Review: My Mother's Chamomile by Susie Finkbeiner

Women's Fiction Touching Real Issues

My Mother's Chamomile is written in the first person from two alternating points of view: Olga and Evelyn, Olga’s oldest granddaughter. It’s an unusual and ambitious choice (in that it’s hard to do well without constantly reminding the reader that it’s only a story), but it works. That’s a testament to the quality of the writing, and the strength of the individual character voices.

The family operate the only funeral parlour in a small town, which means they are an odd combination of essential and pariah. Essential, because it puts them at the centre of local tragedies, and pariahs, because most people are uncomfortable around death, which makes it to make friends, especially for Evelyn.

The first part of the book establishes the location and the relationships, but it takes a while for the actual plot to become apparent. In that respect, I’d classify My Mother's Chamomile as women’s fiction (and possibly a saga), because it’s more about the development and change of relationships than it is about actual events (although events, particularly deaths, do play a significant role—which shouldn’t be a surprise in a novel about a family of funeral directors).

This is a slight spoiler, so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know. I’ve recently read The Fault in Our Stars, which has several support group scenes featuring the unintentionally hilarious Patrick (hilarious because he was someone no one would want to be). My Mother's Chamomile has a similar scene, with Debbie as the unintentionally funny character, particularly with her interactions with Stacy.

Overall, I enjoyed My Mother's Chamomile. It has strong characters, and a poignant plot which examined some of the more difficult aspects of family relationships. My one complaint was around the writing of the passage of time: in some cases, days or weeks passed between chapters, but this wasn’t immediately apparent.

Recommended for those looking for something a little different in terms of plot, and who don’t mind reading a novel that’s a little sad.

I don’t want everyone to remember me for the way I died.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

Book Review: Pride by Rosie Somers

Seventeen-year-old Gabriella Pierce is used to taking care of herself, but she’s about to become responsible for a whole lot more. When she gets a visit from three men claiming to be defenders of fantastical rings imbued with the powers of THE CARDINAL SINS, her life is changed irrevocably.

Gabby is the steward of PRIDE.

To make matters worse, she’s falling hard for fellow steward, Grant Barnett, and he hates her guts. Now Gabby has to learn to protect Pride without letting her feelings for Grant get in the way.

Release Date: September 9, 2014

My Review:

Gabriella Pierce thought life was tough trying to evade a lecherous foster father, but things are about to get worse: she’s the female steward of Pride, one of the seven deadly sins, and the forces of evil are out to get her and the other stewards. Although they are all supposedly safe inside The Sanctuary, their secret underground home, certain events suggest they have a traitor in their midst …

Pride is aimed at the YA market, and is the first in a planned series (presumably one for each of the seven deadly sins). It incorporates elements of other well-known YA series such as Harry Potter and Divergent, (an orphan who is the ‘chosen one’ fighting the forces of evil). It has that fast pace and addictive quality which makes it hard to put down.

While elements of the plot are similar to those of other popular YA series, the seven sins idea is unique, and provides an underlying Christian theme to the battle between good and evil. Having said that, the plot isn’t overtly Christian, no more so than the Divergent series. There were some minor writing issues (e.g point of view shifts and run-on sentences), but nothing that detracted from the story—which indicates how compelling I found it.

The one possible fault was the characters: the fast pace of the plot and the (relatively) large number of characters meant there wasn’t a lot of time devoted to the development of individual characters. However, as I’ve mentioned, it is the first novel in the series, and I would expect that now we’ve been introduced to the concept of the sins and the stewards, future books will be able to show more in the way of character development.

Thanks to Aniah Press for providing a free ebook for review.

Book Links:

Add it on Goodreads! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22365515-pride

Anaiah Press: http://www.anaiahpress.com

Author Bio:

Rosie Somers is a YA author who lives in Florida, soaking up the year round sunshine. She can often be found in her favourite spot on her favourite beach, nose-deep in a good book. You can Rosie at her website, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Review: Under a Turquoise Sky by Lisa Carter

Under a Turquoise Sky is Christian Romantic Suspense, usually my favourite genre, but this really didn’t gel with me. I found the characters too stereotypical, and the plot verging on melodramatic. It didn’t help that I kept being pulled out of the story by writing glitches (I was reading an unproofed version of the manuscript, but it wasn’t typos and spelling mistakes that annoyed me, but sentences that didn’t makes sense. I don’t mind the advance review copy having a few typos, but the writing should still sing. This didn’t).

