Review: Trapped by Irene Hannon

Slow start but an excellent finish

Laura Griffith hires private investigator James Devlin of Protection Inc. to find her sixteen-year-old half-sister, who has run away in the middle of a St Louis blizzard. The weather has shut down transport, so they know she is still in the city, but the race is on to find her before it’s too late.

I found the first half of Trapped a real struggle to engage with. I didn’t connect with any of the main characters—Laura came across as boring (and not because she’s a librarian. I thought she was boring before that even came up). Dev seemed to be more interested in checking out Laura’s legs than thinking about how to find Darcy (the teens I know don’t phone their friends. They text, email, Facebook and FaceTime them, yet all Dev did was check Darcy’s call records). Darcy, while self-absorbed and unappreciative, at least seemed to think and act like a typical teenage girl (self-absorbed and unappreciative). I didn’t like her, but at least I could understand her.

I also found the story predictable, a problem I’ve had with several recent Irene Hannon romantic suspense novels. I keep hoping she’ll rediscover whatever it was that I so enjoyed about her Heroes of Quantico trilogy, and I keep being disappointed. The writing in Trapped was good, but good writing isn’t enough to overcome lacklustre characters and a been-there plot.

Overall, while I finished Trapped, the first half was a chore and I don’t like it when reading becomes a chore. The second half was fast-paced and exciting, but it was a real struggle to get there. I almost gave up, and that doesn’t happen often. When I want to give up but persevere I usually find the second half even more boring than the first, which makes Trapped the exception that proves my rule.

Trapped is the second in the Private Justice series, but can easily be read as a stand-alone novel.

Thanks to Revell and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Irene Hannon at her website.

If you’d like to buy the book or Kindle edition, you can follow the links above to purchase at Amazon. Those Down Under can buy from Koorong (Australia) or Soul Inspirationz (New Zealand). Koorong also sells epub editions.

ARCBA Review: The Inheritance by Jo-Anne Berthelsen

7 - 11 October

Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance

Introducing

The Inheritance  

(Even Before Publishing September 2013)

By 

Jo-Anne Berthelsen

About the Book:

Michael Trevelyan is determined to claim his inheritance at all costs. Bitterness consumes him and he refuses to forgive those who have betrayed him. Yet, when he meets Alexandra Hope, things begin to change. She challenges his views but also listens while he shares his pain. Can Michael move on from the past and learn to forgive? Can Alexandra hold onto her faith in God as she deals with their deepening relationship? Can they both learn to trust each other - and God? The Inheritance is a stirring story of family secrets, forgiveness and faith - of leaving behind a dark, painful legacy and walking into the light of God's eternal inheritance. 

 

 

About the Author:

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne loves communicating through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of five published novels – Heléna, All the Days of My Life, Laura, Jenna and Heléna’s Legacy, with a sixth, The Inheritance, due for release in 2013. Her first non-fiction work Soul Friend: The story of a shared spiritual journey was released in October 2012. Jo-Anne loves music, reading, mentoring younger women, and sharing with community groups about writing. She is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and three grandchildren. 

For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com or www.soulfriend.com.au.
 

My Review

Michael Trevelyan is thirty-four and a successful orthopaedic surgeon, but still hasn’t forgiven his mother (or himself) for the accident that killed his sister when he was a teenager, and his mother’s deathbed revelation makes forgiveness even less likely. He will inherit Whitecross, the family estate near Winchester, England, but if he doesn’t live there, it will go to his younger brother, Geoffrey, a Christian do-gooder who will turn it into a half-way house.

Dr Alexandra Hope is the locum GP for Cranton while her father takes a holiday and she waits for her Ethiopian visa to arrive—she’s planning on being a medical missionary. She meets Justine Trevelyan and her son, and develops relationships with both as the story progresses.

While the story and characters in The Inheritance had potential, I don’t entirely think they delivered on that promise. I didn’t ever get the sense that Michael had fully come to grips with the implications of his mother’s revelation, and while his character underwent a great deal of emotional and spiritual change and maturation during the story, I never saw it happening. Rather, it simply appeared at some point as having happened.

