Simpsons, we’re grateful for our hydroelectric power schemes.

And no matter how estranged he was from his family, I don’t understand why he’s not in contact with his family when it’s made clear they lived in one of the areas of Christchurch most affected by the 2011 earthquakes (at the time of writing, Manchester Street, where he supposedly grew up, has only just been reopened). It made it difficult for me to take the character seriously.

But if I ignored that, Critical Reaction is a solid legal thriller set in the nuclear industry, underpinned by some good suspense in the form of a secret project the company wants to ensure stays a secret. No matter what.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Todd M Johnson at his website.

Review: The Celtic Stone by Nick Hawkes

Warning: Biased review ahead

(I edited The Celtic Stone.)

Chris Norman finds himself in possession of a strange object after almost losing his life in an airplane crash. It’s a celtic cross, and this leads Chris on a journey to the Isle of Skye, where he has inherited the croft his forebears farmed, and where he still has one distant relation. That relation is a small boy, Ruan, and Chris arrives on Skye to find himself the next-of-kin to a complete stranger.

Morag Daniel has retreated to her family home on the Isle of Skye after being blinded four years ago. She has taken Ruan in following the death of his father, and is suspicious of this newcomer, but finds herself drawn to him as they work together to keep Ruan in his home community, find the story behind The Celtic Stone, and fight for their island family.

The twisting and turning plot is one of the strengths of The Celtic Stone. The other is the characters. These are, without exception, well-drawn with real personalities: likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. The plot has complexity not always found in Christian fiction, and the writing is strong and occasionally beautiful. Nick Hawkes has a background as a research scientist and a pastor, and both come through in his writing. The Christian aspects have the ring of a pastor and teacher, and there is a real gentleness in the way different characters experience and present their faith journeys.

The Celtic Stone is the first book I have edited by Nick Hawkes, and you’ll have to believe me when I say the next two have equally compelling characters, with strong suspense plots, a solid Christian message and a touch of romance.

There seems to be a small but growing readership for Christian novels with unique settings, and I consider The Celtic Stone to be a valuable addition to that genre. Of course, I worked with the author on the editing, so there is the slightest chance I'm biased ...

You can find out more about Dr Nick Hawkes at his website.

Review: Wounds by Alton Gansky

It’s the week before Easter, and a student from San Diego Theological Seminary has just been found murdered in a manner that is both brutal and unique. Carmen Rainmondi is the police detective assigned to the case, along with partner Bob Tock. And one murder with no leads soon turns into two, then …

Ellis Poe is a professor at the Seminary, and is both surprised and worried when Carmen Rainmondi turns up to interview him about the victim. Because he recognises her. She’s the image of her sister, who he saw murdered years ago. Ellis sees that Carmen is still tormented because the murderer was never found—perhaps because he never reported what he saw. Yet it seems that Ellis might hold the key to this case.

This was one of those books that:
a) You shouldn’t read alone in the house;
b) You shouldn’t start just before bedtime.

I didn’t make either of these mistakes, thankfully, because once I started, I just couldn’t put down. Not only is there the mystery over finding the murderer before he strikes again, but there is the elephant in the room of what Ellis hasn’t told Carmen about her sister. Ellis was the archetype of the college professor—intelligent, highly-principled, but a total wimp. He knows what he should do, but he’s afraid to do it.

There were a couple of things that made me shake my head. One was the description of everyone hurrying to get home after work on Good Friday. You mean it isn’t a holiday in the US? Here in New Zealand, Good Friday is a major public holiday, and only essential services are open. There was also the inevitable comment on the origin of Easter—for another viewpoint, I recommend reading this blog post from Anne Hamilton (which makes a lot of sense).

Anyway, back to the book review. The other thing that was slightly weird was the last line. While it fit the storyline, I don’t think it was a good last line (but it would have made a great last line in a prologue leading into a sequel). That’s another annoying thing—Wounds is published by B&H, who have just cancelled their fiction line, which almost certainly cuts out the possibility of a sequel. A shame.

