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Books Fiction Fun Reviews

Book Review: Of Stillness and Storm by Michele Phoenix

Of-Stillness-and-Storm

I was very surprised at this book. I wasn’t paying attention very well apparently because the tagline for the book had me thinking this was a sci-fi/fantasy novel so when I was offered a review copy, I jumped at the chance. As I started reading, I thought I had been suckered into reading a romance novel, I was wrong again. What I found was a very compelling cautionary tale for anyone involved in full-time ministry. The character development in the story is very good and I found myself having visceral reactions to each of the three characters as I read the novel.

The book outlines the story of a family of three (including giving the background of how the husband and wife met) of a missionary family in Nepal and the struggles that full-time ministry puts on them including the sometimes drawn-out preparation process. The surprise ending really brought the author’s point home, I will not say any more because I don’t want to spoil the ending.

I’m glad I read this book, it was definitely an eye-opener. Anyone in full-time ministry should pick up of stillness and storm.

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Books Fiction Fun Reviews

Fatal Tide – An East Salem Trilogy Novel by Lis Wiehl & Pete Nelson

fatal tide.cover I really have to stop picking up series in the middle to end of the series. After really liking the Heart of Ice – A Triple Threat Novel by Lis Wiehl I figured I would give her another shot and picked up Fatal Tide. I picked well. Even without the background of the first 2 books, Fatal Tide doesn’t disappoint. Fatal Tide picks up with Reese, a 17 year old student at St. Adrian’s academy being ambushed by demonic beings trying to bring about a dark prophecy and just ramps up from there. The main characters Tommy & Dani have been opposing the demonic forces since the first book and the battle culminates in Fatal Tide.

I was impressed with Heart of Ice and was also impressed with Fatal Tide. Lis Wiehl weaves together a compelling action with great spiritual overtones. I would recommend reading the other two books in The East Salem Trilogy first, but even without them, Fatal Tide does not disappoint.

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Books Fiction Fun Reviews

Afloat by Erin Healy

_140_245_Book.852.coverAfloat follows the inhabitants of Eagle’s Talon, a spectacular floating community, as they deal with a series of events that threaten to tear apart everything that they hold dear. Masks will be torn off, relationships tested, and faith restored.

Initially, I was very excited to review Afloat. I had previous experience with Erin Healy with her collaboration with Ted Dekker on Burn. I quickly found however that what I was drawn to in Burn must have been due to Dekker’s influence more so than Healy’s. Afloat just seemed to be missing something as I read it. I can’t say that it was a terrible book, i just found it lacking. I just felt that things could have been tied together a little easier. My recommendation on Afloat is that if you have the opportunity to read it, go ahead, I just wouldn’t go out of my way to get my hands on it.

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Books Fiction Fun Reviews

Book Review: Babylon’s Falling: The Story of Belteshazzar, Also Known as Daniyyel by William G. Collins

babyon's falling

I love this genre. Some of my favorite movies are Gladiator, Braveheart, & The Patriot. Some of my favorite books are The Mark of the Lion Series, & the Sons of Encouragement Series. The reason that I love this genre so much is that it fills in the gaps for me, it gives me a sense of what the people who lived these lives went through. I know that they are fiction, but when one of these authors approaches historical fiction, they usually do so with reverence for the historical part of the narrative and do their homework in such a way that they are able to fairly accurately fill in the gaps. Some people get really angry when books like Babylon’s Falling are written because they feel like it takes away from the biblical narrative. To each their own I guess, but I love the genre so when I was offered the chance to review Babylon’s Falling I jumped at the opportunity.

Babylon’s Falling starts off with Daniel and his friends on their way to Babylon at the beginning of the captivity. It follows his rise in rank through the empire and ends with his return to Jerusalem. I don’t want to get too much into detail because I want you to read the book. I am not a biblical scholar by any stretch of the imagination so take my analysis with a grain of salt, but I think the author took great care in staying true to what really happened during the biblical narrative and stay true to the source material. Overall, I felt like the author did a great job in writing this book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and would definitely recommend it to anyone, especially people who like the historical fiction genre.

