Category Archives: Fiction

Review: The Butterfly and the Violin, by Kristy Cambron

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The Butterfly and the Violin, by Kristy CambronThe Butterfly and the Violin, by Kristy Cambron (Thomas Nelson, 2014)

A New York art gallery owner and a California businessman team up to locate an obscure painting—for wildly different reasons. For Sera James, it’s a connection to happier times from her past. For William Hanover, it’s the key to his family’s future.

Sera and William each carry wounds, and it’s easier to focus on the hunt than to risk trusting—and healing. Still, each recognizes something special in the other.

The novel also tells the story of Adele, a gifted violinist in Nazi-run Vienna. She’s the woman in the painting, pictured with a shaved head and a concentration camp tattoo.

The alternation between present and past flows well, and Adele’s sections complement what Sera and William learn of her life. One of the things I appreciated most was Adele’s discovery that even in darkness and horror, beauty and love of art may be pushed underground but they will survive—and that using one’s art can be sincere worship of the God who gave the talent.

If you like historical novels of World War 2, and you like art and romance, definitely give this one a try. The concentration camp scenes convey the horror without being traumatic, and overall the novel gives hope. May none of us endure anything that cruel—but we’ll all have hard times, and The Butterfly and the Violin offers hints of how to endure.

Favourite line: “The exhaustion bled down to her soul like water seeking a drain.” [p. 144]

The Butterfly and the Violin is book 1 in the Hidden Masterpiece series. Book 2, A Sparrow in Terazin, releases in 2015. Its storyline also alternates between present-day and the 1940s. Kristy Cambron is a writer fascinated by the WW2 era. You can learn more about the author and her work at kristycambron.com.

[A review copy was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was in no way compensated for this review.]

Review: Seagrass Pier, by Colleen Coble

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Seagrass Pier, by Colleen CobleSeagrass Pier, by Colleen Coble (Thomas Nelson, 2014)

Elin Summerall is a young widow caring for her preschool-aged daughter and for her mother, who’s slipping into dementia. Elin is also the recent recipient of a heart transplant—and now she’s remembering details of her donor’s murder.

The police don’t believe her, but it seems that the murderer does.

FBI agent Marc Everton’s investigation of the murder leads him to Elin. They’ve met before, but Marc didn’t know their one night of passion produced a child. Now Marc has to protect Elin, for the sake of his daughter.

I had trouble getting into this novel. Perhaps if I’d read the previous books in the series, it would have been easier. There is a large-ish group of secondary characters connected to Elin, with some inter-connections to Marc. I felt as if I’d walked into a room full of people and had to somehow remember their names and their relationships. Some of those relationships are complicated.

As well as the danger to Elin, her chemistry with Marc and her fears for her mother, there’s someone searching for an object hidden in Elin’s new home. Again, lots for readers to keep track of.

Ultimately I enjoyed the story, and I’m glad I kept reading. The suspense is good, and behind it is a subtle thread about identity and how it changes. Elin’s mother shows one facet of this, as she’s losing herself, and also in the way she talks about her youthful dreams and how they shifted over the course of her life. Elin explores another aspect. She’s been a wife. What does it mean now to be a widow? And along with the memories, her personal tastes are changing. Is the heart transplant turning Elin into her donor?

Colleen Coble is a USA Today best-selling author of romantic suspense, both contemporary and historical. Seagrass Pier is the third novel in the Hope Beach series. I don’t think this is her strongest novel, but it’s still a good read. For more about the author and her books, visit her website: colleencoble.com

[A review copy was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was in no way compensated for this review.]

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Review: Strange Faces, by Linda Hall

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Strange Faces, by Linda HallStrange Faces, by Linda Hall (Linda Hall, 2014)

It’s been too long since we’ve had fresh fiction from Linda Hall. Strange Faces is a collection of six short stories and a novella. Most are new, with a few reprints from other anthologies. I had read one story before, but happily read it again.

