New Releases: September 2014

It's a new month, and Ellie Whyte has all the Christian fiction new releases up at Soul Inspirationz!

US and Canadian residents can enter to win one of 25 new release titles, and there's the choice of one Kindle title available for those outside the US and Canada.

I'm planning to review several of these over the coming weeks, including:

- Last Family Standing by Jennifer AlLee (outstanding!)
- Under a Turquoise Sky by Lisa Carter
- Hidden in the Stars by Robin Caroll
- Playing by Heart by Anne Mateer (very good)
- A Bride in Store by Melissa Jagears
- Nowhere to Turn by Lynette Eason
- Feast for Thieves by Marcus Brotherton
- All's Fair in Love and Cupcakes by Betsy St Amant

... and there are a few more I'd like to read as well. What about you? What are you looking forward to reading this month?

ARCBA Review: Rebecca's Dream by Carol Preston

 

1st - 5th September 2014

Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance

Is Introducing

Rebecca's Dream
(Even Before March 2014)

By

Carol Preston

About the Book

Rebecca Oakes is thirteen years old when her mother, Suzannah, dies in the small town of Marengo, New South Wales, in 1873. With her older brother and sisters soon involved in their own lives, Rebecca is left alone to care for her ageing father. But Rebecca has a dream for her own life. She wants to make a difference to the world around her; a world where it is hardly possible for a woman to get an education, where women have no rights, no vote, no voice. Rebecca will have to fight the systems of her time if she is to achieve her goals. She must find the courage to stand against sexual and religious prejudice, and resist the pressures of even those close to her, in order to make her way towards her dream, influenced by one man who hates her, who will do anything to thwart her plans, and another man who loves her, and will do anything to make her happy.  

Rebecca’s Dream is the second book in the Oakes Family Saga. Background notes and discussion questions are available for book clubs. 

About the Author

Carol lives in Wollongong with her husband, Neil. She is a psychologist and has a part time private counselling practice, as well as being an author and speaker. Carol enjoys spending time with her children and four grandchildren, as well as bushwalking, gardening and holidaying overseas with her husband. One of her hobbies over many years has been family history research. It was this research which started Carol on the journey of writing novels.   

Her first trilogy is about the Oakes Family; Suzannah’s Gold, Rebecca’s Dream and The Price of Peace, which takes the reader from 1838 when her great great grandmother, Suzannah Casey was transported from Ireland, through to the end of the First World War when Suzannah’s children and grandchildren are involved in the battle, not only to survive the war but to survive the waiting at home. The first two of these have recently been re-released by EBP. Carol’s fourth novel, The Face of Forgiveness, is about two young women who are transported to Australia in 1839. The most recent of Carol’s novel is a series based on her mother’s family, which begins with the First Fleet of convicts to Australia. These include Mary’s Guardian, Charlotte’s Angel, Tangled Secrets, and Truly Free.

 For more information about Carol’s books and her other interests she can be contacted on her website: www.carolpreston.com.au, on her Facebook author page: www.facebook.com/writingtoreach or her Amazon author page: www.amazon.com/author/carolpreston

Review: Saving Amelie by Cathy Gohlke

Chilling

It’s September 1939, and Rachel Kramer has travelled with her father from her New York home to undergo her regular examination at the Institute, while her father attends an international conference on eugenics. She meets Jason Young at a ball while trying to escape from an overbearing suitor, and realises Young is the journalist who is trying to discredit her father’s research. However, an unusual request from a childhood friend leaves her with no one to rely on except the annoying journalist …

The start was a bit slow, as it was necessary to introduce several different characters, each a different thread to the story. This made the early chapters complex, but the pace improved quickly once all the essential elements of the story had been introduced—elements which were chilling, yet added a layer of realism to the plot.

Rachel was annoying with her naïve views, especially at first, but it was good to see her gradually change as she considered and rejected her long-held beliefs about her family and herself. The eugenics subplot was chilling, especially as I saw how Rachel had been raised to believe she was better than others—and it made me wonder how many people still believe this, and don’t recognise how the idea distorts biblical truth.