All in all, Wounds is an exciting thriller, albeit a bit gory in places. It’s not preachy-Christian (although there is a bit of preaching in the funeral service), and of the main characters, only Ellis is a Christian. There is an underlying theme of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. It’s so subtle that a non-Christian probably wouldn’t even notice, but it’s there. Recommended for thriller fans who don’t mind a few dead bodies.

Thanks to B&H Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Alton Gansky at his website.

Review: Sleeping in Eden by Nicole Baart

When Jim Sparks is found hanging in his barn, Dr Lucas Hudson is called in to act as coroner. It’s pretty clear that Sparks has committed suicide, but the discovery of a human skeleton buried in the floor of the barn is unexpected. Is it Angela, Jim’s daughter, who disappeared eight years ago? Lucas finds an inscribed ring on the barn floor and decides to keep it as a peace offering for his wife, Jenna. Their marriage has been slowly failing since Angela disappeared, and he hopes the ring will provide some closure and help restore their broken relationship.

Meg Painter and Dylan Reid are high school students in Sutton. She’s intelligent, athletic and popular; he’s the guy from the wrong side of the tracks, but they are best friends until all-American neighbour Jess starts dating Meg, and she doesn’t understand her feelings.

The two stories run side by side, although it isn’t initially apparent how or when they will link. And both stories were equally intriguing, because I knew there had to be a link, and when I realised what it was… well, I didn’t see that coming. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t. The second half of the novel is bittersweet, as you can see where the story is going yet it's like a runaway train: there is nothing that can be done to change the inevitable.

Nicole Baart writes gritty stories with characters making difficult decisions, and Sleeping in Eden is no exception. She evokes strong emotion, not through melodrama but by placing her characters in situations that just could happen and where there is no easy or obvious choice. Her writing is beautiful, evoking images and emotions in just a few well-chosen words.

Sleeping in Eden isn't typical Christian fiction, even though it’s published by Howard Books, Christian imprint. There are a couple of swear words and Lucas makes a morally questionable decision in keeping the ring. There are a few unanswered questions, and a couple of characters whose stories aren’t finished. Despite this, Sleeping in Eden is a poignant tale of love and hope, beautifully written and a story that will be remembered. Recommended.

Thanks to Howard Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Nicole Baart at her website. For those who'd like to know more about the author (or the story behind that very cool cover), Nicole Baart was interviewed at the Women's Fiction Writers blog.

Review: Afloat by Erin Healy

It’s an intriguing idea: a subdivision built on the water, apartments literally floating on concrete-covered foam blocks anchored to the sea shore. Vance Nolan, the architect and designer, originally conceived Eagle’s Talon as a way of providing low-cost housing to the needy, but he couldn’t raise the cash. Instead, investors like Tony Dean are decorating and furnishing the apartments to the highest specifications and pricing them to get rich—and using Danielle Clement, a pretty single mom, to make his sales.

But one fine day the unthinkable happens. One of the pylons gives way and several apartments fall into the Rondeau River. Things get worse when a storm comes, cutting off their only exit to the mainland… and then cutting off their communications and electricity. Simeon, Danielle’s son, is sure they will all be safe because the pretty lights under the water told him so, but the adults are fighting over whether it is safer to leave in a jury-rigged boat or stay in a damaged building.

Afloat was well-plotted with a good amount of suspense, well-developed characters, an interesting subplot with possible supernatural elements and some very well-done flashbacks, but I did find there were some unanswered questions. Even at the end I didn’t really get what the people saw under the water, and there was a scene at the end that just came out of nowhere, in a ‘I’m not sure I believe that’ way, not a ‘wow, what a cool idea’ way. Or maybe that’s just me.

I don’t mind being left to ponder an idea at the end of a novel (in fact, the best novels are the ones you are still thinking about days later), but I like to have all the plot questions answered, and Afloat left one too many unanswered questions for my liking.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Erin Healy at her website.