Linda Hall has a gift for evoking memorable characters and situations. Most of these stories are suspense or mystery, with the occasional strand of magic or the unexplained. Because the author weaves a form of magic of her own in these tales, pulling us into the fictional world, it’s a believable experience. Sometimes too believable, in the stories with narrators we discover to be less than trustworthy—I was reading in a public place and found myself studying the strangers around me and wondering…

In these stories we meet young and old, damaged and whole, down-and-out and starting over. Linda Hall never shies away from social issues in her mysteries, and readers will met lonely souls, caregivers, victims of bullying and of dementia. Many stories deal with family ties and loyalty.

As well as strongly-drawn characters, the author gives us vivid descriptions. Here are two of my favourites:

From “Pickers and Choosers” the narrator describes a television “muted but with the captioning picking its way across the bottom of the screen like little white crabs.” [Kindle location 30]

From “A Small Season of Magic” the narrator describes an old man: “his white head looked like a patch of dandelions gone to seed.” [Kindle location 1309]

The characters and their situations feel real. Each story contains a depth and richness, as if we’re joining fully-developed individuals in a slice of their lives. Back story is always introduced in an organic way in just the right amount to let readers discover what we need to know.

Well worth a read!

Award-winning author Linda Hall’s novels include the Terri Blake-Addison series, Canadian Mountie series, Coast of Maine series and others. For a full list, see her website: writerhall.com. [Note that her previous novels have been Christian fiction. The stories in Strange Faces are clean mainstream.]

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Majai’s Fury, by Valerie Comer

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Majai's Fury, by Valerie ComerMajai’s Fury, by Valerie Comer (GreenWords Media, 2014)

In a culture where the water goddess Majai requires every woman’s firstborn as a sacrifice, Taifa has used forbidden herbs to prevent conception. If she’s discovered—or if she’s labelled barren—her own life could be forfeit. Taifa’s one chance to survive comes in the form of a stranger from another land.

The foreigner Shanh brings a message of doom to Taifa’s people—unless they will renounce Majai and follow the true god, Azhvah. Azhvah’s power proves stronger than Majai’s and stronger than the king’s soldiers assigned to kill Shanh. But Azhvah stops intervening when Shanh encounters Taifa.

Could this god mean for them to meet? More troubling still for Shanh, is it possible that Azhvah could really have spoken to Taifa and to her grandmother? Despite the prophetic writings that reject the idea, and without these women undergoing the painful repentance ritual? Especially after Shanh himself has sinned and lost the closeness with his god?

Taifa is out of choices and flees with Shanh, despite their many differences. Majai’s Fury is a novel filled with the danger of pursuit, the clash of religions, values and beliefs, and the forbidden attraction between Taifa and Shanh.

Rich descriptions bring this world to life and draw the reader into the scenes. I found it especially interesting that Taifa’s people, ruled by the water goddess, use water to measure time. The water clock marks time in cylinders, and the citizens use expressions like “a trickle more time” and “mere drops of time.”

Author Valerie Comer is known for her Farm Fresh Romance series, which has a lighter, sweeter tone, but she delivers this intense fantasy novel with equal skill. Her farm lit fans need to know that Majai’s Fury includes more sexual tension (Taifa’s people thrive on promiscuity), but this is still a clean read. We know what’s happening “off-stage” without “seeing” all the details.

For a good idea of the content, preview chapter 1 or use Amazon.com’s Look Inside feature. To learn more about Valerie Comer’s other writing, visit her website.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Lion of Babylon, by Davis Bunn

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Lion of Babylon, by Davis BunnLion of Babylon, by Davis Bunn (Bethany House Publishers, 2011)

Former special forces operative Marc Royce is drawn back into active duty to find a friend who’s gone missing in Iraq. The problem is, elements of his own government want him to fail.

Marc and a brave Iraqi lawyer named Sameh work with a few trusted contacts in a search for not only the missing US serviceman but four others as well: three Americans and an Iraqi.

