Due to issues with my home computer and blogger, I've switched to wordpress. Please follow me here.
Double Cross - James David Jordan
Double Cross is the continuing story of Forsaken and not a stand alone book. Taylor, a female private security specialist, is trying to understand the death of someone assumed to be an embezzler from the ministry protrayed in Forsaken. Her mother appears and throws a twist into the story line with her strange ways.
I was disappointed in this one and lost interest about half way through. I didn't really see any spiritual development of the characters. Taylor is sometimes protrayed so tough, I forgot she was a woman. I'm hoping that the final product, which releases in Oct., had some scene improvements (I was reading an advanced copy). I started scanning pages toward the end to figure out "who done it" and so that I could just get finished with it. I'm sure I missed some key situations.
Reviews
I just signed up to be a reviewer for Thomas Nelson. How great is that...I mean...I'm already reading their stuff anyway...why not get the book free?! Waiting for my first book to come in the mail, Called to Worship, by Vernon M. Whaley. Check back soon for my first review.
GoodReads - My Bookshelf
I've been introduced to a place to list books you've read with your ratings and short reviews. That will be where I will be listing my reviews from now on. It's just easier. So to see what I've already read, reading now and plan to read....click here.
Triple Play - no home run
My latest read from Jude Deveraux has been Lavender Morning. I get so excited when I see her newest releases. She's one of the few authors that I buy the hardback books because I just can't wait for the paperback.
She didn't let me down in this one. However, I do think she is changing her writing style. As I mentioned in my last review of one of her books, the sexual scenes are at a minimum, where they once took pages to kiss and more, she barely mentions them now.
It is a story of a young girl, Jocelyn, left on her own when her father remarries...yes, sort of a Cinderella story. There is the fairy godmother that lives near by who becomes her constant companion and upon her death, leaves Jose her house in a town that she left many years before.
Jose goes to claim the house and finds some characters already living there expecting her to change their lives. But some diaries found of the godmother led Jose down a journey she never expected...but she's not alone.
I loved it. There romance, mystery and surprises. It covers 2 different time periods with the existence of the journals. I highly recommend it.
If you read my main blog, boutcrazy, you know that I went to a writers meeting and got to sit in on Kaye Dacus discussing plots. I had bought her book weeks before the meeting but decided to get it read before we met.
This was a very sweet story of love tarnished by hurt feelings. I really enjoyed it and the time frame. Beautifully written. Another good read.
Which leads me to A Daughter's Inheritance. I started reading this over a month ago and put it down. I had to force myself to pick it up and then I scanned it just so I could say that I had finished it. I know that this is the first in a series that I won't be reading.
It was very boring to me. The same plot keep replaying over and over. The girl has an inheritance that her uncle wants and he goes about scheming to get it. There is a love interest, but....well, I won't go there just in case you decide to read it. I was very disappointed with it. I did love the sitting for the book and even Googled it to get a visual image of the island.
Road Trip Readings
While at the Naval Museum in Pensacola, FL, I picked up this book written by a POW in Hanoi, John M. McGarth.
I've not done alot of reading of POW's but recently the topic has become of interest to me. This is a short book, I finished it in one day while driving, but the story will forever remain in my mind.
McGarth was a Navy pilot who's plane went down and was immediately taken prison by the Vietnamese for 6 years. When he was released, he couldn't explain in word alone what he had suffered so he did drawings of what he and others suffered. This book is a collection of those drawings.
It is very simply written, one page of words to go with one page of drawings.
Simple...heartbreaking...life changing. Every American needs to read this book, or one similar, to remind us that our soldiers aren't on vacation, some of them are POWs and going through similar situations as McGarth describes. Reading this book definitely made me appreciate Memorial Day more, especially when I walked through the headstones of the POWs that had not come home.
The Vietnamese denied us everything, except the bare essentials that
would maintain life. With only their distorted propaganda, and without any
books, paper, pencils or outside sources of information, the Communists tried
to destroy our faith in God, Country and each other. They failed. They
failed miserably. Their clumsy efforts only helped to strengthen our
convictions.
I waited, sometimes patiently, sometimes in frustration, for that
day when I would be released. In all my years as a POW, I was constantly
sustained by a great faith in America and in our government. I never lost
hope or faith in our government and country.
