Category Archives: Fiction

Review: Secrets of Sunbeams, by Valerie Comer

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Secrets of Sunbeams, by Valerie Comer
Secrets of Sunbeams, by Valerie Comer (GreenWords Media, 2016)

Chickens… and a goat… in the city? Yup. Eden Andrusek discovered the bylaws in her Spokane neighbourhood allow such things, as long as the goat is a small one.

Pansy, the goat, is like family to Eden, who’s still grieving for her parents and sisters after a car crash five years ago. Pansy also gets her into trouble. Like when the little goat escapes the fence and chows down on the new neighbour’s architectural drawings. Is it any wonder the neighbour, Jacob, doesn’t want the goat around?

Eden and Jacob are drawn to one another, but will the goat drive them apart? If they truly love one another, why does each want the other to change?

Fans of Valerie Comer’s Farm Fresh Romance series will recognize a few characters in this, the first in her new Urban Farm Fresh Romance series. Secrets of Sunbeams has snappy dialogue, and characters trying to apply green lifestyles (and faith) to daily life.

The developing community centre and community garden will no doubt be a feature throughout the series. It’ll be interesting to vicariously participate in the different events, and maybe come away with an idea or two for our own lives.

Farm Fresh and Urban Farm Fresh are about characters who care about sustainable living in a way that is easy to read and doesn’t feel like they’re telling readers what to do. They give readers a chance to understand the creation care and Christian mindsets without expressing judgement on those who hold different views.

Because Secrets of Sunbeams is shorter than the Farm Fresh novels, most of the pages are focused on the romance and the “can Jacob love a goat” question. Still, there were hints of what’s to come with the community centre, a brief mission trip to Mozambique, and even a visit to Farm Fresh’s Green Acres farm.

If you’re looking for a light-hearted, inspiring romance, check out Secrets of Sunbeams. For more about award-winning author Valerie Comer and her books, visit valeriecomer.com.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Random Acts of Murder, by Christy Barritt

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Random Acts of Murder, by Christy BarrittRandom Acts of Murder, by Christy Barritt (River Heights Press, 2014)

Having only a year to live affects a person’s choices. Social worker Holly Paladin knows she can’t change the world, but she can make a difference for a few people – even if her random acts of kindness could get her in a heap of trouble.

Case in point: she breaks into a client’s empty home to clean it. The occupant is a single mom, overworked, underpaid, and out of hope. Won’t a surprise cleaning job give her a boost?

We’ll never know, because as well as a mess, Holly finds a dead body. She flees in panic, but now her cleaning supplies, and maybe her fingerprints, are present at a crime scene.

Afraid to confess to the police and bring scandal on her exemplary family, Holly lives in fear of being found out. The murderer has already found her out, and starts leaving identical cleaning supplies at the scene of his next murders. “The Good Deeds Killer” has been born.

Holly’s family love her but don’t understand her. Her good friend, Jamie, does both. And Chase Dexter, who humiliated her in high school but who claims he’s changed, seems to understand her too. Which may be a bad thing, since he’s the detective assigned to the case.

Favourite lines:

She was tiny and blonde and wore expensive business suits and handed out her business card with all the ease of a little kid spreading the flu. [Holly describing her mom. Kindle location 366.]

Maybe being alone outside wasn’t the smartest idea after being shot at twice, but I refused to live in total fear. Partial would have to do. [Kindle location 1437.]

I had forgotten how much I enjoy Christy Barritt’s sense of humour. She’s the author of the Squeaky Clean Mystery series and other novels, and she’s so prolific that I’ve fallen behind with her books. I definitely want to read the next one in this series, Random Acts of Deceit. For more about the author and her books, visit www.christybarritt.com.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: The Things We Knew, by Catherine West

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The Things We Knew, by Catherine WestThe Things We Knew, by Catherine West (Thomas Nelson, 2016)

Lynette Carlisle can’t remember what happened the day her mother died, but she was there. Now, in her dreams, it feels like her mother wants to tell her something. Or is it her own mind trying to communicate with her?

