I had some problems enjoying this book, but it's a fairly funny circumstance so I think I'll share.

I'm very particular about my romance, so when a book starts off slow (slow as in the hero and the heroine aren't together), I'm aware.  I forgave in this case because I realized the author was tying this book to her last one in Last Chance, California, and previous readers would enjoy revisiting old characters.  I wasn't a previous reader, but I went along.

Then on page 41, we get the hero/heroine meet. Under duress Nevada King participates in a stage robbery where Christy Grey has been shot. Christy demands help from the robbers (Nevada) and even goes so far as to demand privacy for him to help her (away from the other stage coach passengers.)  This seems so bizarrely out of character to me that this one scene colors the rest of my reading.  Now I'm tuned to be critical.

But after I finish the book (Guy gets the girl, if you aren't a romance pro and don't realize that), I'm reading the author notes and I discover Miralee had found some history where this scene had occurred in real life.  Kind of funny, huh?

That knowledge was too late to save the book for me, but it does temper my written response.  If you like Christian historical romance and now that you've been warned to forgive the opening, there's no reason to assume you won't like Love Finds You in Tombstone, AZ — where the author included lots of true-to-life places and people.

Book 2 in the Blood of Kings.

The adventure continues for Achan and Vrell as they travel through Darkness, meet enemies, friends, and traitors, and begin to put together an army to push back the darkness.

I don't want to talk about the plot of this book much until you've all had a chance to read By Darkness Hid.

All I'm going to say is that I finished the story last night and I ordered book 3 this morning.  I should have known it was a trilogy.  I don't know why I thought the story would be told in two books, except maybe because they are huge.

Do yourself a favor and order Jill's entire story as a bundle from Marcher Lord Press. Then tell me what you think.  I'll be done with book 3 by then.

Christian fantasy.  This is becoming my favorite genre.  When it is well done — and this one is — the God truths flow out of the story, somewhat like the Word Himself, sharper than a two-edged sword.

By Darkness Hid is book 1of Blood of Kings. The adventure begins for sixteen year old Achan Cham (Trouble for a first name, fire-breathing bear for a last name) when an old knight decides to take him on as his squire.  Achan is also a stray in a civilization that is no longer kind to orphans, because a stray had killed the land's king and queen some twelve years earlier.  And darkness spread over half the land.

Our second hero is a young lady in disguise as a boy (I love this kind of book!) because the prince of the land seeks to wed her (for her inheritance, of course) and she doesn't want him.

Then, there's the bloodvoicing.  A spiritual gift inherited through the first king's descendants, now many in the kingdom possess the ability to mind-talk and various other mind games.

Er'Rets is a great medieval world.  Achan and Vrell are marvelous characters.  The secondary characters in the book are individual and fun.  The plot keeps moving forward with plenty of twists.  There was nothing about this book I didn't love.  So on finishing it, I grabbed up book 2 because this is a continuation story, like Lord of the Rings, not a stand alone book in a continuous series.

Needless to say at this point, I recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, Christ, fiction, good story, thinking about a book after you've read it, and being challenged about how you view the world.

Perhaps you've heard that the world is coming to an end on December 21, 2012. That's the basis for this novel, The Mayan Apocalypse, which explores why an oil company's CEO believes that there will be an apocalypse and what he is willing to sacrifice to be prepared.

The story has some romance between our hero, Andrew Morgan and Lisa Campbell, a Christian journalist.  First slowed down by Andrew's grief over the loss of his beloved wife and son less than a year earlier.  Then, caught at a impasse over the couple's differing religious beliefs for the latter part of the book, love does conquer.

The Mayan Apocalypse spans three years from the past to the future, taking us further in the story than I'd guessed the authors would.

Though I hate to admit it as a fiction pro, one of my favorite chapters was the information dump on the Mayan calendars, history, etc. when Lisa was forced to bring the new reporter at the paper up to speed.  Kudos to the authors for thinking of those of us who don't know anything on the topic, but didn't want to stop in the middle of a good read for an Internet search.

Tagged as "a fantastic journey of discovery for all ages," Dragons of the Valley was a quick, fun read. Though I found nothing on the packaging to tell me this was a second in a series, it soon became obvious as I started into the novel that this story follows The Vanishing Sculptor.  No worries — this book contained all the necessary facts for me to get into the new story world and enjoy the story.

Fantasy.  Donita keeps us in the same world that she created for the DragonKeeper Chronicles, but takes us to a new land, a new nation, a different and quirky ruling family, but the same beloved plot of good vs. evil.  And evil just wants to take over because it can … unless good holds its ground and fights back.

Donita always includes some Wulder (God) teaching moments in her stories.  Here a artist turned swordsman and a too-serious for her age princess find God truths in the beauty of the world around them.

Oh, I should mention the Grawl.  Bad guy?  Without doubt.  But irredeemable? You should read to find out.

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.

Yes, I confess I find it humorous to read a murder mystery written by a fictional character.  Like the competition in this business isn't difficult enough, now we authors are vying for shelf space against made up authors.  But kudos to whoever had the nerve to make it happen.

Plot-wise Naked Heat reads like an episode of ABC's Castle — of which I'm a fan.  God-wise Naked Heat lacks the spiritual depth in characters that I've come to enjoy in Christian fiction.  And to find at the end of the story that the villain's motivation was simply about money was a bit of let down after the twisted villains often found in Christian fiction — but not out of character for this story of fast-lane politicians, sports figures, and singers.

This is my second foray into the lives of Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook.  I've spent a few years with Kate Becket and Richard Castle, so it doesn't surprise me that I like the latter pair of characters more than the former.  But that Nikki Heat is a resourceful girl and she has impressive moments of ingenuity and strength in Naked Heat.

I also liked the one defining setting gimmick — a trash strike in New York City.