Review: H2O by Austin W Boyd and Brannon Hollingsworth

My initial feeling about H2O was uncertainty - it is narrated by Kate Pepper, a 102-pound size 2 aerospace marketing executive and sushi chef who slices off part of her palm while catering a work-related dinner party hosted by her gorgeous but controlling boyfriend, Xavier. I'm not big on blood and I don't like controlling men in fiction or in real life, so this was not a promising start.

But underneath the doubtful beginning there is the start of a puzzle, a mystery, about Kate's reactions to the everyday miracle of water. Kate blacks out in the shower following her hand injury, and this turns out to be just one of many blackouts, always precipitated by water. It isn't long before she starts seeing things during her blackouts, and it becomes unclear what is real and what isn't. She starts searching for answers on the internet, and connects with someone with the known as WRKRJC, who attempts to help Kate make sense of her visions.

Some aspects of the novel felt little odd, like having WiFi explained. I thought that wireless internet technology was virtually omnipresent in the English-speaking world. Others (like the character names Thomas Cook and John Connor, better known respectively as a global travel company and the hero of the Terminator movies) made me wonder if there was something I was missing. And the special coffee roast from the mountains of New Zealand? I don’t think so. Most of our mountains are ski-fields, not exactly conducive to growing a warm-weather crop like coffee.

But despite this, I found the book intriguing, thought-provoking and well worth reading. H2O is rich in symbolism (to the point of almost being allegorical) with excellent use of language. It’s different to most of the Christian fiction on the market today and defies a straightforward genre description, being part literary, part speculative and part romance. I really enjoyed it, and am glad I persevered with it. Recommended.

Thanks to Living Ink Books (imprint of AMG Publishers) and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Yesterday's Stardust by Becky Melby

In 1924, 15-year-old Francie Tillman of Osseo, Wisconsin, runs away from home to join her sister in Chicago and follow her dream of being a fashion designer. But life doesn’t always work out how you planned, and she finds herself living her sister and illegitimate nephew under the ‘protection’ of local bootleggers who control her every move with threats to her family.

In the present day, award-winning journalist and Christian Dani Gallagher is finding that it's harder to write the story when there is a personal connection. In following up a story about a gang suicide, she meets handsome chef Nicky Fiorini, and his sister, Renata. Dani finds a diary that seems to link to Nicky’s restaurant, so the two of them read together and discover Francie’s story. Meanwhile, Renata is facing problems with her gang boyfriend, but has no way to escape his influence, and Dani wants to help, to share God’s love with Renata and the other gang ‘sisters’.

Yesterday's Stardust alternates back and forward between the past and the present, with gradual clues showing the physical links between the past and the present, and the underlying theme of change: the more things change, the more they stay the same, as Francie and Renata face similar problems decades apart. There is also the hint of a romance between Dani and Nicky, if he will allow himself to trust God again.

The past-and-present is an interesting plot device, and Melby works it to her advantage. I was also impressed by her use of language (I particularly like Roman Catholic Nicky’s thought that “he knew the exact moment he’d stopped praying to the figure on the cross and started talking to the living God. He also knew the exact moment he’d stopped”) and the sense of mystery.

Recommended, perhaps not so much because of the story but because of the way Becky Melby uses Yesterday's Stardust to challenge us, as Christians, to step out of our comfort zone and see the downtrodden in society the way Jesus would - and to do something about it. Her reasoning as to why teens join gangs is chilling.

Yesterday's Stardust is the second book in Becky Melby’s Lost Sanctuary series, and it is much better than the first (Tomorrow's Sun), in that the characters are much more human and therefore likeable. The stories are designed to be read as stand-alone novels, as they are related only in theme: a contemporary romance playing against the historical suspense.

Thanks to Barbour and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Threat of Darkness by Valerie Hansen

Nurse Samantha has an unexpected run-in with criminals just when John, her ex, returns to her small town as the new Police detective. He is assigned to her case, and they are forced to re-evaluate their relationship as they try and solve the crime.