Lynette divides her time between her daycare job and caring for her father, who exhibits signs of dementia. The family home on Nantucket Island is falling down around her. Her older brothers and sister have left the area and are too wrapped up in their own lives to realize how much help she needs.

It takes a crisis to force her family to come home. Nick Cooper, who grew up with them, has also come home. Also not by choice. Being together again brings past hurts to light and reveals present turmoil each one is trying to hide. This family may have drifted apart, but they’re ashamed to let their siblings see their hurts.

Beautifully crafted and satisfying, The Things We Knew is a novel about family secrets and ties, about extending grace and finding hope. For Lynette and Nick, it’s even a chance at love.

Rich in setting and in relational dynamics, this is a novel worth enjoying. From the first page, I found it one of those rare books whose characters and setting welcomed me into their midst and invited me to stay.

Favourite lines:

The magic he’d felt when he’d first arrived tonight had only been a lost memory trying to find its way home. There was no magic here anymore. Only desolation. [Page 84]

If they were ever going to be free from the past, they needed to exhume it. [Page 274]

Catherine West writes stories of real life, healing, and hope. Her other novels are Bridge of Faith, Hidden in the Heart, and Yesterday’s Tomorrow. For more about the author and her work, visit www.catherinejwest.com.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Missing, by Lisa Harris

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Missing, by Lisa HarrisMissing, by Lisa Harris (Revell, 2016)

Nikki Boyd and her partner, Jack Spencer, specialize in finding missing persons. Their newest case also involves murder, and the body count keeps growing. Can they find the missing woman before her enemies do?

Complicating the issue is the fact that Nikki’s good friend Tyler Grant and another man she knows are both linked with the crime. And somewhere in the process of comforting Tyler after his wife’s death, she’s fallen for him, even though he’s not ready to move on.

Missing is a fast-paced suspense novel that starts with action and doesn’t slow down. Nikki and Tyler are realistic characters with depth and struggles, learning to live with crippling loss. And learning not to blame themselves for what happened. In Nikki’s case, her younger sister’s abduction is the reason she’s in this line of work. It lets her empathize with victims’ families, but it also takes an emotional toll.

This is book 2 in the Nikki Boyd Files series. You don’t have to have read book 1, Vendetta, first, but it’s a series worth starting at the beginning. For more about author Lisa Harris and her novels, visit lisaharriswrites.com.

[Review copy provided by the publisher for an unbiased review.]

Review: Fatal Illusions, by Adam Blumer

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Fatal Illusions, by Adam BlumerFatal Illusions, by Adam Blumer (first edition: Kregel Publications, 2009; second edition: Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, 2015)

In Cincinnati, a serial killer targets fair-haired teen girls with wire-rimmed glasses. After four years, the detective most invested in the case, Chuck Riley, has to retire and leave it un-solved.

In Chicago, Gillian Thayer can’t get past her grief over losing her unborn twins after years of fertility treatments. Her husband, Marc, is a busy pastor who’s never around. Her only daughter, Crystal, is 16 and beginning to move outside Gillian’s protective reach. Crystal, as it happens, has fair hair and new wire-rimmed glasses.

When Marc is involved in a scandal, his church asks him to take a leave of absence until the fuss dies down. They find him temporary work at a historic lighthouse in Whistler’s Point, on the shores of Lake Superior in Northern Michigan.

The Thayers haven’t even heard of the Magician Murderer. And nobody has any idea that the killer has relocated to Whistler’s Point.

Fatal Illusions is compelling suspense that includes snippets from the killer’s point of view without becoming too graphic. At the same time, it’s character-oriented, and those characters are people we can root for (or at least root for them to change, in a couple of cases).

