A Katie Parker Production by Jenny B. Jones

I don’t tend to read a lot of e-books. I’m kind of a paper book snob, so digital books are never my first choice. But every now and then I get a new e-book, and they’re great for travel, especially. When I recently went to visit family, I decided it was a good time to finish a series I’ve read slowly over the last few years, A Katie Parker Production by Jenny B. Jones.

The first book, In Between, introduces Katie Parker, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a drug addict who has been shuffled around the foster system and has put up major defensive walls in the process. She gets placed in the home of James and Millie Scott, a pastor and his wife in the small town of In Between, Texas. But she is interested in none of it – not their love, not their small town charm, and certainly not their God.

But the further Katie runs from all that the Scotts offer her, the more trouble she finds herself in. Until finally, she has to make a choice about what she wants her life to look like.

The strength of this six-book series is in its heart and its characters. Katie is an intriguing main character. Her history and its resulting trauma make her a very different person from me, but I never felt disconnected from her, at least in the first few books. James and Millie, her foster parents, are lovely people who live out their faith in actions. They put off warmth and stability in every interaction, something Katie is not accustomed to.

And then there’s Maxine. Millie’s mother, she’s popularly known as Mad Maxine and takes her job as Katie’s foster grandmother very seriously. If seriously means pulling Katie into every hair-brained scheme she comes up with. And there are many schemes, usually involving semi-well intentioned trespassing and a tandem bicycle called Ginger Rogers.

I really enjoyed the first three books in this series. The last three, though, feel very different. Book 4, Something to Believe In, is very odd in that it was actually published 6 years after Book 5, Can’t Let You Go. And then Book 6, Forever Your Girl, was published after that. When read in order, #4 feels much the same as the previous books, and it’s an enjoyable read. But apparently it was written as a correction, because a lot of readers didn’t like the multi-year gap between Book 3 and what then became Book 5. There are just a lot of inconsistencies created that make the last two books frustrating. And their tone is just very different from the earlier books. They feel older, which makes sense as Katie is now in her mid-twenties, and they feel a lot more intense. It was just a lot of tonal whiplash that was hard for me to roll with easily. I enjoyed the ending of the last book, but the journey to get there was challenging.

Overall, I think there are a lot of good things about this series. I enjoyed most of it, and the lessons it holds dig deep. The inconsistencies just gave me more of a sour taste.

December’s Reads: Historical Fiction

We’ve made it to the end of 2022! And I’ve made it through 12 genres of books this year. If my stats on StoryGraph are correct, I read 58 books in 2022, which is so much more than I read last year. So this reading challenge did its job!

December’s genre was Historical Fiction, which is a favorite of mine. Like most months, I ended up reading a couple non-genre books, too; they came in unexpectedly at the library.

I started off with If I Were You by Lynn Austin.

(From Lynn’s Website)

1950. In the wake of the war, Audrey Clarkson leaves her manor house in England for a fresh start in America with her young son. As a widowed war bride, Audrey needs the support of her American in-laws, whom she has never met. But she arrives to find that her longtime friend Eve Dawson has been impersonating her for the past four years. Unraveling this deception will force Audrey and Eve’s secrets―and the complicated history of their friendship―to the surface.

1940. Eve and Audrey have been as different as two friends can be since the day they met at Wellingford Hall, where Eve’s mother served as a lady’s maid for Audrey’s mother. As young women, those differences become a polarizing force . . . until a greater threat―Nazi invasion―reunites them. With London facing relentless bombardment, Audrey and Eve join the fight as ambulance drivers, battling constant danger together. An American stationed in England brings dreams of a brighter future for Audrey, and the collapse of the class system gives Eve hope for a future with Audrey’s brother. But in the wake of devastating loss, both women must make life-altering decisions that will set in motion a web of lies and push them both to the breaking point long after the last bomb has fallen.

This sweeping story transports readers to one of the most challenging eras of history to explore the deep, abiding power of faith and friendship to overcome more than we ever thought possible.

I typically enjoy split-time stories like this. Initially, I struggled a bit with the way these two timelines were interwoven; it felt odd. But eventually it started to flow better, and then I got invested. There’s a lot of sadness in this story, but I think it’s really about how we navigate trying times and grief. It was a little slow, but I did enjoy it.

I also read The Wish Book Christmas, which is a novella sequel to If I Were You. I really enjoyed this story about discovering the true meaning of Christmas.

I finally got a chance to finish Roseanna M. White’s Codebreakers series with A Portrait of Loyalty. I talked about the previous two books in my October post about Historical Romance.

(From Roseanna’ website)

Zivon Marin was one of Russia’s top cryptographers, until the October Revolution tore apart his world. Forced to flee after speaking out against Lenin and separated from his brother along the way, he arrives in England driven by a growing anger and determined to offer his services to the Brits.

Lily Blackwell sees the world best through the lens of a camera–and possesses unsurpassed skill when it comes to retouching and recreating photographs. With her father’s connections in propaganda, she’s recruited to the intelligence division, even though her mother would disapprove.

After Captain Blackwell invites Zivon to dinner one evening, a friendship blooms between him and Lily. He sees patterns in what she deems chaos; she sees beauty in a world he thought destroyed. But both have secrets they’re unwilling to share. When her photographs reveal that someone has been following Zivon, his loyalties are called into question–and his enemies are discovered to be far closer than he’d feared. 

