A Tree, A Book, and A Breeze

The Shadow Things  Jennifer Freitag Ambassador-Emerald International  The Legions have left the province of Britain and the Western Roman Empire has dissolved into chaos. With the world plunged into darkness, paganism and superstition are as rampant as ever. In the Down country of southern Britain, young Indi has grown up knowing nothing more than his gods of horses and thunder; so when a man from across the sea comes preaching a single God slain on a cross, Indi must choose between his gods or the one Godand face the consequences of his decision This book was infinitely better than I originally thought it was going to be. I don't normally care for depressing stories, and mark my words, this one can get a little depressing with the pagan practices and how they clash with Christianity (actually, this book reminded me a lot of a biography of Saint Patrick that I read.) but it was also a very powerful story, despite the novel's short size. I wouldn't recommend th...

A Stillness of Chimes Meg Moseley Multnomah I don’t normally read “Southern Fiction” but I thought Meg Moseley’s last book, Gone South , sounded interesting, and since I didn’t get a chance to read that one, when I saw A Stillness of Chimes available, I took it. Also, I’m always trying to mix up my reading every once in a while with books in a different genre than what I normally read- the mark of a good writer is one who can capture the attention of even a reader a bit reluctant to dive into a certain genre, right? I’m still not exactly sure what I thought of this novel; parts of it interested me (and by that I mean the mystery) but for most of it I felt like I was just dragging myself through, and if I hadn’t gotten it for review purposes, I probably wouldn’t have finished it. It’s not that the writing was bad; Meg Moseley has a pleasurable writing style and the story flowed well. It’s just that it was, as a lot of Southern Fiction is, very slow-paced. And in an...

Love Comes Calling Siri Mitchell Bethany House I’ve been interested in Siri Mitchell’s books since I read her book She Walks in Beauty ; when I read (and loved) The Messenger , she became a firm favorite of mine. That being said, her last book Unrivaled , though somewhat enjoyable, was a bit of a disappointment. But Love Comes Calling has put her right back on my favorites list! I found Ellis painfully relatable. The author mentions in the afterward that she gave Ellis ADHD (though it was unknown of during the story’s time era) and so our heroine has an extremely hard time concentrating. Though I don’t have the disorder, I do have an exceptionally bad memory, and let’s just say because of it I have a lot of the same problems as those who can’t focus. So many times Ellis would struggle with things and Oh! HOW I UNDERSTOOD. (especially with the way people would misunderstand her) Though Ellis and I did have differences in our personalities, I’d never been introduced to...

  Death by the Book Julianna Deering Bethany House  After greatly enjoying the first book in this series, I was really looking forward to this one! I would say I enjoyed about 90% of the book...it's just that something happened that I didn't care for (more on that later) I do like Drew and Madeline; their relationship is sweet and (mostly)uncomplicated but since there's so much going on with the plot it works well and doesn't distract from the mystery. As for the mystery itself- oh. my. word. Shakespeare murders??? Right up my alley. (I mean, not the murdering, of course. The Shakespeare) I loved that aspect. And of course, the writing was wonderfully in tune to the era. The character of Madeline's prickly aunt was also a humorous addition to the story. Now, there was a bit of objectionable content- murders can be on the sordid side. Nothing explicit and nothing worse than you'd find in an Agatha Christie (and this being Christian fiction, of course it...

The Queen's Handmaid Tracy L. Higley Thomas Nelson From the servant halls of Cleopatra’s Egyptian palace to the courts of Herod the Great, Lydia will serve two queens to see prophecy fulfilled. Alexandria, Egypt 39 BC Orphaned at birth, Lydia was raised as a servant in Cleopatra's palace, working hard to please while keeping everyone at arm's length. She's been rejected and left with a broken heart too many times in her short life. But then her dying mentor entrusts her with secret writings of the prophet Daniel and charges her to deliver this vital information to those watching for the promised King of Israel. Lydia must leave the nearest thing she’s had to family and flee to Jerusalem. Once in the Holy City, she attaches herself to the newly appointed king, Herod the Great, as handmaid to Queen Mariamme. Trapped among the scheming women of Herod’s political family—his sister, his wife, and their mothers—and forced to serve in the palace to protect her tre...

Fly Away Home Rachel Heffington Ruby Elixir Press Self Preservation has never looked more tempting.  1952 New York City:  Callie Harper is a woman set to make it big in the world of journalism. Liberated from all but her buried and troubled past, Callie craves glamour and the satisfaction she knows it will bring. When one of America's most celebrated journalists, Wade Barnett, calls on Callie to help him with a revolutionary project, Callie finds herself co-pilot to a Christian man whose life and ideas of true greatness run noisily counter to hers on every point.  The new friendship sparks, the project soars, and a faint suspicion that she is fall for this uncommon man grows in Callie's heart. When the secrets of Callie's past are exhumed and hung over her head as a threat, she is forced to scrutinize Wade Barnett and betray his dirtiest secrets or see her own spilled.  Here there is space for only one love, one answer: betray Wade Barnett to save her reput...

Dangerous Shannon Hale Bloomsbury Maisie Danger Brown just wanted to get away from home for a bit, see something new. She never intended to fall in love. And she never imagined stumbling into a frightening plot that kills her friends and just might kill her, too. A plot that is already changing life on Earth as we know it. There's no going back. She is the only thing standing between danger and annihilation. From NY Times bestselling author Shannon Hale comes a novel that asks, How far would you go to save the ones you love? And how far would you go to save everyone else? As I've long been a fan of Shannon Hale's, I had really high expectations for this book, and as I first began reading, I got excited. A homeschooled superhero??? Bring it on! Alas, the rest of the book wasn't really as good... I really disliked the romance. First of all, I didn't care for the guy; second of all, while they didn't go "all the way" their relationship was...