I liked the characters, and I enjoyed the taut, fast pace and the details of life in Baghdad. In their quest, Marc and Sameh rescue a group of abducted children. Marc proves himself to the local people as well as to his own, and pulls off some important successes.

Marc and Sameh also find their way into a secret Baghdad church. Sameh faithfully attends a Christian church, despite the stigma this attaches to his family, and Marc is a Christian as well, but both men are amazed at this underground group of worshippers where believers from different ethnic backgrounds worship hand in hand where formerly they’d have been mortal enemies.

Favourite lines:

Ambassador Walton has another name for coincidences. He calls them fault lines. Points where the mystery may be resolved. [page 75]

He greeted Marc with a grin that divided his face in two, the lower half smiling a welcome, the upper half squinted in warning. [page 162]

I definitely want to read the rest of this series, for the characters, the action (some satisfying explosions!), and for the glimpses of how faith in Jesus is still a powerful force that only gets stronger when pushed underground.

Davis Bunn is a multi-published author in various genres of Christian fiction. Lion of Babylon is book 1 in his Marc Royce Thriller series. Library Journal called Lion of Babylon “One of the top six ‘Best Books of 2011’ in Christian Fiction.”

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Miranda Warning, by Heather Day Gilbert

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Miranda Warning, by Heather Day GilbertMiranda Warning, by Heather Day Gilbert (Heather Day Gilbert, 2014)

After the depth of character, plot and setting of Heather Day Gilbert’s Viking historical novel, God’s Daughter, I had high expectations for her new novel, Miranda Warning. This one’s a contemporary suspense set in the mountains of West Virginia. Different characters, different issues, different voice. Same skill that drew me to keep reading.

Miranda Warning tells two stories in one, tying them into one satisfying ending. Tess is a young woman whose best friend, Miranda, is in her 70’s. When Miranda gets a letter in a dead woman’s handwriting, Tess starts asking questions.

The bulk of each chapter is in the first person, as told by Tess. However, each chapter opens with a third-person, past tense segment from 40 years earlier, narrated by Rose, the dead woman.

The warnings turn into threats, but Tess is determined to protect her elderly friend. Tess is a strong yet vulnerable character. She and her husband, Thomas, live in a cottage behind his family home. Tess loves her in-laws; they’re the family she never had. But she hasn’t been able to find work, and now she’s pregnant. And she doesn’t measure up to her mother-in-law’s talent of baking and decorating.

Although the suspense is the main plot, I found it interesting to see hints of how Tess’ self-comparisons kept her from realizing her true worth. How often do we, as real people, fall into this trap? It was also fun to watch her as a young bride under the combined stresses of the mystery, her husband’s long hours on the job, and pregnancy hormones. Tess didn’t see a positive example of marriage as a child, so she’s figuring this out as she goes along, with her in-laws as proof that a marriage can last.

Some of my favourite lines:

His piercing gaze reminds me of those hawks I see staring at small birds from the fence posts. [Kindle location 250]

I love the tactile experience of walking in the woods. Its muted browns, grays, and greens comfort me. The moss and leaves give softly under my boots. Large, scattered rocks feel permanent and unshakable. The pull of the mountain is like gravity for my soul. [Kindle location 1196]

This must be how you make your marriage work for years: you fix things and move on. [Kindle location 3234]

Heather Day Gilbert plans to release another Viking novel, Forest Child, as well as to continue her A Murder in the Mountains series. For more about the author and her books, visit her website: heatherdaygilbert.com. If you missed it, here’s a link to my interview with the character of Nikki Jo, Tess’ mother-in-law.

[Review copy provided by the author.]

Review: Perilous Cove, by Rich Bullock

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Cover art: Perilous CovePerilous Cove, by Rich Bullock (RichWords Press, 2014)

The night after her husband’s funeral, 39-year-old Natalie Clayton barely survives an arsonist’s fire only to discover she’s the target of a killer. Her bank account is empty, there’s a new life insurance policy in effect for her—all the evidence points to her deceased husband, Jack.