I love every Roseanna White book I’ve read, truly. She has such a descriptive way of connecting events and characters that sucks me in and doesn’t let go. This story, at first glance, felt a little more disconnected from the first two. It shouldn’t, because it spins out of Britain’s Room 40 just like the others do. I think it’s because the two main characters don’t have the same connections to White’s other characters. But setting that aside, the story was super interesting and the characters captivating as always. I found the premise fascinating and the resolution deeper than I would have expected. Which is silly, because her books always make me think.

My two library books that came in were Judge and King by R.J. Larson.

(From Christianbook.com)

The last thing Kien Lantec expects on his first day of military leave is to receive marching orders from his Creator, the Infinite. Orders that don't involve destroyer-racing or courting the love of his life, Ela. Adding to Kien's frustration, his Infinite-ordained duties have little to do with his skills as a military judge-in-training. His mission? To warn the people of ToronSea against turning their backs to the Infinite to worship a new goddess. But why Kien? Isn't this the role of a true prophet, such as Ela of Parne?

Continuing where Prophet left off (click here to read my review of that book), Larson takes readers deeper into her Old Testament-inspired setting. You can see a lot of influence from biblical stories in both Judge and its sequel, King, especially stories like those of Jonah and David. I really enjoyed both stories and highly recommend the series!

After this I read another Lynn Austin book (What can I say? I tend to get on kicks of one author at a time), Long Way Home.

(From Lynn’s website)

Peggy Serrano couldn’t wait for her best friend to come home from the war. But the Jimmy Barnett who returns is much different from the Jimmy who left, changed so drastically by his experience as a medic in Europe that he can barely function. When he attempts the unthinkable, his parents check him into the VA hospital. Peggy determines to help the Barnetts unravel what might have happened to send their son over the edge. She starts by contacting Jimmy’s war buddies, trying to identify the mysterious woman in the photo they find in Jimmy’s belongings.

Seven years earlier, sensing the rising tide against her people, Gisela Wolff and her family flee Germany aboard the passenger ship St. Louis, bound for Havana, Cuba. Gisela meets Sam Shapiro on board and the two fall quickly in love. But the ship is denied safe harbor and sent back to Europe. Thus begins Gisela’s perilous journey of exile and survival, made possible only by the kindness and courage of a series of strangers she meets along the way, including one man who will change the course of her life.

With this book, Lynn Austin explores the aftermath of war, the trauma of those who survive it, and the choices made along the way. It’s a very unique book for the time period it’s set in; I don’t know if I’ve ever seen another book that focuses so specifically on post-WWII trauma faced by soldiers. For all that focus, though, the story isn’t told from the soldier’s perspective. Instead, it’s shown through the eyes of those who love him. It’s a fairly slow-paced story, but the characters and their impact are deep. It’s a really beautiful story about struggle, faith, and love.

I finished my reading off over Christmas with Where Treetops Glisten: Three Stories of Heartwarming Courage and Christmas Romance During World War II. This is a novella compilation by Cara Putman, Tricia Goyer, and Sarah Sundin.

It follows the three siblings of the Turner family through three successive Christmases during World War II.

(From Sundin’s website)

White Christmas by Cara C. Putman
A candy maker and a puzzle manufacturer have one thing in common: love is the last thing they’re looking for and the very thing they need.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Sarah Sundin
A fighter pilot running on empty, a lonely widow, and a little girl searching for what she’s lost—will an unusual Christmas gift fill their hearts again?

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Tricia Goyer
As Christmas nears a combat nurse offers care and cheer to injured soldiers on the front line, but when her patients and the Dutch villagers discover it’s her birthday they work together to give her a great gift—a reason to believe in love again.

I really liked the way each story was wrapped around a different Christmas song. They’re novellas, so they’re pretty quickly resolved, but I enjoyed them.

---

So that’s it, then. All my reading for 2022. Going into next year, I’m planning to finish the three books I’m still in the middle of – Lord of the Rings (WHY I haven’t finished this, I do not know), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, and Inkspell. Then I’ll move into another reading plan. I’m planning to do the Pick Your Poison Challenge by Gregory Road. I was originally planning to do the one from 2022, but I’m looking at the one for 2023 right now, and I’ll have to decide which one I like better.

Do you have any reading plans for 2023? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

 

November's Reads: Nonfiction

So, November was supposed to be all nonfiction. Which was great. I had 3 books on my list, and I was excited about all of them. Unfortunately, I kind of sabotaged myself by putting other books on hold at the library right at the end of October. So, that happened…

I started out the month reading The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter. If you have any interest in Tolkien, I highly recommend this collection. Tolkien was a prolific letter writer, and this collection omits a lot for the sake of brevity. It’s still a hefty book, though. I found that it took me a little while to get used to his style of writing and the places and people he mentioned frequently. There are copious notes in the back for each letter, but it was kind of a pain for me to flip back and forth, so I mostly ignored them unless I was really confused or wanted more clarification. It’s not a book that’s I could read a little bit every now and then. I found it much easier to follow when I read it consistently, because I could get into that flow more easily.

That’s true of a lot of nonfiction, though. Because of the distractions that I will get into in a moment, I am only about halfway through this, but I’m enjoying it and find it a fascinating look into Tolkien’s mind. I think I’ll share some of my favorite discoveries and excerpts once I finish it. You can also find a selection of his letters on the website for the Tolkien Estate.

