Another giveaway!

Check it out here!

http://christianbookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/2012/09/interview-giveaway-laura-frantz-author.html

Giveaway!

Check out the interview and giveaway here!

http://christianbookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/2012/09/interview-giveaway-julie-lessman-author.html

The Illusion by Frank Peretti

 

Another interesting novel from Frank Peretti!  Mandy and Dane have been not only one of the leading acts in magic for decades, but are partners in marriage as well.  Days from retirement they are in a serious car accident and Mandy loses her life.  Dane decides to continue with their plans to move into their new home near where Mandy grew up.  One day he runs into a girl dressed as a gypsy performing card tricks on the street and he gives her some tips.  Soon he meets up with her again, this time performing in a coffee house with a much better routine. In fact, she's doing tricks that he can't even figure out.  She makes a deal with him to learn more tricks and further her career.  This nineteen-year-old reminds him so much of his wife when they met that it's uncanny.  He tries to ignore it, but he can't shake the feeling that it's her.  His friend thinks he's crazy and he starts to wonder if he is too. Or is this some sick joke?

Mandy wakes up as a nineteen-year-old in the present day, but believes she's really in the 1970's.  She has memories of a father and a home that don't seem to exist and is taken to a mental ward. She escapes and tries to find her father and eventually meets up with Dane. She's drawn to him but doesn't know why.  And she can't explain how she's doing some of her tricks either.  Is it really magic or supernatural powers?  How and why is it happening?  Someone is watching.  What are their intentions?

I thought this story was interesting but I didn't love it.  I'm not really into magic acts, so I wasn't that interested in the details of their tricks. Peretti's writing was excellent, but there wasn't a strong Christian message.  It was intriguing trying to figure out what was going on and he does a good job of leading you along without giving away too much.  It was ultimately a love story with a twist, but one that both men and women can enjoy.

When Sparrows Fall by Meg Moseley

 
 Very interesting story about a cult-like church and a widow who's desperate to escape it. Miranda is relieved when she hears that her pastor wants to move the whole congregation to another state.  She feels like this is finally her chance for herself and her six kids to be free of his control.  She chooses her husband's half-brother Jack to be the guardian in case anything happens to her but she can't know that just a couple weeks later she will fall from the cliffs by her house and be seriously injured.  Jack, a college professor, is surprised by a call out of the blue from his nephew that his mother is hurt and he's been named guardian of her six kids.  He drops everything and heads from Chattanooga to Slades Creek, a couple hours away.

Jack is very shocked at their different way of life. They live pretty isolated from other people and the children are also homeschooled by their mother.  They dress very old-fashioned, in colors of blue and gray, with the women and girls in long denim dresses and long braids wrapped around their heads.  Jack has only met his sister-in-law and a couple of the kids once years ago, but he quickly comes to love all of them and doesn't want them to be controlled by this church anymore.  Miranda doesn't dare be too rebellious to the pastor because he knows her secret and threatens to tell it if she doesn't go along with the move. She doesn't tell Jack that they're not leaving because she doesn't want to reveal the whole story.  Jack constantly questions and pushes and wants Miranda to examine her beliefs, he  introduces new experiences to the kids, and Miranda finds herself attracted to him, all of which makes her uncomfortable.  But she also doesn't know what she would do without him.

This is the debut novel by Meg Moseley and it was very well-written.  The characters are three-dimensional with real personalities and problems.  Jack was an especially interesting character. It was hard for me to understand how someone could live in that kind of situation, with all the rules and regulations, but Meg did a good job of showing how someone could end up there and the struggle to get out.  It was suspenseful without being too heavy. I would recommend this book to anyone and I look forward to reading whatever she comes out with in the future.

Please rate this review! Thank you.

Sketchy Behavior by Erynn Mangum

Very amusing book! Kate Carter is a sixteen-year-old with a talent for sketching and sarcasm. When she unknowingly draws a picture-perfect sketch of a killer in her art class, who gets caught because of it, she's suddenly thrown in to the spotlight where she definitely does not want to be. But fame isn't her only problem; someone isn't happy that the killer is behind bars and they're not shy about showing it.  Suddenly she's surrounded by police 24/7 and wondering if she'll survive the school year.