Jack’s controlling ways have cut Natalie off from friends, and her family is dead. And he changed his life insurance policy to benefit his mother, leaving his wife with nothing.

Investigating detective Addison Conner takes Natalie into his home, but when that puts his daughter Mandy in danger, Natalie flees Missouri.

A cross-country drive brings Natalie to the secluded coastal village of Perilous Cove, California. She changes her name to Samantha Riley, takes a job on a whale-watching boat, and begins to rebuild her life. Natalie/Sam misses Addison and Mandy, wishing for the family she’s never had, but the killer is still after her.

Perilous Cove is explosive from the opening scene with arsonist and murderer Tarz Broderick at work, and achieves thriller-level intensity in places as Natalie/Sam fights for her life. The nature of the story allows a lull in the action once Sam is settled in Perilous Cove, but the danger never truly fades.

Natalie/Sam, Addison and Mandy, and later Millie and Star, are believable characters worth spending time with, and the greater the danger, the more we care about them. I enjoyed watching Sam begin to think for herself and to build a new life and relationships.

You can find author Rich Bullock, and learn more about his Perilous Safety series, at Perilous Fiction.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Moon over Maalaea Bay, by H.L. Wegley

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Moon Over Maalaea Bay, by H.L. WegleyMoon Over Maalaea Bay, by H.L. Wegley (Harbourlight Books, 2014)

Moon over Maalaea Bay is book 3 in the Pure Genius series, and it picks up hours after the end of book 2 (On the Pineapple Express). If you plan to read this series from the beginning, stop here or you’ll find out more than you want to know about plot points from the earlier books.

Still with me? Okay. Brilliant and beautiful Jennifer Akihara and her fiancé, Lee Brandt, were instrumental in breaking open one arm of an international human trafficking ring and rescuing teenage girls who would have been sold into terrible situations.

The couple has earned a break, and how better to spend it than honeymooning in Hawaii? Except now there’s not just one group of villains wanting revenge on Jennifer, there are two. Thanks to the publicity surrounding the captured girls’ rescue, both groups know where to find her.

One takes her. Frantic with worry, Lee doesn’t trust the local police (and the FBI who quickly swarm the area) to move fast enough. He, Jennifer’s grandfather, and Katie, who will be the Brandts’ adopted daughter as soon as the paperwork is finished, set out to find Jenn before it’s too late.

The novel alternates between Jenn’s and Lee’s points of view, and the pace doesn’t let up. I’m glad I read the previous book and developed a trust for H.L. Wegley’s writing. Jennifer’s enemies have an extremely bad ending planned for her, and I wouldn’t have wanted to risk what a new-to-me author might include in the text. Mr. Wegley conveys the danger without anything graphic or gratuitous.

The entire novel spans roughly 24 hours as Lee races to save his wife and Jennifer uses all her wits to find a way to escape. This is a Christian novel, and one of the things Lee grapples with is how much harder it is to trust God to look after the woman he loves than it is to trust Him with his own life or death.

As well as the action (including some impressive Karate from Katie) I enjoyed the chance to vicariously swim with the giant sea turtles off the Maalaea Bay beach. An end note from H.L. Wegley reveals that Hawaii is his favourite vacation spot, and I’m sure that has a lot to do with how authentic the setting feels.

There will be one more book in the Pure Genius series, releasing later this year. H.L. Wegley blogs at The Weather Scribe, and his novels offer “A climate of suspense and a forecast of stormy weather.”

[Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.]

Review: Harmful Intent, by Nike Chillemi

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Harmful Intent, by Nike ChillemiHarmful Intent, by Nike Chillemi (Crime Fictionista Press, 2014)

Brooklyn PI Veronica “Ronnie” Ingels is self-confident, determined, and she knows how to stand up for herself – at least when she’s on her home turf. When she discovers her husband’s infidelity, she flees to Texas to process the hurt before she has to face him, only to become a person of interest in his murder.