I also found Alexandra’s story was missing something, particularly in the later portions of the book where she disappeared entirely. This was a shame, as she was a strong and likeable character who had a great impact on others. There were some factual errors and timing inconsistencies that I found distracting, as well as some annoying creative dialogue tags and excessive punctuation (I don’t like the use of italics for emphasis, and exclamation marks only make it worse!).

Thanks to Even Before for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Jo-Anne Berthelsen at her website.

If you’d like to buy the book or Kindle edition, you can follow the links above to purchase at Amazon.com. Those Down Under can buy from Koorong (Australia) or Soul Inspirationz (New Zealand). Koorong also sells epub editions.

Review: A Bride for Keeps by Melissa Jagears

Not the normal marriage of convenience ...

Salt Flatts, Kansas, Spring 1876, and the train has just arrived in town with another mail-order bride for Everett Cline, only he didn’t order this one. He wants a wife, but he’s given up hope of finding one after one jilted him, one arrived dead, one arrived married and the fourth left him for a farmer with a bigger spread before they got married.

Julia Lockwood is from a well-to-do Boston family, but has run away to be Everett Cline’s mail-order bride on the advice of her pen-pal. But when she arrives, she finds Everett isn’t exactly pleased to see her—it’s as though he knows nothing about her…

I really enjoyed A Bride for Keeps. I’m always a sucker for a good marriage-of-convenience story, and this one was well done. Both Everett and Julia were hiding secrets, and that’s always a good source of conflict for a novel. What made this interesting is that we know Everett’s secret almost from the outset, and that provides some good comic moments as it seems that every female Julia meets in Salt Flatts was at one time engaged to her husband.

I also enjoyed the Christian aspects of the story. Everett is a strong Christian, but marriage to Julia reminds him of his responsibility to be the spiritual head of the house, even when he’s married someone who doesn’t share his beliefs (and while I don’t normally support this, I think A Bride for Keeps handles it well).

The writing is good, the characters are likeable but not perfect, the plot is an original take on an old staple, and it meets all the expectations of a lightweight Christian historical romance. Perfect entertainment.

Recommended for those who enjoy western historical romance from authors such as Karen Witemeyer, Carol Cox, Jen Turano and Mary Conneally. I’ll look forward to reading the next in the series.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Melissa Jaegars at her website.

Review: A Talent for Trouble by Jen Turano

Miss Felicia Murdock is distinctly put out with God, because it seems they’ve had a slight misunderstanding. She was of the impression that she could best live out her Christian faith as the wife of Reverend Fraser—who is about to marry someone else. Despite her expectations, God doesn’t stop the wedding with a bolt of lightning, forcing Felicia to reconsider God’s plan for her life. As she is now twenty-four, that future obviously doesn’t include a husband.

Her manipulative mother has other ideas (and it’s so nice to see a manipulative mother who actually has the best interests of their child at heart, and who isn’t simply following her own agenda). She is thrown into the company of Mr Grayson Sumner, who is actually Lord Sumner. He’s in New York in an attempt to escape his heritage, and provide a home for Ming, his adopted daughter.

What follows is an amusing and exciting romp through 1881 New York society. Although she appears a bit of an airhead, Felicia actually does a lot of good work among the poor of the city, which leads her into trouble on more than one occasion, and gives Grayson the opportunity to rescue her. Unfortunately, this brings him to the attention of the owners of the Chinese opium dens, which puts him in danger as well.

I very much enjoyed A Talent for Trouble. It was an original plot with a group of likeable yet imperfect characters, and an underlying theme of God’s willingness to forgive anyone, no matter what they’ve done. It was well-written, and I especially like the way the author uses humour to soften what can be difficult issues.