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Fiction

Book Review: Salvaged – Stefne Miller

salvagedI was given Salvaged as a gift from a family member because they knew I would read it and provide a review. I devoured the book, but because of how crazy things were at that point I did not post a review right after I read it. I’m remedying that situation right now. This book deserves better than that.. In an age where young minds are learning what true love is from books like the Twilight Saga, it is nice to see a wholesome love story like Salvaged.

In Salvaged, Miller deals with a lot of weighty issues like loss, fear, romance, and what faith looks like when you are truly at the bottom. At the beginning of the book we meet Attie after she has lost her best friend and her mom in a car crash and goes to live with the family of the best friend she lost. The story details her journey back to wholeness and the bumps and bruises along the way. I love Miller’s writing style, she writes in a way that is very easy to read and lends itself to you getting through the book rather quickly. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would be drawn to the Twilight Saga. It is also a good read for guys like me who are fathers of little girls because it gives you a window into their world in a way that you may not get in other places.

I currently have Miller’s two other books Rise (the sequel to Salvaged) and Collision in my stack to read/review so look for them in the future.

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Books Fiction Fun Reviews

Book Review: Heart of Ice – A Triple Threat Novel by Liz Wiehl & April Henry

_225_350_Book.555.coverIn this book the Triple Threat club of Allison, Nic, & Cassidy are on the case of a very cunning killer with absolutely no moral conviction whatsoever.

Crime dramas like Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NCIS, & CSI are some of my favorite types of TV shows so when it came time to pick another book to review Heart of Ice

was very appealing. I liked the idea of three friends who were in 3 different fields related to crime solving all working together to help solve a crime, Allison is a Federal Prosecutor, Nic is an FBI agent, & Cassidy is a crime reporter for a local TV station. I thought the authors did an excellent job laying out who the characters were and what their motivations were. The story wove together really nicely as well. I hope I can go back and read the two previous novels by these two authors because they were a great pair on this novel.

I also took a new approach for this book in that it is the first book I have ever read completely digitally. I read the book entirely on my phone using the Amazon Kindle app. I am happy to say that I really liked it, for my ongoing book reviews for Thomas Nelson, I will continue to download them to my phone (or if I get a tablet in the future, my tablet).

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Fiction

Book Review: The Final Summit – Andy Andrews

_140_245_Book.305.coverDavid Ponder is at it again…actually, he gets dragged into it again. David Ponder is now 74 years old when Gabriel decides to visit him and pull him and all previous Travellers to save the world…literally…humanity is on a crash course with destruction and the Travellers must figure out how to save it…

We first met David Ponder in The Traveller’s Gift where he first learned the 7 decisions that determine personal success. I loved that book and with The Final Summit Andy Andrews has done it again. What I like the most about Andy’s books is that he teaches major life lessons using stories that intrigue you and pull you in. When you sit down to read an Andy Andrews book you don’t want to get up, you find yourself rifling through the pages as fast as you can.

The Final Summit does not disappoint in this regard. Writing a review for a book like this is hard because it is such a good book that you really just want your reader to go buy the book…and experience it for themselves without being tainted by your own opinion. So, I will say it again…go buy the book

Other (highly recommended) Books I have read by Andy Andrews:

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Fiction

The Chronicles of Narnia: A Delightful Journey

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader As I have mentioned on Facebook and LinkedIn before (for those of you who are friends of mine on Facebook or LinkedIn) that November, December, and January are my busiest months of the year.  Even though it is my busiest time of year, I still try to keep my reading habits up.  To do that I usually return to books I have read before, but love to read to help me get away from the stress and busyness of my busiest months.

A little under a month ago, I picked up my copy of The Chronicles of Narnia (amazon affiliate link – to the boxed set, I have the unabridged version) and started reading with The Magician’s Nephew.  I have seen worlds created, worlds destroyed, and voyages had.  C. S. Lewis along with J.R.R. Tolkein (with his Lord of the Rings trilogy) have set the standard for what has become the fantasy genre and it is good to go back and read both series from time to time.


The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader While Hollywood has tried and in my mind succeeded with making movies of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King I still love reading the original books from time to time.  I am also looking forward to the Upcoming Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie which comes out this year and The Hobbit movies which are also coming out soon.