The Thayers are Bible-believing Christians, but they deal with ongoing human weaknesses. A bonus for me was seeing how they try to apply their faith to their struggles, and how in their better moments they realize there’s more at stake than their particular circumstances. At times both Gillian and Crystal stop to ponder what God might want to do or say through them to the people they’re with.

The faith element is not heavy-handed, but it gives an encouraging example to believing readers who, like the Thayers, are still learning to fully live by faith.

Fatal Illusions is Adam Blumer’s first novel. His second, The Tenth Plague, also features Marc and Gillian Thayer. For more about the author and his books, visit adamblumerbooks.com.

Fatal Illusions

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Smoke and Mirrors, a romantic suspense collection

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Smoke and MirrorsSmoke and Mirrors, a romantic suspense collection (2016)

This is an ebook box set of “hidden identity” Christian romantic suspense novellas. At present, it’s only available for Kindle.

Some characters are in witness protection, some are undercover, and some are just plain hiding – either from danger or for nefarious purposes. It can be love at first sight, a relationship that’s been developing for a few years before the story opens, or characters with a past connection now thrown together again.

Stories are set in various parts of the US, including Alaska. Sometimes the tension is high, other times more moderate.

My pick of the set is Heather Day Gilbert’s Out of Circulation, mostly because I always enjoy her characters and her writing, but also because her protagonist walks with a limp and isn’t as beautiful as her sister. It seemed I met a lot of gorgeous people in this collection.

I also found a spiritual nugget in Connie Almony’s The Long View, where one of the Christian characters searches his Bible for a verse to tuck into his mind to meditate on in his worship time. His reverence for God’s holiness challenged me.

If romantic suspense is all you read, then devour the whole collection in one go. I like more variety, and should have spaced them out a bit.

These eight original novellas are written by authors Connie Almony, Sally Bradley, Hallee Bridgeman, Heather Day Gilbert, Kelli Hughett, Alana Terry, Rachel Trautmiller, and Alexa Verde. In some cases they’re stand-alone stories, and in others they either begin or continue other works from the authors.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Unforgotten, by Kristen Heitzmann

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Unforgotten, by Kristen HeitzmannUnforgotten, by Kristen Heitzmann (Bethany House, 2005)

Lance Michelli’s family is living the generational effects of past tragedy. He can’t stop comparing himself to his perfect brother, Tony, who died in 9-11. And in trying to bring closure to his beloved Nonna Antonia for the trauma of her youth, it seems he’s only made things worse.

This is the second in a series, and in book one, Secrets, Antonia sent Lance to her girlhood home on a mission. Unforgotten leads Lance and the woman he loves (Rese, who has renovated the home to be a bed and breakfast) into more fallout from the past. A secondary thread reveals more of Antonia’s past as the elderly woman processes the revelation of even more secrets.

Secrets was set in California wine country. Unforgotten brings Rese and Lance back to his home in a run-down part of the Bronx – a home packed with his extended family. We see the solitary Rese learn to not only survive but to find her place in the mayhem.

Unforgotten brims with deeply flawed characters, some of whom are learning what it means to grow in relationship with God and with each other despite misconceptions, mistakes, and setbacks along the way. There’s a lot of love in the novel: romantic, family, and between friends. There’s also an element of spiritual warfare and an honest portrayal of the Christian’s struggle to understand why God allows so much suffering.

These characters have a place in my heart, and I can’t wait to follow them to the series conclusion in Echoes.

Bestselling author Kristen Heitzmann writes contemporary romantic suspense, psychological suspense, and historical fiction, that connect with readers’ hearts. For more about the author and her books, visit kristenheitzmannbooks.com.

[Review copy from the public library.]

Review: Vain Empires, by Brandilyn Collins

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Vain Empires, by Brandilyn CollinsVain Empires, by Brandilyn Collins (Challow Press, 2016)

Seven deadly sins. Six people in a remote island mansion. One reality show.