I’m also partway through State Names, Seals, Flags, and Symbols: A Historical Guide by Benjamin F. Shearer. This proves my nerdy tendencies. I had been looking into state symbols and facts for a different project, and it made me curious about the history of different state symbols. Unfortunately, this book for some reason has not held my attention very well. On the surface, it seems to be what I wanted. I think the layout is what’s hampering me the most. For example, when learning about state flags, I’d like the picture of the flag to be right there. Instead, all the illustrations are in the center of the book. A lot of books do this; I’m sure it’s a cost-thing. It just made it hard for me to follow along and visualize, so I’m not enjoying this as much as I had hoped I would.

Now to the books I actually finished this month. None of them were nonfiction. The Katie Weldon books I’ve been waiting on for a long time finally came in at the library, so I got distracted…

I mentioned the first book in this series, Peculiar Treasures, in my Young Adult post from August. This month I finally got a chance to finish the series with On a Whim, Coming Attractions, and Finally and Forever. If you’ve been keeping up with my posts, then you know I’ve kind of rediscovered Robin Jones Gunn this year. I’ve gotten to dive back into some nostalgia with her Christy Miller series but also move into the present with her. And this latest series kind of straddled the line, giving me college Katie moving into independent and in love Katie, and that was really fun.

I’m very excited going into December’s genre, which is Historical Fiction. I’m already into my first book. I may also try to slip in a reread of The Hobbit, just because it feels Christmasy to me for some reason (and, of course, I’m in the midst of a bunch of Tolkien information at the moment), but we’ll see. What have you been reading lately? I’d love to hear about in the comments!

October's Reads: Historical Romance

So, I intended to write and post this last Friday. But I was sick, and things just got a little out of hand. Anyway, in October, the genre I was supposed to be reading was Historical Romance. This is definitely a favorite of mine, and I really enjoyed the books I read last month.

I started the month by reading An Hour Unspent by Roseanna M. White. This is the third book in her Shadows Over England series, which, like all her books, is fantastic. 

(From Roseanna's website)

Once London’s top thief, Barclay Pearce has turned his back on his life of crime and now uses his skills for a nation at war. But not until he rescues a clockmaker’s daughter from a mugging does he begin to wonder what his future might hold.

Evelina Manning has constantly fought for independence, but she certainly never meant for it to inspire her fiancé to end the engagement and enlist in the army. When the intriguing man who saved her returns to the Manning residence to study clockwork repair with her father, she can’t help being interested. But she soon learns that nothing with Barclay Pearce is as simple as it seems.

As 1915 England plunges ever deeper into war, the work of an ingenious clockmaker may give England an unbeatable military edge—and Germany realizes it as well. Evelina’s father soon finds his whole family in danger—and it may just take a reformed thief to steal the time they need to escape it.

I loved this book! I really can never find anything bad to say about Roseanna's books. She creates such rich characters and settings. I thought the theme in this one was particularly striking. 

I also read two of Roseanna's other books. I reread The Number of Love, the first book in her The Codebreakers series. 

(From Roseanna's website)

Three years into the Great War, England’s greatest asset is their intelligence network—field agents risking their lives to gather information, and codebreakers able to crack every German telegram. Margot De Wilde thrives in the environment of the secretive Room 40, where she spends her days deciphering intercepted messages. But when her world is turned upside down by an unexpected loss, for the first time in her life numbers aren’t enough.

Drake Elton returns wounded from the field, followed by an enemy that just won’t give up. He’s smitten quickly by the too-intelligent Margot, but how to convince a girl who lives entirely in her mind that sometimes life’s answers lie in the heart?

Amidst biological warfare, encrypted letters, and a German spy who wants to destroy not just them, but others they love, Margot and Drake will have to work together to save them all from the very secrets that brought them together.

The heroine in this story, Margot, is a very different person than me. She lives in a world of numbers and logic and has little tolerance for the "nonsense" outside that bubble. Yet she never comes across as cold. I love the way she is written; I could still relate to her even though we're totally different people. I liked the message, too. The description speaks to life's answers lying in the heart, but it's not in a wishy-washy Disney way. It's a real, grounded, biblical way, and I thought that was awesome. 

Book 2 in that series, On Wings of Devotion, is one I bought recently and hadn't yet made time to read.

(From Roseanna's website)

All of England thinks Major Phillip Camden a monster–a man who deliberately caused the deaths of his squadron. But he would have preferred to die that day with his men rather than be recruited to the Admiralty’s codebreaking division. The threats he receives daily are no great surprise and, in his opinion, well deserved.

As nurse Arabelle Denler observes the so-dubbed “Black Heart,” she sees something far different: a hurting man desperate for mercy. And when their families and paths twist together unexpectedly, she realizes she has a role to play in his healing–and some of her own to do as well.

This lived up to my hopes! Great characters, an interesting plot, and really fascinating details (in the first book, too) about the inner workings of Room 40, the hub of British intelligence during World War I. I have the third book in this series, A Portrait of Loyalty, on hold at the library, so I'm excited for that one to come in.

The last (and only non-Roseanna White) book I read last month was Chasing Shadows by Lynn Austin.

(From Lynn's website)

A story of three women whose lives are instantly changed when the Nazis invade the neutral Netherlands, forcing each into a complicated dance of choice and consequence.

Lena is a wife and mother who farms alongside her husband in the tranquil countryside. Her faith has always been her compass, but can she remain steadfast when the questions grow increasingly complex and the answers could mean the difference between life and death? 

Lena's daughter Ans has recently moved to the bustling city of Leiden, filled with romantic notions of a new job and young Dutch police officer. But when she is drawn into Resistance work, her idealism collides with the dangerous reality that comes with fighting the enemy.