A Talent for Trouble follows on from A Change of Fortune, A Most Peculiar Circumstance and the novella Gentleman of Her Dreams (currently free on Kindle). It can be read as a stand-alone story, but it does feature many characters from the earlier books and it will be easier to understand the back story if you have read the earlier books.

Recommended for those who enjoy witty historical romance from authors such as Karen Wittemeyer, Mary Connealy and Carol Cox. Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Jen Turano at her website.

Review: Born of Persuasion by Jessica Dotta

When it was good …

Like the old nursery rhyme, when Born of Persuasion was good, it was very very good. But when it was bad, it was horrid.

Julia Elliston is seventeen, recently orphaned, and about to be sent to Scotland against her will to become a lady’s companion. In order to escape this fate dictated by her unknown guardian, she goes to visit her old friends in Am Meer, in the hopes of reconnecting with Edward, son of Lord Auburn, to whom she is secretly engaged. But Julia is the daughter of England’s most famous atheist, and Edward is now an ordained Anglican minister. Compelled (for no known reason) to resist her guardian’s plan, she enlists the help of Lady Foxmore in finding her a husband, and they are soon en route to Bedfordshire, to the estate of Mr Chance Macy.

Born of Persuasion is written in the first person, and it took a long time before we actually found out the name of the narrator (which annoyed me) or where she is (beyond being somewhere in England). It’s clear from Julia’s personal interjections that she’s telling the story from the future, and she assumes knowledge the reader doesn’t have (such as “I scarce have need to describe Mr Forrester, as his notoriety continues to this day”. It is several more chapters before we find out why Mr Forrester is notorious). I had the continual feeling of only having part of the story, as though there was a first book I’d missed (there isn’t).

While first person isn’t unusual in gothic fiction, it is also something that annoys many readers. For me, it depends on whether I like the narrator. I found Julia to be an annoying narrator. I was never sure if she was naïve and innocent, or simply stupid (it would be useful to know if she’s writing from the near or distant future. If she’s writing only a couple of years in her own future, I’d be inclined to see her as naïve. As it is, she comes across as inconsistent, unreliable and unlikeable, so I’m more inclined to go with stupid).

Endorsements for Born of Persuasion compare Jessica Dotta to authors such as Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, Philippa Gregory and Sarah Dunant. Yes there were echoes of Austen in the unlikeable characters, except that Austen wrote characters like Mrs Bennett and Mr Collins as jokes. There were echoes of the Bronte sisters in the gothic suspense, and there were echoes Dickens in the length and the way it took a lot of words to say not very much. I’ve not read Sarah Dunant, so can’t comment except to say that based on the titles, I doubt Tyndale, the Christian publisher of Born of Persuasion, would publish Dunant's books.

And the comparison to Philippa Gregory, a novelist famous for her historical sex romps? What was Tyndale thinking? Are they going to be comparing their authors to EL James next? Because anyone who enjoyed Wideacre or The Other Boleyn Girl is going to be dreadfully disappointed at the lack of explicit sex in Born of Persuasion. I’d compare it more to the gothic romances of Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt, except that I have actually enjoyed books by those authors.

While I was relieved at the lack of explicit sex, I wasn’t impressed by the lack of Christian content. Edward, the only Christian character in the book, spends the first part of the book being totally unpleasant. He improves, but only because his character has an inexplicable personality transplant. Julia loathes the very concept of God because of the way her family was treated by the village priest.

Another problem was the moral ambiguity. I like books where the hero and heroine are good, and the villain is bad. In Born of Persuasion, I couldn’t tell. This is ambiguous to the point that I'm not convinced, even at the end, that Julia is close to the truth. I didn’t agree. This leads into the final problem: the ending. While it’s not a cliffhanger ending, it’s clear the story isn’t yet complete. This is the first book in a trilogy, so I guess it’s going to take all three books before all the questions about Julia, Edward and Macy are answered, not to mention the fate of minor characters such as Elizabeth and Henry. Will I be reading the sequel? I doubt it. And I certainly wouldn’t buy it.

Thanks to Tyndale and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Jessica Dotta at her website.