Categories
Fiction

You Make the Call!

I hope to do more “You make the call!” posts in the future as I want to have more interaction involved on my site with the loyal readers that I have.  But, they don’t work if you don’t interact so please make a comment.

My wife is reading a book (by an undisclosed author) that she received for Christmas.  It is a fiction book, but the reason that Mandy likes it so much is that it deals with real life issues.  She has not finished yet, but tonight was talking to me about the book.  The reason she talked to me about it is because she wanted to hear what I think the characters should do in their given situation.  Here’s where you come in…I am going to lay out the scenario, but I will change the names of the characters (and some of the irrelevant details) and I want to know what you think should happen.

Scenario:

Katherine is the main character in the book, she is married to Tom.  Katherine is a very busy business woman, Tom is a college professor who is also a journalist.  For the last year, Tom has felt like Katherine doesn’t have time for him and when young Tina, one of his students, shows interest he begins pursuing her, to the point that he falls in love with her, tells Katherine that he wants a divorce and proceeds to move in with Tina and has lived with her for the last 3 months.  In an effort to get Tina out of his mind before he leaves Katherine Tom makes love to Katherine and now Katherine is 3 months pregnant with their first child.  About a month after Tom leaves Katherine runs into Jeremy, the man who she has known since they were 12 (they are now 28).  They were childhood sweethearts and had dated for several years until when Jeremy was injured during a professional game (he is a professional athlete) and Katherine went to the hospital to visit him the nurse told her that Jeremy was in with his girlfriend.  When Katherine heard this, she never entered the hospital room. Now, during the current situation, the mixup is uncovered and they realize that Jeremy never was unfaithful to her, he was in with the team trainer and had told the nurse he couldn’t wait to see his girlfriend (Katherine).  Katherine starts to let herself fall for Jeremy when Tom finds out that she is pregnant with their child and asks their pastor for a meeting between the pastor, Katherine, and himself because he has realized all that he is leaving behind.

We don’t know yet whether or not Tom wants to come back, but here is the question for you to answer, let’s assume Tom does want to come back and he leaves Tina, what should Katherine do?

A couple of Bible passages come to mind as I think about this:

  • The book of Hosea
  • Malachi 2:16
  • Matthew 5:32
  • Matthew 19:1-12

Remember, don’t just be a spectator, let me know what you think…

Categories
Fiction

Book Review: Green – Ted Dekker

Ted Dekker - GreenTed Dekker both starts and finishes what he set into motion with Black. In a world where the spiritual is physical Thomas Hunter must keep the Circle from breaking apart as the world careens towards the final showdown between good and evil, between Elyon and Teelah.

I was extremely excited to begin reading Green because I loved Black, Red, & White. I don’t know if it was because I held unrealistic expectations or if the book wasn’t as good as the previous books but I was disappointed when I finished Green. My disappointment was mainly due to the way Dekker closed the loop, I felt he could have done it in

a way that was more satisfying. I will say that Dekker’s grasp of the Biblical narrative is amazing, what really threw me though was his shifting back and forth between Biblical allegory and more direct Biblical example. Throughout the series he has had definite Biblical allegory, but in Green he throws in some scenes where they really aren’t allegory, I basically knew how the scene was going to end even as it started. He even names one character Ba’al which immediately paints the character in a certain light for most readers. It was also disappointing that with the current vampire infatuation in our culture that Dekker decided to go there.

Note: In the material that I have read for Green the book is grouped with Black, Red, & White and left at that. There are parts in Green that refer to the Lost Books Series (Chosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos, Lunatic, & Elyon) as well as the Paradise Novels (Saint, Sinner, & Showdown). As I was reading Green, I wished that I hadn’t stopped reading the Lost Books at Chaos because there is are parts within Green that I am assuming a reader who has read the Lost Books and Paradise novels would understand the backstory a little better.

I’m willing to give Dekker the benefit of the doubt though and give Green a 3 out of 5 rating.

Related Reading:

  • Black, Red, & White
  • Chosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos, Lunatic, & Elyon
  • Saint, Sinner, & Showdown

Note: due to a quirk in WordPress I am unable to hyperlink all of the books referenced in this post…I sincerely apologize.