I love Kate! She's very funny and logical. Her dad is an engineer and thrives on the facts, whereas her mom is a psychologist and emphasizes feelings. Needless to say, this makes for some interesting conversations! Throw in some boy trouble and wondering if there's a God and what happens when you die, and she's got a lot on her plate.

This is the first book Erynn Mangum's written for the teenage set and it was great!  Her two previous series have all featured 20-somethings and were also pretty funny. Her Lauren Holbrook trilogy I'd especially recommend; my brother and I both thought it was her best so far and hilarious.  While her main characters in her other novels are Christians, Kate isn't in this book, which makes it especially good for teens who aren't.  Kate starts to question what her beliefs are because of the threats to her life, but this isn't done in a pushy way at all.  I would recommend this book to any young adult especially, but I think anyone who appreciates humor would enjoy it.

Book of Dreams by Davis Bunn

Dr. Elena Burroughs is a clinical psychologist and a widow of five years working at the University of Oxford.   She has published a book on dream interpretation and when a woman shows up for an appointment with bodyguards and says she's been having terrible dreams, Elena agrees to help this woman find some relief.  However, what she tells Elena doesn't fit the normal pattern of recurrent dreams and Elena turns to her friend and mentor Miriam for guidance. In turn, Miriam gives her five ancient books, duplicates of each other, and says they might help. Miriam explains that she is to study a page until it speaks to her, if it will. Miriam's great-grandmother passed these books to her, but she never received a message from them. Elena does receive an interpretation of the woman's dream and instructions for where she and her husband should go from there.  Elena meets a friend of a friend in Rome who is also having terrible dreams. His story intertwines with the woman and her husband and they, along with others, form a group intent on stopping a global disaster and following God's will wherever it will take them.

I don't want to give away too much of the story because for the first third or so, it's not clear what exactly is happening.  That's also about how long the story held my interest.  It felt like the story was building to something, but the momentum petered out and the plot started to wander.  The writing was fine, if a bit formal.  I loved the setting of London! I've said it before, even my favorite author has books I'm not crazy about.  Bunn has written a lot of books, so I'll definitely try more of his before deciding how I feel about him as an author.

Though Waters Roar by Lynn Austin

Harriet is in jail and how she got there is what this story is all about. Her grandmother Beatrice, Bebe for short, has a huge influence on Harriet's life, and much of the book is made up of the stories of her life that she relates to Harriet as Harriet grows up. The book jumps around with Bebe sometimes a child and the lessons she learned from her mother in fighting slavery and helping the Underground Railroad, then back to Harriet as a child and her determination to not end up like her silly mother or sister and most definitely, to not get married.  Most of it centers on Bebe as a married woman and the difficulties she faces with her husband and mother-in-law.  She ends up working for Prohibition and the Suffrage Movement with her daughter Lucy also getting involved, which causes Harriet to question what her purpose and achievement will be.  Three generations of women before her all have accomplished amazing things and she has big shoes to fill.

Bebe's mother tries to instill in her the importance of trusting in God and doing what He wants her to do. She struggles when she's young with fear and wanting to go her own way, but as she starts to trust God more, she's able to make the right choices and endure difficult circumstances because she turns to God and depends on Him instead of a person or circumstances to make her happy. The book's title is taken from Psalm 46:1-3: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging."  Water plays an important part in Bebe's life, from the river near her house as a child, to an important event in her married life that changes everything.

This book wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I thought it would be more about Harriet and not her grandmother. Bebe's life was interesting, but also frustrating and sad. I liked learning more about Prohibition and the Suffrage movements. I loved Harriet and wish we would have gotten more of her story. I really liked the book's message and Lynn's writing is amazing. I've read a few of her books and plan to read them all. This was a good book and I would recommend it.