If you want me to believe your heroine is clever enough to be a qualified nurse, then make her act like it. Don’t have her continually doing things that put her in the TSTL (too stupid to live) category. For example, she lives in an isolated house, but doesn’t have a home telephone line (just a mobile phone, in an area where you apparently can’t always get a signal), she doesn’t have car insurance, she doesn’t bother to tell the police that she was accosted in the parking lot even though it’s obviously related to the case… need I go on? It makes her unlikeable, and it means that we find it difficult to have any liking or respect for the hero, because he is obviously lacking in judgement to find this woman so attractive (not to mention that he was a dimwit for leaving her in the first place).

As you can no doubt tell, I was disappointed by Threat of Darkness. I usually really enjoy romantic suspense novels, so I was looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately, it didn’t measure up to expectations. In fairness to Love Inspired authors, they are hampered by low word count limits (not more than 60,000 words where a regular novel is 90,000 plus) and indifferent editing (exemplified by the overuse of exclamation marks). But I have read and enjoyed other Love Inspired novels – just not this one.

Thanks to Love Inspired Suspense (an imprint of Harlequin) and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Love on the Range by Jessica Nelson

“A man’s treatment of a woman’s basic rights says much of his character.”

Gracelynn Riley has travelled from Boston to the wilds of Harney County, Oregon, in search of the mysterious and misunderstood Striker, lawman and protector of defenceless women. She hopes that finding and interviewing him will provide her with the opportunity to earn a job as a journalist at the Woman’s Liberator, as an alternative to the society marriage her parents have planned for her. Not to mention the fact that she is half in love with the unknown stranger...

It is 1918, and the country is in the midst of a influenza pandemic, and her parents have sent to Oregon to stay with her Uncle Lou, to reduce her risk of catching the deadly disease (this does seem a little odd – Gracie’s parents dislike Lou, and I would have thought she was more at risk of catching the disease from all the strangers on the long train journey than she would have been in Boston). Anyway, Gracie meets Trevor Cruz on the train, and then finds out that he works for her Uncle Lou. She also finds out that Mary, Lou’s housekeeper, was once rescued by Striker himself.

It soon becomes apparent (to the reader, if not to Gracie) that while no one in town claims to know anything about the mysterious lawman, someone knows something. In fact, it is entirely possible that a lot of ‘someones’ know something, and that there is a conspiracy to hide the information from outsiders like Gracie. I think my main frustration was that the identity of Striker is heavily hinted at, then confirmed to the reader, but Gracie was rather slow to catch on.

Overall, Love on the Rangeis a solid debut novel, nicely-written, with are shades of Lori Wick in the use of language. The historical setting of the end of the Great War and the 1918 Influenza pandemic has been nicely integrated into the overall storyline to provide a pleasant, if lightweight, read.

Thanks to Love Inspired Historical (an imprint of Harlequin) and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Her Lone Star Cowboy by Debra Clopton

This week I am looking at three Love Inspired novels. These are published by Harlequin in three Christian fiction lines: Love Inspired, for contemporary romance, Love Inspired Historical, for historical romance, and Love Inspired Suspense, for romantic suspense. As with all Harlequin novels, the Love Inspired stories follow a pretty strict formula and a shorter length than most novels. These factors can impact on their ability to tell a good story.

First up is Her Lone Star Cowboy by Debra Clopton. As with any Love Inspired story, the heroine (vet assistant Gabi Newberry) meets the hero (in this case, cowboy Jess Holden) pretty early on in the story when he helps rescue Gabi and two calves from the path of a tornado. Gabi is back in Mule Hollow, Texas, having returned to her childhood home after she becomes a Christian and her fiancé, Phillip, broke up with her because of her new faith. She and Jess become close after cattle is found mysteriously dead on his family ranch and the two must work together to find what is poisoning the stock.

Her Lone Star Cowboy is the twentieth Mule Hollow book, and continues the matchmaking theme of the rest of the series. Fans will no doubt want to read this to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. However, it works equally well as a stand-alone novel. It’s not great literature, but it is an enjoyable way to relax for a couple of hours.

Thanks to Love Inspired (an imprint of Harlequin) and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.