The Red Siren Reviewed
January 28, 2009
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Barbour Publishing, Inc (January 2009)
by
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
M. L. (MARYLU) TYNDALL grew up on the beaches of South Florida loving the sea and the warm tropics. But despite the beauty around her, she always felt an ache in her soul–a longing for something more.
After college, she married and moved to California where she had two children and settled into a job at a local computer company. Although she had done everything the world expected, she was still miserable. She hated her job and her marriage was falling apart.
Still searching for purpose, adventure and true love, she spent her late twenties and early thirties doing all the things the world told her would make her happy, and after years, her children suffered, her second marriage suffered, and she was still miserable.
One day, she picked up her old Bible, dusted it off, and began to read. Somewhere in the middle, God opened her hardened heart to see that He was real, that He still loved her, and that He had a purpose for her life, if she’d only give her heart to Him completely.
Her current releases in the Legacy of The Kings Pirates series include:The Restitution, The Reliance, and The Redemption and The Falcon And The Sparrow
ABOUT THE BOOK
Lady Faith Westcott has turned her back on God and on man. Having witnessed the hypocrisy in the Church of England, her older sister’s abuse at the hand of her husband, and her own mother’s untimely
death in childbirth, Faith has determined never to marry and to gain enough wealth so she and her two sisters will never have to depend on man or God again.
To that end, though a lady by day, she becomes a pirate by night and begins her sordid career off Portsmouth when she attacks and plunders a merchant ship commanded by the young Dajon Waite. Humiliated at being defeated by a pirate and a woman no less, Dajon returns home without cargo and ship, and his father expels him from the family merchant business.
After a brief sojourn into debased society, Dajon rejoins the Royal Navy, where he finds comfort in the strict rules and redemption through his service to others. Three years later, he is sent to the frontier outpost of Charles Town, South Carolina to deal with the pirate problem. There, he connects with his mentor and old friend, Admiral Westcott, who has just arrived with his three daughters.
Much to Dajon’s utter dismay, Admiral Westcott, who is being called away to Spain, asks Dajon to be temporary guardian of his three lovely daughters. One of the ladies seems familiar to him, a striking redhead who immediately sends his heart thumping.
Faith recognizes Captain Waite as the buffoon whose ship she plundered off Portsmouth. Yet, he appears no longer the fool, but instead a tall, handsome and commanding naval officer. Despite her immediate attraction to him, she labels him the enemy, but sparks are guaranteed to fly during the next few months when independent, headstrong and rebellious Faith falls in love with God-fearing honorable, rule-following Dajon-especially when Faith continues her pirating off the Carolina coast while her father is away.
Will Dajon catch her? And what will this man of honor and duty do when he does?
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Red Siren, go HERE
Sally Says: MaryLu Tyndall’s books are just plain fun. There’s always adventure and romance, and The Red Siren delivers.
The heroes of the story, Faith and Dajon, captured my attention because of their conflicting goals — Faith’s a female pirate (how unique is that?) who’s got a bit of Robin Hood in her while Dajon is the naval commander sent to rid the Carolina seas of pirates, particularly the female pirate who’s rumored to frequent the area.
Since the book’s a romance, we assume they get together in the end, but the big question that kept me turning pages was how they’d get together. After all, Dajon’s an honest Christian man who’s committed to doing right. So I read wondering what he’d do when he discovered that Faith was the pirate he’d been searching for or if Faith might change and leave her pirating ways behind, despite the necessity of it to protect herself and her sisters.
The Red Siren is a real page turner with action and suspense on almost every page. If you’re looking for a light, fun read, this book is it.
The Centurion’s Wife — And My Review
January 23, 2009
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Bethany House Publishers (January 1, 2009)
by
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Davis Bunn is an internationally acclaimed author who has sold more than six million books in fifteen languages. His audiences span reading genres from high drama and action thrillers to heartwarming relationship stories, in both contemporary and historical settings.