I was not disappointed, for on 4 March 1973, I returned to the greatest
country and people in the world. I can now only offer my humble thanks to
those who were concerned, never forgot us, and finally helped in securing
our honorable release.
I found this video of John McGarth talking about his time as a POW and showing his drawing that are in the book. This video was made for political support for John McCain. But he talks alot about what he went through and his book. I found it very interesting.
What if you knew something was going to happen that would change the world? How would it change your actions? Would you tell anyone? What if they thought you were crazy?
Thomas Hunter finds himself in two worlds. One the present day, where he is being shot at by thugs that he owes money to, on the run with his sister. The other a mystical forest where bats talk and fruit restores life and heals bodies and a Great Romance is going on.
Which is the real world? Even Thomas isn't sure. Everytime he falls asleep he wakes up in the other world. But what he finds is that what he does in one world, helps him in the other. Now he must decided what to do with the information he gains that the world is about to be destroyed by a virus. Can he get anyone to believe him when he barely believes it himself? And suddenly he finds that his thoughts about God are changing.
I picked up this triology wanting a different read and I certainly got one. It was almost too much for my mind (which loves sappy love stories) to take in. But I stuck with it and finished the first of the three....Black, by Ted Dekker. Now I can't wait to start Red to see what happens next.
If you try this one...be prepared to think differently. After reading The Shack, I got used to seeing God as a different type of "person". Black does the same thing. Parts of it made me think of the Garden of Eden and how it must have been before evil came into it, when everything was pure. But Evil always lurks just right across the bridge and can only come in through a human. And then everything turns black.
Warning...you might think differently about your dreams when you finish this one!
Perfect Piece - Rebeca Seitz
This book came across my desk this week for review as a newly released book from our company. It's the 4th in the Sister's Ink series by Rebeca Seitz. I reviewed the 1st here and I like it with some hesitation.
I'm going to be completely honest here...after reading the 2nd one, I decided I didn't like this series and never bothered to read the 3rd. So when the 4th one was brought to me...I had no intentions of reading it. But one of my co-workers pointed out the introduction and how moving it was for her, so I started scanning the first few pages.
All I can say is....it is a very good thing that things were slow at work because I ended up reading all day long! I couldn't put the book down. I finished it in 2 days...at work! If I had taken it home, I probably would have finished it that night. (BTW....management encourages us to read our products...that's a good thing!)
I loved it!
Here's the nut shell version of the book from our website:
Perfect Piece is a perfectly conceived conclusion to the charming Sisters, Ink series of novels for women. At the heart of each story are four unlikely sisters, each separately adopted into the home of Marilyn and Jack Sinclair where they still meet as adults in their late mother’s attic to work on scrapbook projects and work through life together.
The Sinclair sisterhood is about to be rocked from its foundation when Meg—the bedrock sibling most like Momma—collapses with a brain tumor. Surgery removes the invading mass but leaves a sister full of mood swings, depression, anger, and bitterness. Tandy, Kendra, and Joy struggle to find a trace of their formerly happy sister, who always pointed them to life’s positives. Meg’s husband, Jamison, struggles even more. With no idea how to handle the new, unimproved person inhabiting his wife’s body, he finds it too easy to seek solace in the clever conversation of another woman. What none of them realize is that the wisdom they need is already at hand and readily available from someone they didn’t want in their lives in the first place.
I can't really say why this one touched my heart in a way the others didn't. I think that Rebeca is a great writer and all writers just keep improving with each book. I love scrap booking and I love that fact that the locations in her books are actual places I've been to around Nashville. Let me just say...there is a scene where Meg and Jamison are shopping in Cool Springs Mall and they find some massage boots...I could relate so well because I nearly lost my husband to that store. He still talks about those boots!
Maybe that's it for me and this book....I related. Not only to the location descriptions but to the personality issues. When my husband went through chemo, he came out with a different personality. Rebeca hits it right on when she is explaining all the frustrations the family and the person has to go through when this new personality comes home.
And there is the "other woman" issue. Oh man...preach on sister, is all I can say! It's a timely message that everyone needs to heed.
So...I highly recommend this book. If you haven't read any of the others, you might get a little lost on some of the continuous story lines and background information. It is written as if you've read the others.
All this being said....I'm off to try and find a copy of the 3rd book!