Miriam is a young Jewish violinist who immigrated for the safety she though Holland would offer. She finds love in her new country, but as her family settles in Leiden, the events that follow will test them in ways she could never have imagined.

The Nazi invasion propels these women onto paths that cross in unexpected, sometimes-heartbreaking ways. Yet the story that unfolds illuminates the surprising endurance of the human spirit and the power of faith and love to carry us through.

After three books set during World War I, it was a nice change of pace to move forward about 25 years. I really liked the characters in this book, and I was very interested in each of their stories; I didn't find myself wishing to get back to a different character than I was reading about in that moment like sometimes happens with multiple viewpoints. Books about war are always tricky, because there's that balance of how much do you show of war's evil. I felt like some of that was slightly missing from this book - the gravitas, perhaps. Which is weird, because it wasn't all rosy. I think she approached the subject seriously and included consequences and danger. And I was clearly compelled, because I finished the book very quickly. I think I subconsciously compare most WWII books to the Zion Covenant series by Bodie and Brock Thoene. I freely admit that those are much too intense for some people, but they do a great job of showing the evil of the Nazi regime without getting too lost in it. So perhaps I was doing some comparisons deep in my brain; I don't know. 

I also spent much of the book comparing the Dutch resistance to Nazi occupation with the Norwegian resistance. Side note: I did a paper on the latter during college, and I remember reading comparisons to the Dutch resistance, which was significantly more overt. Some historians say there was no resistance in Norway. I disagree, but I'm getting off topic. Anyway, I found myself comparing along the way while I read this book. So, I don't know if that rambling made any sense, but I did enjoy this story. 

So those were my reads from October. What have you been reading lately? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

September's Reads: Literary Fiction

 So, September did not quite live up to my hopes in terms of reading. But I blame that on two things: 1) My library books just haven't come in when I expected them to and 2) We're potty training, and that takes up a huge amount of time and focus. September's genre was supposed to be Literary Fiction, which is really just a catch-all term for things that don't fit neatly into other genres. Honestly, I didn't read anything this month that could be considered literary fiction. But I'm okay with that.

Most of what I read this month was from Robin Jones Gunn. I started with a couple of "lost novellas" collected in her book Departures: Two Rediscovered Stories of Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen. 

(From Christianbook.com)

Join Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen in these two rediscovered stories. Both stories, which slightly overlap, take place one summer when both girls take vacation trips. In Now Boarding at Gate 10, Christy and her family are travelling to Wisconsin for her grandparents' 50th anniversary party. Once there in her old hometown, Christy runs into an old school crush, Matthew, and sees what life could have been if she never moved.

In In the Event of a Water Landing, Sierra is taking a trip with her friend Jana's family to Montana. On the way, Sierra and her friends get to deal with cancelled flights, the Mall of America, and Sierra knocking out a security guard! Once they reach Montana, Sierra realizes that Jana is much more ready to blossom than Sierra is. Will Sierra figure out her way?

It was fun to go back in time in a sense reading these. I've been reading a lot of Christy Miller books lately, but those have all been set once she's grown up and married. Both of these stories are firmly set back when the girls were teenagers. Both are quick reads, and I enjoyed them!

I moved back into adult fiction with Gunn's book Canary Island Song. 

(From Christianbook.com)

When Carolyn's grown daughter tells her to "get a life," she decides to make a surprise visit to her mother in the Canary Islands. But it's Carolyn who's caught off balance when she sees Bryan, her high school sweetheart. It's been seven years since her husband died. Is it time for Carolyn to get her heart back?

This one was all romance, obviously. And I really liked it! I don't often read romances about characters in middle age, so it was fun to get into a different perspective. Gunn clearly loves the Canary Islands, off the western coast of Africa, and her descriptions are fun. I would say this book is more descriptive than a lot of her books are, so that's a little different. But I enjoyed the characters, the setting, the plot, and the minor tie-in to the Christy Miller series.

I also read Love Finds You in Sunset Beach, Hawaii. It appears to have been recently re-released as A Kiss at Sunset Beach. 

(From Christianbook.com)

When a wealthy friend offers Sierra Jensen a vacation at an oceanfront beach house on the island of Oahu, Sierra envisions a quiet retreat where she can figure out what to do now that she's at the crossroads in her life. The timing coincides with a wedding that puts her face to face with Paul, her high school crush and introduces her to Jordan, the wedding photographer. Sierra and Jordan connect unexpectedly the next day and feel the damaging effects of a tropical storm that brings in the big waves and launches the annual surfing competition. Sierra begins to wonder why she and Jordan connected the way they did. But Jordan's lens and attention are focused on the surfers and he is not willing to let anyone get in his way of landing the next cover shot for Surf Days magazine. Sierra and Jordan came to Sunset Beach looking for different things. But as the surf pounds the North Shore, will they discover something better than either of them had imagined?

I really enjoyed reading about Sierra Jensen all grown up and trying to figure out her life. The characters are interesting, and the plot is fun. But I think the most impactful part of the story was the message about grace and forgiveness and listening for God's voice.

The last Robin Jones Gunn book I read was Sandy Toes, another Christy Miller book. This is the series I have been waiting on the longest from the library - somehow, I got #1 and #3, but #2 was checked out for the longest time! Anyway, I'm still waiting to finish it because of that, but I really enjoyed this book. (Please note that the Christianbook link in the picture has the wrong description, but it is the right book).