Jason was a strong hero, despite his inability to show the truth of the Nazi regime to those who needed to know in the US. It was good to see a man who wasn’t afraid to admit he needed to change, and to pursue truth despite the cost. The minor characters were also well-written, and fulfil a necessary part of this fast-paced historical thriller (with a touch of romance).

The thing I liked best about Saving Amelie was the depth of research that has gone into the writing, and the accuracy. I’ve read other books written by American authors and set in Germany during World War Two which downplay the Nazi oppression of the weak or those not deemed “Aryan” enough, and seem to look at Hitler’s Germany through rose-coloured glasses.

Saving Amelie is not like that. It shows the oppression in chilling detail, right from the early days of the war in September 1939. It shows the price paid by those who didn’t support the ideals of the Third Reich—a group which included many Christians. And it shows the activities of the German resistance, a needed reminder that not all Germans were complicit in the crimes committed by Hitler and his followers.

But, perhaps most importantly, Saving Amelie shows that there are still lessons to be learned from the rise of Adolf Hitler and World War Two. There is no “master race”. There is no such thing as “levels of evolution” within the human race—we are all equal in the sight of God. And ‘grace’ is isn’t the nice all-is-forgiven idea we’ve come to believe in the Western church. Grace is costly:

“We’ve come to practice cheap grace—grace that appears as a godly form but costs us nothing—and that is an abomination … it took the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, to achieve that grace. It requires just as much from each of us”.

Recommended.

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

Review: A Bride in Store by Melissa Jagears

Fun Mail-Order Bride Story

Eliza Cantrell is a mail-order bride on her way to Salt Flatts, Kansas, in 1881, when her train is stopped by robbers, who steal all her savings and leave her needing stiches on her face. Her fiance, Axel Langston, isn’t in town, but his business partner, Will Stanton, is at the store. Will’s dream is to become a doctor, but he’s stuck in Salt Flatts as co-owner of the store until he can save enough money for medical school.


Will doctors Eliza's face, and finds himself inconveniently attracted to his partner’s fiance, even though she does keep wanting to make changes in his store. Eliza fights her attraction to Will, while wondering when Axel will get home … Southey can work together in the store and make the reader changes that will turn the store around financially.

A Bride in Store is the third of Melissa Jagear’s Salt Flatts mail-order bride stories, and while there are some characters from the earlier books, this novel stands alone. While the characters were excellent, and it was a good combination of Western romance and Christian principles, I didn’t enjoy the actual story as much as I enjoyed the previous novel and novella. Parts of the story felt contrived, and I wasn’t convinced by the decision Eliza made towards the end of the story. I could see it was the big dramatic gesture, and I don’t want to say too much, for fear of giving spoilers, but I thought there could have been a better solution. However, it’s still an enjoyable read. Recommended for fans of Mary Conneally, Tracie Petersen and Carol Cox.

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

Review: Test of Magnitude by Andy Kasch

Pure Science Fiction

Alien abduction, addiction, a far-off galaxy, space battles, and a mysterious race … what more could any sci-fi reader want?

Mip7 is a guide on Cardinal-4, the spectacular new space station in the Torian system, one of many systems under Erob law. A briefing with the Azaarian ambassador leads to unexpected summons to meet with the governor of the station, where he receives an unusual assignment from a prophet: to revive the Earthlings who have been kept in suspended animation, as they will be needed in the impending interstellar war.

Brandon is one of two Earthlings who are revived. He’s the newest, taken twenty years earlier, and the other is the oldest, and turns out to be a hippie. It’s a complex plot, incorporating several races and dozens of characters (perhaps too many?), but it all draws together well as Mip7 and Brandon have to work together to find the source of the infection and bring the worlds together to defeat the enemy.

It’s always a little hard reading the first of a science fiction series, as the author has the difficult task of introducing the reader to the world he has created without overwhelming the reader with unnecessary detail. Test of Magnitudemanages this reasonably well, and I’m sure the second book in the series (Flash Move) will be better as the reader will have the basic understanding of the Erob worlds.

While Test of Magnitude isn’t specifically Christian fiction (which is what I normally review), there is an underlying spiritual theme, and there is no sex or gratuitous violence. While it’s perhaps not to my personal reading taste, Test of Magnitude is an enjoyable read for science fiction and space opera fans.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Andy Kasch at his website. You can also see the book trailer on YouTube: