I'm not one to read a series out of order, but Red Ink was our April ACFW book club book, the third in the Extreme Devotion series.  I wasn't able to find time to read the first two first.  So I jumped into Red Ink not sure what had gone before.

Thankfully, the Extreme Devotions series is not continuing characters or plot, rather continuing theme … followers of Christ persecuted for their faith.

Red Ink is about a young woman in China imprisoned for preaching the Gospel and handing out stories of Christ to children.  It's Zhen-Li's story, and so much more.  We meet her husband, sister-in-law, small child, and mother — all suffering in different ways by her imprisonment.  We meet her cell mate and betrayer.  We meet the guard whose greatest desire in life is to break her.

And on the other side of the world, in the USA, we meet two elderly prayer warriors, Julia and Laura, the people they live with in the retirement home, and a teenager, Maggie, who has fallen in with the wrong crowd — a selfish man who not only doesn't have her best interests at heart, he is all about using her for his gain.

Kathi Macias ties them all together through one merciful God who is worthy to be served by all.

I found Alpha Redemption a curious mix of Science Fiction, backward Coming of Age story, and Women's Fiction, though the main character is a man written by a man.

The Science Fiction part is that the book takes place on a space ship as Brett travels to the Alpha Centuri star by way of near light speed for two months, then regular speed for a month as Brett's body rebuilds strength for the next jaunt.  The speculative part is that somehow Brett's body is lessening in age every leg of the journey.  Oh, and his only companion is a computer that he names Jay who has the ability to learn … and teach.

The Coming of Age part is that the plot of Alpha Redemption is all about Brett learning who he can be in Christ as he revisited each stage of his life, backward, coming to realize all the misteps he took away from God his first time through life.

The Women's Fiction is my own take because the majority of the plot is internal tension and growth.

The only drawback I found in this book was the short amount of story time that was spent near the Alpha Centuri star they had given so much time and effort to reach.

This isn't your average Christian redemption story so come prepared to allow your horizons to be widened.  The ending comes quickly and took my breath away with the powerful picture it left in my mind.

Great cover.  (See my home page, this site.)

Karen is one of my online critique buddies, so I feel invested in her writing … which doesn't matter because all of my reviews here are purely subjective to how the book hits me at the time I read it.

Head in the Clouds is a straightforward, fun historical romance set in Texas in 1883.  But the hero is an English gent turned Texas sheep farmer.  The heroine is a romantic who feels foolish when she finds herself without her teaching position or prospective husband.  But she's also practical and full of faith in God's williness to travel with her.

Adelaide lands the position of governess to Gideon's mute daughter.

The problems build when her evil uncle arrives from England, intent on serving himself at the expense of the makeshift family Adelaide is holding together with sunshine and prayers.

The thing I always love about Karen's characters is their Christian maturity.  It's not tacked on.  It doesn't just show up at the end of the story.  It flows out of Karen as she creates them.

Always a good read.

So this past Wednesday when I was working on printing copies for the folders we hand out each year at One Day Writers Conference, I was marking prices on the books for sale by our keynote speaker, Kathi Macias, also.  To add to this story, I am also in the process of reading Red Ink by this same author for our ACFW book club this month.

But as I was marking prices, I cracked open My Son, John to see how this book that I'd heard so much about a few years ago began.  It began in such a way that I carried it back into my office as I continued making copies.  I carried it out to the kitchen when I decided to eat.  In fact, I carried it into my bedroom that night where I finished reading it.

Emotional. Written mostly in the mom's, Liz Peterson's, pov, this book is about a family's pain and growth during an unexpected and horrifying crisis:  Liz's mom is murdered and Liz's son, John, is arrested for the crime.

The tag line on the cover reads, "Can God bring healing to a family torn apart by a brutal crime?"  And the answer, of course, is a resounding, "Yes!"  But the journey … oh, the journey is what you'll want to read.