And lastly, I've been working my way through Cornelia Funke's Inkspell. I don't know why this one is taking me so long to finish; it's an interesting book. For some reason I've just really slowed down reading the last couple weeks. I blame potty training! Anyway, I'm working on finishing that, which will be good. Then there's one more book in that series, Inkdeath. 

Next month's genre is Historical Romance, which I am very excited about. I've got a couple new books I haven't made time to read yet that will be perfect for that. What have you been reading lately? I'd love to hear about it in the comments! 

August's Reads: Young Adult

So, August's genre was supposed to be Young Adult. And, though I don't read a lot of that particular genre, I did have several books planned for it. Unfortunately, I don't actually own all those books, and my library was not terribly helpful. Thus, I didn't end up reading all of them. My month became a little random as a result.

I did start the month with a young adult re-read, Prophet by R.J. Larson. It's the first title in her Books of the Infinite Series.

(From Christianbook.com)

Ela Roeh of Parne doesn't understand why her beloved Creator, the Infinite, wants her to become His prophet. She's undignified and bad-tempered, and at age seventeen she's much too young. In addition, no prophet of Parne has ever been a girl. Worst of all, as Parne's elders often warn, if she agrees to become the Infinite's prophet, Ela knows she will die young.

Yet she can't imagine living without Him. Determined to hear the Infinite's voice, Ela accepts the sacred vinewood branch and is sent to bring the Infinite's word to a nation torn apart by war. There she meets a young ambassador determined to bring his own justice for his oppressed people. As they form an unlikely partnership, Ela battles how to balance the leading of her heart with the leading of the Infinite.

It's been a long time since I read this one, but I remembered liking it. And it holds up! Ela Roeh and Kien Lantec, the two main characters of this story, are very compelling characters. Ela in particular draws you in immediately. The world and story are somewhat based on the Old Testament, but the fantasy setting takes on a life of its own that makes it feel unique. I've never gotten ahold of the next two books in the series, Judge and King, but this time I'm determined to. I look forward to finishing this series!

Next, I read Jupiter Storm by C.J. Darlington. This is the second book in her Jupiter Winds series, so, as to avoid spoilers, I'll give you the description for the first book instead. 

(From Barnes and Noble)

Ever since Grey Alexander’s parents disappeared five years ago, she’s had one goal—to keep herself and her younger sister Rin alive. But surviving in the North American Wildlife Preserve isn’t easy, especially for the unconnected who can be shot on sight by border patrol robot drones. Through the guidance of their eccentric old neighbor Mrs. March, Grey and Rin get through by smuggling contraband into the Mazdaar government’s city zones.

But when Grey is captured by the merciless General Evangeline Yurkutz and is forced to become bait for her mother and father, she questions everything she thought she knew about her life in the Preserve, her missing parents, and God. Is it possible Jupiter isn’t uninhabitable? And could this planet, whose sky swirls with orange vapors and where extinct-on-Earth creatures roam free, hold the key to reuniting her family?

I read Jupiter Winds a while ago, and for some reason, when I first tried to read Jupiter Storm, I couldn't get into it. This time around, I didn't have that problem. I found the setting really interesting - both the zones and Wildlife Preserve on Earth and the military settlement on Jupiter. The science fiction elements feel reasonably solid, the characters are interesting, and the plot is fast-paced and logical. This second book does feel a little more rushed. The end of Jupiter Storm also doesn't feel like it wraps everything up, so I don't know if it was meant to be the last book in the series or not. It came out in 2011, and there are no more books. So I don't know what to make of that. 

After that, I deviated back into Robin Jones Gunn books. None of these are technically young adult, but they are continuations of her Christy Miller Series, which is more specifically that genre. 

I bought and read, in succession, three Christy Miller books - Forever with You, Home of Our Hearts, and One More Wish. I really loved these books and highly recommend them. I also read Peculiar Treasures, the first book focusing on Christy's best friend, Katie Weldon. Katie is a very quirky, fun personality, and her story is equally compelling. I'm hoping to read the rest of her series soon. 

I then veered back into young adult by re-reading Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.

(From Cornelia's website)

After a nightly visit by the mysterious Dustfinger, bookbinder Mo and his daughter Meggie leave their home in a hurry, carrying with them a precious but dangerous book.

Meggie loves stories, but her book-binding father, Mo, hasn't read aloud to her since her mother mysteriously disappeared some years ago.

When a stranger who knows her father knocks at their door, Mo is forced to reveal an extraordinary secret – when he reads aloud, words come alive, and dangerous characters step out of the pages.

Suddenly, Meggie is living the kind of adventure she has only read about in books, but this one will change her life for ever.

Though this book is technically considered middle grade, I really have never thought that appropriate, since it's got a bid of mild language in it. Regardless, it's such a richly developed world, filled with compelling characters. I really appreciate the flaws in her characters; they don't always make good choices, but their choices always feel like the one that they would of course make. The plot is so interesting, and you can't help but keep reading. I'm currently partway through the second book of the series, Inkspell. Also, if you've never seen the movie with Brendan Fraser, I recommend it! As most movies do, it leaves out a lot. But I think it's a good rendering of the story, and it's very entertaining!

I finished the month with the final book of Linda Byler's Lancaster Burning Series,
The Witnesses. I've struggled a bit with this series, because, while it's been interesting enough for me to keep reading, the writing sometimes takes me out of the story. This third book was a decent ending to the series. But, while the barn fires that form the "suspense" portion of the "suspenseful romance" were never really the main focus of this series, they are nonetheless resolved really early on in this book and without a lot of fanfare. I don't know. I didn't dislike the book necessarily. It just didn't really excite me. 