Review: The Shadowed Onyx by Nicole O'Dell

Joy Christianson lives in the sleepy Nebraska town of Ogallala. Last week, Joy went to visit her best friend, Melanie, and instead found her body. She had committed suicide, and now Joy wants to know why (and, really, who can blame her?). Joy has also had to deal with breaking up with Austin, her friend since childhood and boyfriend for the last year. Joy has also lost her faith, although her Down syndrome cousin, Beatrice, tries to remind her about right and wrong in her own innocent way. Now Joy has befriended Raven, one of the bad girls in school, because she wants to distance herself from Melanie and Austin’s friends.

First up, I have to say that the opinions expressed in this review are that of the parent, not the Young Adult audience that The Shadowed Onyx is aimed at. I was one of those teens who was hypothetically interested in the spirit world, but who always knew (despite not having a Christian upbringing) that messing with things like Ouija boards was not a good idea. Either they knew fake (and therefore a total waste of time) or they were real, and therefore not something we should be messing around with.

As an adult, I can soon see that Joy is suffering from case of survivor's guilt (but to tell you why might spoil the plot). I don't know if a teen would see this underlying issue, or if it would just go over their head. The story is all written in the third person, from Joy's viewpoint. The narrative does seem a bit juvenile, but that could just be the adult me talking.

Teenagers are fascinated with the concept of the spirit world, and The Shadowed Onyx is a solid Christian response (although it got uncomfortably close to crossing the line at some points). The author writes with a sense of authority around the spiritual content, while at the same time, she has captured the uncertainty of youth without being moody or melodramatic. The Diamond Estates series is based on her experiences as a resident at Teen Challenge as a teenager, and this experience comes through in the writing.

It shows there is power in the language we use. 'Spiritual' sounds so much better than 'satanist', and 'contact' less scary than 'haunt'. But I have two concerns with The Shadowed Onyx. First, parts of the story skate very close to the line, and could almost be seen as a 'how-to' manual. More worrying, a very innocent or undiscerning teenager might not see that this is written from a Christian worldview, and might be encouraged to take the same path as Joy--and for the first half of the novel, Joy's thoughts and actions are quite anti-Christian. And the story is told exclusively from Joy's viewpoint, so there is no indication that she is being lied to and that her actions are wrong.

"She wasn’t afraid of the dark anymore; in fact, she preferred it. Light was unnecessary because it only revealed half the picture, if that. It crowded out the truth rather than illuminating it."

In reading The Shadowed Onyx, it's quite easy to see how a vulnerable teen can be seduced by the power of the dark side, and how well it masquerades as light. As with all the most convincing lies, it is based on the truth. This is a very good novel, and one that many parents of teens would benefit from reading, but it is a story I would recommend to others with caution. Although The Shadowed Onyxis the third book in the series, it is a stand-alone story.

Thanks to Barbour Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Nicole O’Dell at her website.

Review: Soul's Gate by James L Rubart

Thirty years ago, Reece Roth was given a prophecy: “there will come a day when you will train them—they will be four. The song, the teacher, the leader, the temple.” That day has now come, and Reece, along with Marcus Amber, Dana Raine, Brandon Scott, and Tamera Miller, are scheduled to go on a retreat together. Before they leave, Reece instructs the four to read the gospels and the book of Acts, and watch a movie - The Matrix.

Once on their retreat, Reese shares with the others some of the things he has learnt on his Christian walk. This is heavy, serious, spiritual stuff that threatens to break the four out of their everyday Christianity as they work together to get to know each other and break down spiritual barriers.

Jim Rubart is the award-winning author of Rooms, Book of Days and The Chair, and from reading Soul’s Gate, I can see why. Soul's Gate is a story of freedom in Christ, with a strong emphasis on the spiritual battles that sometimes must be fought for that freedom. While Soul's Gate finishes the story, the ending makes it equally clear that this is only the start of the journey for the four warriors, just as this is the first book in what I hope is planned to be a series.

This is not comfortable Christian fiction. The reader of Amish romance who occasionally branches out into a Western romance or a Love Inspired title is not going to enjoy Soul's Gate. But the reader who wants something a bit more challenging and who can deal with a bit of the "woo-woo demons and angels" stuff while find this book worth reading, if only to debate which aspects are fiction and which just might be true. Recommended.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and Netgalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about James L Rubart at his website.