One of the six contestants will win their dream prize, valued at up to $10 million. All they have to do is discover which sin each of their competitors represents – and decide if they themselves represent one too. To help in the discovery? Clues are revealed – and broadcast worldwide. Clues that may destroy each one on the island.

It’s interesting to watch the civilized facades crack as the pressure mounts – and to watch most contestants labelling the others while excusing their own failures and counting themselves as sinless. Most don’t seem to have a faith connection, although one of them, Gina, does.

Chapters alternate among the six contestants, who are different enough that I didn’t have trouble keeping track. This is a book that entices you to keep turning pages, so prepare to lose some sleep.

I enjoyed it, although the ending didn’t work for me. There’s a nice twist, and everything makes sense, but the characters leave the island and that’s it. They’ve been through this great upheaval, but what difference, if any, will it make in their lives? For some characters that’s clear, but not for all. To me it felt incomplete.

Vain Empires comes from a best-selling author of Christian suspense, but it should appeal to most mainstream readers. And if you’ve always wanted to try one of Brandilyn Collins’ suspense novels but were too timid, this is a good one for you. The ticking clock and relentless clues make it tense, but it’s puzzle-tense, not traumatic-tense.

Brandilyn Collins is known for her Seatbelt Suspense® novels, and she also writes contemporary fiction. RT BookReviews calls her “a master storyteller,” and I agree. For more about the author and her work, visit brandilyncollins.com.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: The Serenity Stone Murder, by Marianne Jones

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The Serenity Stone Murder, by Marianne JonesThe Serenity Stone Murder, by Marianne Jones (Split Tree Publishing, 2014)

When Margaret reluctantly accompanies her friend Louise to a spiritually questionable retreat for artists, she’s hoping for a bit of a break from small-town boredom. The friends get more than they’d bargained for just finding accommodations… and then there’s the murder.

This cozy mystery takes place in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and the author does an excellent job of bringing the setting to life. It feels natural and real, not like the tourist brochures that some novels resemble when real-life settings are involved.

It’s essentially a mainstream novel, complete with a few minor cuss words, but I appreciated the gentle spiritual thread too. When Margaret and Louise are at odds, Margaret recognizes (and resists) two or three instances of God nudging her to make peace. That’s true to life and a good reminder to Christian readers to pay attention when He does it.

Something that didn’t work for me was the way the omniscient point of view occasionally explained other characters’ motivations. This kept me from fully engaging with Margaret as the protagonist, and it made it harder to orient myself in the early pages. Also, there was a significant threat where the source was never resolved. Was it from the killer, or not?

Despite those negatives, The Serenity Stone Murder is an enjoyable read. It leaves openings for future books with Margaret, Louise, and their friends.

Canadian author Marianne Jones’ most recent book is The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die (memoir). She has also written poetry and children’s books. For more about the author and her work, visit mariannejones.ca.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Sins of the Past, by Dee Henderson, Dani Pettrey, and Lynette Eason

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Sins of the Past, by Dee Henderson, Dani Pettrey, and Lynette EasonSins of the Past, by Dee Henderson, Dani Pettrey and Lynette Eason (Bethany House, 2016)

Three romantic suspense novellas in one book, from three of the top Christian writers in the genre: Sins of the Past delivers shorter, but still satisfying, reads.

Stories feature a cop whose mother has gone missing, a competitive swimmer who may be a killer’s next target, and a paramedic who’s in danger because of an accident she can’t remember. In each case, the present crisis comes from something that happened in the characters’ past (hence the title).

Fans of Dani Pettrey’s Alaskan Courage series will be pleased to step back to the 70s to meet the McKenna clan’s parents. The other two stories take place in the present.

I’m not usually fond of shorter fiction, but these novellas contain enough depth that they feel complete. There’s no sense of being rushed or short-changed on plot or characters.

Readers of Christian romantic suspense will definitely want to grab a copy of Sins of the Past. For more about the book and its authors, and to read an excerpt, see the publisher’s website.

[Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.]