July's Reads: Contemporary Fiction

At the end of every month, as I look toward the next month's reading genre (you can find out about the reading challenge I'm doing here), I always scan my physical and Kindle bookshelves to see what I already own that fits that genre. For July, I was supposed to read contemporary fiction. The first thing I hit on was my Karen Kingsbury section of books. From there, I finished a series I started a while ago, read a couple new books, and revisited a beloved series from my teenage years. 

I started July reading Where Yesterday Lives by Karen Kingsbury. 

(From Karen's website)

Ellen Barrett, thirty-one, is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist with an uncertain marriage, a forgotten faith, and haunting memories of her picturesque hometown and the love she left behind. The eldest of five siblings, Ellen longs for the time, long ago, when they were happy—when they were a family. 

Then tragedy strikes. Now Ellen’s beloved father is dead, and she must leave Miami and return to her childhood home on the shores of Little Traverse Bay in Petoskey, Michigan. 

As she returns to a world that was, an avalanche of memories is unleashed. And so Ellen’s quest begins—a quest to make peace with the people who still live there, with the losses and changes that time has wrought, and with the future God has set before her.

I had bought this one a while back but hadn't read it yet. And, to be honest, it wasn't my favorite. I've read a decent number of Karen Kingsbury books, and I generally enjoy them. I didn't not enjoy this - I just didn't have that full feeling when I finished it that comes after reading a really good book. That being said, this isn't a bad book. It's got interesting characters and focuses on the really difficult task of dealing with grief and learning to let go of the past. In the end, I think it has a lot of good things to say; it just wasn't my particular cup of tea this go around.

From that standalone book, I jumped back into Kingsbury's Redemption Series. If you are familiar with her books at all (and she has written an incredible number of them!), this is the original Baxter Family series. I have read the first book, Redemption, but I don't own it. Since I remembered it well enough, I jumped into the one I do own, Remember. 

(From Karen's website)

Convinced she could make it on her own, Ashley Baxter has kept the most important people in her life at a distance--her family, the man who loves her, and the God she is sure can never forgive her.

Now, just as she begins to open her heart, the events of September 11 rip into Ashley's world and she is led to heartbreaking and hope-filled decisions that will forever change her life.

I'll be honest: I cannot read or watch anything about the September 11th terrorist attacks without getting emotional. I'm just incapable of it. Kingsbury has another series of books more specifically about that, and those books absolutely wrecked me.

This book does coalesce around September 11th; it's a huge part of the story, and it is devastating. I forgot that I had read this one before as well, so I was getting little snippets of deja vu constantly. I went on to get the other books in the series from the library, which I had not done the last time around. So, Return, Rejoice, and Reunion were all new to me. Each one of these books, like much of Kingsbury's fiction, deals with tragic, painful circumstances, and they can be really emotionally gripping. Her characters - the now-iconic Baxter family - each deal with struggle and have to come to grips with their faith in different ways. Rejoice was the hardest for me to deal with, but its message is in some ways the most incredible. I always get on Kingsbury kicks when I read her books, so I'm eager to move on to the next Baxter Family series, which I have read the first book of but haven't finished. 

After reading Remember but while waiting on the rest of the books, I re-read Robin Jones Gunn's series Christy and Todd: The College Years. I first started reading her original Christy Miller series when I was 14, just a year or so younger than Christy is in that first book. And I absolutely loved those books when I was in high school. I own The College Years and one of the other collections, so I decided to dive back in. And they are every bit as good as I remember. 

The plot descriptions of these books - Until Tomorrow, As You Wish, and I Promise - are slightly spoilery, since it's not really the beginning of the series. So I'll just say this. The Christy Miller series documents the life of a young woman as she moves to California from the Midwest, meeting God, navigating highschool, and making lifelong friends along the way. Christy is one of the most relatable young adult characters I have ever read, and all of the other characters are really fun, too. And the lessons learned along the way sink deep as you read. I highly recommend these books. I'm also sensing some investment into more books in the future, because the library is kind of spotty on the rest of the books in this series and the related ones about Christy's friends. Which is quite terrible, as I've got to finish them!

I finished the month off by finishing the series I read in February - the Bradford Sisters books by Becky Wade. There are a couple of novellas in this series that I didn't know about, so I'll have to get around to those at some point. But the last main book is Sweet on You. 

(From Becky's website)

Britt Bradford and Zander Ford have been the best of friends since they met thirteen years ago. Unbeknown to Britt, Zander has been in love with her for just as long.

Independent and adventurous Britt channels her talent into creating chocolates at her hometown shop. Zander is a bestselling author who’s spent the past eighteen months traveling the world. He’s achieved a great deal but still lacks the only thing that ever truly mattered to him–Britt’s heart.

When Zander’s uncle dies of mysterious causes, he returns to Merryweather, Washington, to investigate, and Britt is immediately there to help. Although this throws them into close proximity, both understand that an attempt at romance could jeopardize their once-in-a-lifetime friendship. But while Britt is determined to resist any change in their relationship, Zander finds it increasingly difficult to keep his feelings hidden.

As they work together to uncover his uncle’s tangled past, will the truth of what lies between them also, finally, come to light?