Local Deputy Dawson Hughes doesn’t think Ronnie had anything to do with her husband’s death, and they develop an uneasy working relationship to find the killer. Hughes is picking up the pieces after a messy divorce, and Ronnie’s reeling from the double blow of betrayal and widowhood, but there are definitely sparks between these two.

Harmful Intent is the start of a new, contemporary series from Nike Chillemi, a departure from her 1940s-era Sanctuary Point romantic suspense series. I’m intrigued by her vision for this new series, featuring couples who will sometimes appear as minor characters in other couples’ stories. The plots are suspense with romantic threads, but weaving across these threads are others from the characters’ past hurts. Each of the main characters carries, like many readers, wounds from their childhood which keep them from being all they could be.

Ronnie’s father cheated on her mother, and realizing she married the same type of creep herself helps Ronnie to understand her mother differently. This type of character growth is organic to the story, never overshadowing the suspense plot.

Harmful Intent is not an overtly Christian book, although there are faith overtones. Ronnie and Hughes each find themselves in places in life where faith doesn’t come easy. The character of Bertha is a Christian, and I love this exchange between the two women when Ronnie finds Bertha reading a Bible before bed:

[Bertha] patted my cheek. “What puzzles me is why folks who deny the Lord get mad thinkin’ His promises might not include them. That don’t make a lick of sense to me.”

I stood. “I don’t deny the Lord.”

She gazed up at me with a mother’s kindness. “Then there’s more for you than you know in this book.” [Kindle location 942]

Harmful Intent is a novel with a strong sense of place. The Texas locale feels authentic (to this Canadian) and the details of scenes set in the spa, shooting range and various eating establishments bring those scenes to life. Here’s an interesting post by the author on how she researched the setting’s dialect: Dialect ~ Lend Me Thine Ear.

Ronnie and Hughes are well-matched sparring partners, and I think if they can work through the issues keeping them apart, they’ll make a truly happy couple. We’ll have to wait for the next installment to find out, since Harmful Intent takes place over a short period of weeks after Ronnie’s cheating ex’s death.

For more about author Nike Chillemi and her books, visit her website: nikechillemi.wordpress.com

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Peril, by Suzanne Hartmann

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Cover art: Peril, by Suzanne HartmannPeril, by Suzanne Hartmann (OakTara Publishers, 2011)

Danger, intrigue, faith and racing… what’s not to like? Lady Anne is a private bodyguard, medically enhanced to possess super-human strength and speed. Her security, and that of her family, comes from utter secrecy. If terrorists or foreign powers discovered her abilities and tracked her location, how far would they go to learn how to create an army just like her?

Lady Anne operates in the shadows until a high-profile assignment to guard a foreign diplomat exposes her to the world. That’s also when she meets Stuart Jackson, champion NASCAR driver.

Stuart and Lady Anne meet a few times, and he can’t stop thinking about her. Eventually he plots to meet her through her friend Joanne.

Stuart also can’t stop thinking about how empty he feels despite his successful life. His growing relationship with Joanne and her husband, Neil, lets him work through his questions and find his way to faith.

I enjoyed the racing aspects, although I confess I was hoping for some behind-the-wheel scenes. Instead we stick with the characters touring the grounds and watching the cars on-track. The author includes enough detail to make it feel real and to orient readers with no NASCAR background, but it’s not over-done. Non-racing fans can still enjoy the book.

I also appreciated the way Peril isn’t told as a romance. Stuart is attracted to Lady Anne, but she’s in a committed relationship. Although she feels a pull to him, she’s committed to her faith and her family. It adds an extra dimension to the story.

Author Suzanne Hartmann writes “fiction with a twist.” Click here to read an excerpt from Peril and to learn more about the author and her other work. Book 2 in the Fast Track Thrillers series, Conspiracy, is now available.

[Review copy from my personal library.]