It didn’t start well. In fact, it started three times: Kailyn meets Rafe/Aaron at a party; Kailyn watches her best friend get murdered by her drug lord husband; Kailyn in witness protection where her care is entrusted to Aaron. I didn’t like Kailyn as a character, and that didn’t help. I can’t exactly pinpoint what I didn’t like, but I think it was that I didn’t see any depth to her. She came across as somewhat dim.

Aaron was a more complex character, a half-Navajo child who’d been mistreated by his white stepfather then adopted by a white family. He had rejected God, but this is a Christian romance, and we all know that means the hero and heroine both have to be Christians by the end of the book. This was another big failing for me: I didn’t see any development in Aaron’s faith journey throughout the book, which made the inevitable conversion seem unrealistic.

What was good? I really liked Aaron’s Navajo grandmother. She was brighter than she let on, with a wicked sense of humour and large doses of tribal and Christian wisdom, even if it tended to be delivered as cliché dialogue. But the good wasn’t enough to make up for lacklustre writing and a main character I was unable to empathise with.

As an aside, this book illustrates why I no longer pay any attention to author endorsements. Under a Turquoise Sky has been endorsed by DiAnn Mills, who says, “only lightening can strike faster than the action in this thrilling romantic suspense.” Yes, the same novel I found slow and predictable. I won’t be reading any further novels by Lisa Carter, and I might think twice about DiAnn Mills as well.

Thanks to Abingdon Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Lisa Carter at her website.
http://lisacarterauthor.com/

Review: Driftwood Tides by Gina Holmes

Something Special

Libby Slater is planning her wedding when a routine medical test reveals a secret from her past: that she’s the daughter of a stranger named Adele Davison, not Caroline and George Slater. Libby hasn’t seen her father since he left over twenty years ago, and her relationship with her mother has always been difficult. She determines to find Adele, if only to find a father to walk her down the aisle, but her attempt to reconnect with her birth family doesn’t go according to plan.

Holton Creary is a talented artist, but is also still grieving the loss of his wife in a car accident five years ago. His grief drove him to gin, and despite the help of his assistant, Tess, he’s about to go bankrupt. However, out of respect for his late wife, he grudgingly agrees to give Libby a summer internship … although he has no idea of the real reason she wants to work with him.

Driftwood Tides is the first Gina Holmes book I’ve read, and I was impressed. She’s an excellent writer, with the ability to create a cast of flawed but likeable characters (with the possible exception of the over-controlling Caroline), and to have them react in realistic ways to the challenges they are presented with. She has also managed to develop a plot with a strong Christian theme of forgiveness, yet keeping the Christian themes light and not at all preachy (if I had one complaint, it would be that I would have liked to have seen more of Libby spiritual development).

Driftwood Tides is more than a story of forgiveness. It’s the story of one man struggling to overcome grief with gin, of the woman who loves him enough to stick by him even when he barely acknowledges her existence, of another woman who changes both their lives, and of a young couple attempting to plan for a future together. It’s a plot with layers of complexity, and one with an element of unpredictability that turns it into something special.

Thanks to Tyndale House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Gina Holmes at her website, or at Novel Rocket, the website for writers.

October 2014 New Releases

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

US and Canadian residents can enter to win one of up to 30 new release titles, and there's the choice of one Kindle title available for those outside the US and Canada. I've read it already--will you agree with my thoughts?

 

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

- Promise to Cherish by Elizabeth Byler Young
- A Lady at Willowgrave Hall by Sarah Ladd
- The Covered Deep by Brandy Vallance
- Every Tear A Memory by Myra Johnson (excellent)

I'll also be catching up on some of the reading I didn't get to do on my recent holiday (can it really be a holiday if I'm too busy to read?).

What about you? What are you looking forward to reading this month?