Like the previous two books, this one was such fun! It's got a great mystery at its heart and characters that you get attached to quickly. Britt is very different from her sisters in her determination to keep it all together for everyone else's sake, and it has stunted her emotionally. That plays a very important part in this book, and I think it's a valuable arc. I absolutely loved this finale to the series and highly recommend! 

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So, those are my reads from July. Have you read any of these books? What have you been reading lately? I'd love to talk about it in the comments! 

June's Reads: Thriller

 II have definitely read far more books this year than I did last year, and I’m very much enjoying it. Halfway through the year, I’ve read about 23 books, which is a huge improvement on last year. I had really missed reading. So this reading challenge has been a good thing for me. And it’s making me think at least a little bit outside of the box.

June’s genre was thriller, and, I’ll be honest, I don’t really own any thrillers. Since the other purpose of this challenge was for me to read through my bookshelves, that did present a bit of a problem. So I had to think a little beyond the “thriller” concept.

I chose to read a book I’ve owned for quite a while but had never made the time to read, Fire in the Night by Linda Byler. It’s billed as a “suspenseful romance,” which I would say is fitting.

(From publisher website)

The Amish community of Lancaster is being terrorized by barn fires. David and Malinda Beiler's barn was the first to go… Sarah, David and Malinda's daughter, observes her parents' agony. Not only is she afraid, and wishing she could protect her parents, she's entranced by the flirtatious Matthew Stoltzfus. He's dating her friend, Rose, but when he tenderly bandages Sarah's hand after she burned it at the barn raising, she wonders who he's really interested in.

When a second Amish barn burns for suspicious reasons, the Amish grow more restless…Seriously considering police protection, the increasingly tense community questions their traditional nonresistant approach to violence. Sarah now finds herself at odds with her mother over her choice of boyfriends and uncertain about how to respond to the attention of Lee, a newcomer to Lancaster. Not only that, she wonders if her dad is a wise enough leader as her community reels from within and without.

I enjoyed this book, the first in Byler’s Lancaster Burning series, enough to read the second one. And I’m currently trying to get ahold of the third and final book. It’s a pretty slow burn (pardon the pun), with much of the book focused on Sarah’s daily life and her fixation with her neighbor, Matthew. But ever-present under the surface is the mystery of the barn fires and who is setting them.

The writing style takes a little getting used to – Byler uses a lot of Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a German dialect typically used amongst the Amish, and translates in parentheses. It's really jarring, and I’m still not 100% sure that I like it, but it does theoretically help ground you in the setting. Some of her word and sentence choices are a little awkward for me, too – that may be just a writer sensitivity, though. Overall, the story and characters are interesting - even if I do want to scream at Sarah from time to time - and I am invested in seeing how this series finishes up.

I also finished John Grisham’s middle grade Theodore Boone legal thriller series. His Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer is followed by The Abduction, The Accused, The Activist, The Fugitive, and The Scandal. He must have run out of “A” names halfway through or something.

Overall, I enjoyed each book separately. They each follow the setup of the first book – a smart, generally good kid who knows more about the law than anyone else his age and dreams of being a great lawyer gets himself in the middle of trouble that he doesn’t cause but nonetheless helps solve. Each story is interesting on its own, but you definitely feel the targeted age group when you read them all quickly – they’re very repetitive with the details of Theo’s life, and they run together after a while. That being said, the highlight of most of the books is Theo’s stop in Animal Court on behalf of one friend or another, where, thanks to lax rules, he gets to truly act like a lawyer. It’s a fun series; they were all quick reads and something out of the norm for me.

I also read Thief of Corinth by Tessa Afshar, which is not at all a thriller, though it has some suspense elements to it. It’s biblical fiction that I highly enjoyed and definitely recommend.

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So, overall, I’d say I didn’t dive too deep into true thrillers this month. But I did read, and I read things that are little different than I usually do. So I consider that a success. What have you been reading lately? 

April & May's Reads

I'll start with an apology. I had this post written when it was supposed to go up, but then I had some technical issues that I just didn't get around to solving. So, I apologize for missing a month. This post will technically cover two months, April and May. I'll get the latter out of the way quickly. May's genre was History and Biography, which I love, but it does make for some slow reading. So, unfortunately, I didn't actually finish any books this month. I'm about 3/4 of the way through Letters to America: Courageous Voices from the Past by Tom Blair. It's a collection of fictionalized letters from ordinary people throughout America's history. I'm really enjoying it. I'm not honestly sure why it's taking me so long to finish; I'll blame it on the spectacular sunshine we've been having. Anyway, with that out of the way, I'll focus on April's reads, which fell under the Mystery genre. 

So, when April began, I quickly realized that I don’t actually own a lot of mystery books. It’s just not a genre that I typically dip into much. I don’t necessarily dislike mysteries – I just don’t usually read them.

So, I started with what I own (turns out it was really only one book) and went from there.

The mystery novel I own and have actually read before was Rules of Murder by Julianna Deering. This is the first book in her Drew Farthering series.

(From Julianna’s website)

From his black Homburg hat to the crease in his stylish cheviot trousers, Drew Farthering is the epitome of the well-bred English gentleman of 1932, but things at Farthering Place are not quite so ideal.

There’s been a murder at the old manor house. With the help of the alluring Madeline Parker, Drew sets out to solve the crime and save the family fortune. Before long, he realizes no one at Farthering Place is who he appears to be – not the blackmailer, not the adulterer, not the embezzler and not even Drew himself.