Honored with three Christy Awards for excellence in historical and suspense fiction, his bestsellers include My Soul To Keep, and Full Circle. A sought-after lecturer in the art of writing, Bunn was named Novelist in Residence at Regent’s Park College, Oxford University.
He and his wife, Isabella, make their home in Florida for some of each year, and spend the rest near Oxford, England, where they each teach and write.
Her first novel, a prairie love story titled Love Comes Softly, was published by Bethany House in 1979. This book was followed by more than 75 others.
After Love Comes Softly was published, Oke found her readers asking for more. That book led to a series of eight others in her Love Comes Softly series. She has written multiple fiction series, including The Canadian West, Seasons of the Heart and Women of the West. Her most recent releases include a beautiful children’s picture book, I Wonder…Did Jesus Have a Pet Lamb and The Song of Acadia series, co-written with T. Davis Bunn.
Janette Oke’s warm writing style has won the hearts of millions of readers. She has received numerous awards, including the Gold Medallion Award, The Christy Award of Excellence, the 1992 President’s Award for her significant contribution to the category of Christian fiction from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, and in 1999 the Life Impact Award from the Christian Booksellers Association International. Beloved worldwide, her books have been translated into fourteen languages.
She and her husband live nearby in Alberta, Canada.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Janette Oke has dreamed for years of retelling a story in a biblical time frame from a female protagonist’s perspective, and Davis Bunn is elated to be working with her again on this sweeping saga of the dramatic events surrounding the birth of Christianity…and the very personal story of Leah, a young Jewess of mixed heritage trapped in a vortex of competing political agendas and private trauma.
Caught up in the maelstrom following the death of an obscure rabbi in the Roman backwater of first-century Palestine, Leah finds herself also engulfed in her own turmoil–facing the prospect of an arranged marriage to a Roman soldier, Alban, who seems to care for nothing but his own ambitions.
Head of the garrison near Galilee, he has been assigned by Palestine’s governor to ferret out the truth behind rumors of a political execution gone awry. Leah’s mistress, the governor’s wife, secretly commissions Leah also to discover what really has become of this man whose death–and missing body–is causing such furor.
This epic drama is threaded with the tale of an unlikely romance and framed with dangers and betrayals from unexpected sources. At its core, the story unfolds the testing of loyalties–between two young people whose inner searchings they cannot express, between their irreconcilable heritages, and ultimately between their humanity and the Divine they yearn to encounter.
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Centurion’s Wife, go HERE
Sally Says: Apologetics is always an interesting topic. How do we prove that Jesus lived? How do we prove that He died and rose again? How do we take centuries old evidence and weigh it today?
Davis Bunn and Janette Oke have written a novel that deals with apologetics as it would have been in the weeks after Jesus died, and it’s a very interesting read. The two main characters are forced to investigate what really happened to this rabbi who died and whose body is now missing. The story feels kind of like a suspense novel, except you already know what they’ll find. They hunt down eye witnesses to the death of the rabbi, soldiers in charge of the crucifixion and tomb duty, the men who handled the cold body and buried him, and the women who say they saw him later — alive.
It’s really an interesting and unique read. The book isn’t fast-paced, partly because we know what happens, but I found the book just as easy to pick up as it was to set down. And halfway through the book, the stakes are upped for one of the characters, and that made the story more entertaining.
The spine says this is book one in the Acts of Faith series, and I do think I’ll be picking up the following books. There was one major Biblical event that I knew would happen at some point in the book, and I enjoyed how they handled it so I’m eager to see how they might fictionalize other events in Acts. The Centurion’s Wife really gave me a feel for the culture of Jews and Romans of the day and even brought up some struggles new believers might have dealt with that I had never thought about. While this isn’t't one of my favorite reads, it made me think and kept my attention. If you like Biblical, historical, or romantic fiction, you’ll enjoy The Centurion’s Wife.
The Droolmeister
January 22, 2009
So this blog is really not about my family. Not at all.
But I just downloaded a bunch of pictures of my kiddos and loved this one of our littlest guy.
Now someone convince my older kids that baby drool isn’t gross.