As I said, I’ve read this one before, and I enjoyed reading it again. I then proceeded to read the rest of the series, getting what I could at the library and buying what I couldn’t: Death by the Book, Murder at the Mikado, Dressed for Death, and Murder on the Moor. There’s one more book in the series, Death at Thorburn Hall, but I didn’t get to that before the end of the month.

So, since I read almost the entire series, I’ll give my general impressions without specific spoilers. All the books have engaging characters and interesting mysteries. The first book introduces the main characters very well, although I found the romance a little bit rushed. That being said, I really like Drew and Madeline, and his interactions with his best friend Nick are hilarious and extremely entertaining. I like the way Deering utilizes faith in the books – it’s never preachy, and it feels more organic as the series goes on. All mysteries, in my opinion, have an element of sadness to them, because they center on people’s mistakes and sins. Book #4 in this series, Dressed for Death, is the saddest of the bunch. The others strike a good balance. I enjoyed #3, Murder at the Mikado, and #5, Murder on the Moor, the most.

After starting that series and while waiting for the rest of the books to come in at the library, I re-read a book my sister owns – Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham.

I don’t read many Grisham novels – outside of this one, I’m not sure if I ever have. As the name suggests, it’s kind of middle grade or young adult fiction, but it held my attention just fine (and I really don’t like most young adult books). I picked it up remembering it as a mystery, but it’s really more of a legal thriller.

(From the author’s website)

In the small city of Strattenburg, there are many lawyers, and though he’s only thirteen years old, Theo Boone thinks he’s one of them. Theo knows every judge, policeman, court clerk—and a lot about the law. He dreams of being a great trial lawyer, of a life in the courtroom. But Theo finds himself in court much sooner than expected. Because he knows so much—maybe too much—he is suddenly dragged into the middle of a sensational murder trial. A cold-blooded killer is about to go free, and only Theo knows the truth. The stakes are high, but Theo won’t stop until justice is served.

The book has a bit of a slow build, and it ends in a cliffhanger. But Theo is a particularly likeable main character, and he’s surrounded by an eclectic bunch of people, including his parents, both lawyers; his uncle, a disgraced lawyer; an important judge; and a host of school friends who come to Theo for legal advice. There are six more books in the series, so I’ll need to fit those in around the rest of my reading.

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June's genre is Thriller, another one I don't read much. I will probably end up trying to finish the Theodore Boone books. So, what have you been reading? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

March’s Reads: Fantasy

Ah, fantasy. So much harder to get through than romances, no matter how interesting you may be. (If you haven’t seen my post from my February readings, click here.)

As I noted last month, I started Lord of the Rings. I haven’t finished it yet, and I’ve got quite a ways to go still. It’s just not a book you can rush. But it is, in my opinion, worth all the time it takes to read. If you’ve never actually read the book, I highly recommend it. It’s a classic for a reason.

As for what I actually started and finished in March, there are three books:

Songkeeper by Gillian Bronte Adams is the second book in her Songkeeper Chronicles series.

(From Gillian’s website)

WAR RAVAGES LEIRA AND THE SONG HAS FALLEN SILENT.

Freed from the hold of a slave ship, Birdie, the young Songkeeper, and Ky, a street-wise thief, emerge to a world at war. Hordes of dark soldiers march across Leira, shadowed by whispers of plague and massacres, prompting Ky to return to his besieged home city in hopes of leading his fellow runners to safety.

Desperate to end the fighting, Birdie embarks on a dangerous mission into the heart of the Takhran’s fortress. Legend speaks of a mythical spring buried within and the Songkeeper who will one day unleash it to achieve victory. Everyone believes Birdie is the one, but the elusive nature of the Song and rumors of other gifted individuals lead her to doubt her role. Unleashing the spring could defeat the Takhran once and for all, but can she truly be the Songkeeper when the Song no longer answers her call?

I definitely should have reread the first book, Orphan’s Song, before I got into this one. I remembered enough that I thought I’d be fine, but there were some details that I couldn’t quite place that would have helped. Despite that, though, I really enjoyed this book and the third one, Song of Leira. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t describe that one. But it’s a great series, full of interesting characters and deep conflicts. Highly recommend these books.

After finishing those two, I moved on to a book I own but wasn’t particularly familiar with, Fatemarked by David Estes.

(Adapted from the back cover)

Four Kingdoms. A century-old war. One prophecy that could change everything.

They’re called different things – tatooya, sinmarks, fatemarks. But for each of the few people born with these runes upon their skin, they are set apart. Some are worshipped, some hunted. All have powers, though some do not fully understand them. But as kings begin to die and an ancient prophecy looks to be coming true, four kingdoms constantly at war may be reborn in blood, and the fatemarked will have a role to play.

Overall, I did quite enjoy this book. The world Estes built is really interesting, the “magic” system he’s created with his fatemarks is intriguing, and he balances a diverse cast of characters who are all interesting to follow. However, there is some content that makes me a bit hesitant to continue with the series.

It’s got some really dark undertones that I can only imagine would get stronger throughout the series. And there is a brief homosexual moment that I'm concerned will be expanded upon in subsequent books. If my library had the series, I would probably get the next one to see if I enjoy the rest. But since it doesn’t, I don’t think I’m comfortable enough to buy any of the other books. So I will probably just have to be miserable without reading the rest.

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So, I ended up reading three books in March, and I’m still working through Lord of the Rings. April’s genre is Mystery, which is not something I read much of. So I’ll have to comb through my bookshelves and see what I’ve got.

What did you read in March? Let me know in the comments!