Sweetwater Gap Reviewed
January 14, 2009
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Thomas Nelson (December 16, 2008)
by
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Denise lives in Indiana with her husband Kevin and their three sons. In 1996, Denise began her first book, a Christian romance novel, writing while her children napped. Two years later it was published, and she’s been writing ever since. Her books often contain a strong romantic element, and her husband Kevin says he provides all her romantic material, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too!
ABOUT THE BOOK
A story of new beginnings from best-selling Romance for Good™ author Denise Hunter.
When Josephine’s family insists she come home to help with the harvest, the timing works. But her return isn’t simple benevolence-she plans to persuade the family to sell the failing orchard.
The new manager’s presence is making it difficult. Grady MacKenzie takes an immediate disliking to Josephine and becomes outright cantankerous when she tries talking her family into selling. As she and Grady work side by side in the orchard, she begins to appreciate his devotion and quiet faith. She senses a vulnerability in him that makes her want to delve deeper, but there’s no point letting her heart have its way-he’s tied to the orchard, and she could never stay there.
A brush with death tears down Josephine’s defenses and for the first time in her life, she feels freedom-freedom from the heavy burden of guilt, freedom to live her life the way it was intended, with a heart full of love.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Sweetwater Gap, go HERE
Sally Says: Sweetwater Gap is an easy-to-read romance set in an apple orchard which is a bit of an unusual setting.
I’m not a big fan of straight romance novels, and when I chose to read this book, it was because it came across as women’s fiction. But it has a very typical romance storyline — hero and heroine disagree on a major point and it interferes with their feelings about each other. Of course they eventually overcome their disagreement (which we know will happen), so the story is more about the journey than wondering how it will end.
There were a few parts of the plot that felt underdone, almost underdeveloped, but then again, that could be because this isn’t my most favorite genre. If you’re a romance fan, you’ll probably feel much differently. I have read one of Hunter’s previous books (Finding Faith, I think) and did enjoy it, so I plan on reading more of her books. I even have Surrender Bay in my TBR pile, and people have raved about that one.
If you’ve read Sweetwater Gap, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear your take on it.
Goooooaaal!
January 1, 2009
In recent years, I’ve learned the importance of setting goals for the coming year. Call them New Year’s resolutions if you want; I prefer goals.
Last year, with the prospect of going back to work fulltime, I didn’t set any goals (getting dinner on the table and laundry done was goal enough), but what I didn’t expect was the amount of free time I had and the way I frittered it away. No goal, no plan, no results.
So here are my goals for this year:
- Read my One Year Chronological Bible — in one year.
- Get back to my prepregnancy weight and a bit beyond. This means I need to lose 15 pounds. I’m not completely sure how I’ll do this with a baby who still demands a lot of time, but I’ll work on it.
- Revamp my blog. It needs a bit of a face lift from someone who knows what they’re doing, don’t you think?
- Organize my home. When we moved in August of ‘07, we basically threw stuff in the house and jumped into a busy hectic life. So there are certain areas that are very unorganized and a number of things still in the boxes. I’d like to get some order back.
- I have a goal for my editing income each month, but of course I won’t share that.
I’m also planning on getting into some of the social network sites out there to promote my writing and editing. - This one I’m really struggling with — I’d love to finish Shelf Life this year. I’ve got about 10K done on it, and I like what I’ve got so far, but we’ll be homeschooling starting in January. (Oh, wait, it is January.) We’ve pulled our kids out of the Christian school they were in because we have the joy of two mortgages. Anyone want a vacation home in the Chicago suburbs? So next week I start homeschooling while I take care of an almost four-month old plus my editing and two other small jobs I have. So there isn’t much time for writing. But I’d love, love, love to get back to my own stuff.
And that’s about it. My next job is to break these down into doable tasks. I’ve got my Franklin Planner pages for the year, and I’m going to be using them much more than I did last year. I know I get a lot more done when I use them, and I enjoy my work a lot more too.
So what about you? What New Year’s resolutions or goals are you working on for 2009?