Freeheads, book 3 in the Dark Trench Saga, by Kerry Nietz, the cool conclusion to the wonderful story started in A Star Curiously Singing.

Hmm.  What to say?  Kerry Nietz created a terrifying world of future slavery on earth, that unfortunately seems plausible by man's current bent toward comfort. The plot is not simply summed, but I'll give some highlights to tweak your interest.  In book 2, Sandfly and Hardcandy, two escaped debuggers, have traveled to the Star that sang in book 1, met the Superlative Stream, and as book 3 begins are re-approaching earth. They plan to share the good news of the truth of A-A cubed with all peoples. But the evil Jinn of book 2 have sabotaged their space ship, Dark Trench, and they arrive back nearly forty years later, rather than the two weeks they have been gone. And the earth is much changed. There is a side trip to the moon, and the plot continues to build from there.

I love the spiritual depth in these books.  I love how so much of the details of story must be delved for.  What you as the reader bring to the table is definitely a plus in this series. Not bringing a lot of science fiction knowledge with me, I was never sure what was creative Nietz and what he was building on from other scifi worlds, but the tech was even interesting to this non-tech thinker. Of course the romance writer in me enjoyed watching Sandfly and Hardcandy's relationship develop, the unexpected, and never named, jealousy, and the unity of their working together.

The new kid, Flit, was interesting and an added dimension. Even GrimJack has so many layers, the reader is kept in wonder of all his motives.

And the bad guys.  A story needs an evil bad guy to see the grace and power of God come shining through, and Kerry doesn't let us down in this aspect either. I dare not offer more details, but I can't imagine why you wouldn't love the ending.

The spiritual themes summed up so succinctly:  He stoops. Touch the stream. Be a one.

Be a one, not a zero. That's for the computer geeks. Be turned on so that the energy flows through you. Who am I kidding?  That's for all of us. Who, on some level, wouldn't understand be a one, not a zero? Say "yes" to Christ. That is actually one of my favorite spiritual themes.  Say "yes" to Christ.  Be turned on for Christ. Don't fight His plan for you because God has the best life for you all planned out. Join Him in the journey. Allow the Holy Spirit to set the pace and the heading. And above all remember that we have a God who loves us to death … and beyond. He stoops for us.

The Dark Trench Saga from Marcher Lord Press by Kerry Nietz. I recommend them all. Especially if you like speculative fiction packed full of Truth.

Addison Blakely: Confessions of a PK is a slice of the life of a teenager's junior year in high school. First, Addison is a good girl, yes a preacher's kid, and the only daughter of said widowed pastor.  It's not one of those situations where she has to be the parent to her bumbling father, so much as she has raised herself emotionally, while her father has shepherded his flock and protected her physically.

Addison's overwhelming concern is a boy she's adamantly refusing to be concerned about.  Bad boy, older than her, high school drop out, no ambition, Wes.  (Does anyone else think Dread Pirate Roberts when that name comes up?) Wes works hard for his stereotype — motorcycle, leather jacket, skanky (Addison's word) girlfriend, and no job.  No interest in getting a job. And though Addison has lived her entire life knowing what she should and shouldn't do, she can't seem to shake this guy's hold on her even when she knows she should.

Toss in a few great secondary characters — messed up best friend turned enemy, Claire, and new best friend, foreign exchange student, Marta, and we have the girlfriends in a pickle.  Toss in two more love interests for Addison — football jock and bonehead, Austin, and nice, but no spark, Luke, and the plot thinkens. Then, if Addison needs some more trouble, lets add her dad finding his old high school sweetheart in Addison's very own English teacher.

All great.  Adds up to a fun young adult novel.  Even has plently of God moments woven into the plot and characters in real, coming of age ways.  So what's my issue? The conversion scene.  This is "Seek Truth. Read fiction" blog reviews.  I can't speak for Betsy St. Amant's conversion experience. I can only speak from what the Word says about becoming a new creation in Christ, but Scripture shows it's more involved than, "Okay, God. Let's try this again. For real this time. PK status not withstanding — I'm Yours."

Which I think is an awesome prayer.  Which I think would have marvelous ramifications in the spiritual realms.  Which I can completely believe our loving Father would respond to. It shows Addison yielding. But where's the repentance? Where's the baptism? Where's the Holy Spirit?  In fact, I just thought it was a Christian moment of recommitment … until later in the book.

That's my only gripe, and I am well aware that this won't be a gripe for the majority of readers. So having shared my two cents, I now thoroughly recommend Confessions of a PK for young adults and all adults who want another look into the psyche of our teenagers.

From the Gates of Heaven series comes The Land of Darkness, a fairy tale.

I didn't realize until this moment as I was looking at the credits in the beginning of the book that this was Book 3 in the Gates of Heaven series. Now I'm wondering what all I missed because I didn't really feel as though I were missing anything when I read the story.

The Land of Darkness's cover said it was a fairy tale and the story read like a fairy tale right down to some gruesome deaths (the toad, Azar, etc.) and the moving from one episode to the next. The journey seemed a bit slow at times as they gathered clues, but the spiritual theme was fun and worth the wait.

Jadiel was a jewel of a character, loveable, empathetic, a joy. Callen managed to grow as the story progressed, but he fought it every step of the way. (I've written characters like that so I'm not complaining, just commenting.) Lakin created an interesting story world, and I now see I need to head back and find out what happens in Book 1 & 2.

No Safe Haven is another Christian suspense. Written by a mother/daughter team who have lived the medical condition they wrote about, the story was easy to believe and I embraced the new information that came to me about Kayla's nerve disorder in an enticing, fictional read.

The set up of this book is interesting.  Kimberley writes the mother/heroine's point of voice in third person.  Kayla writes the daughter/heroine's point of view in first person. Both views are engaging and keep the story moving forward.

No Safe Haven starts with a murder, moves into a airplane crash in the Alaskan mountains, is followed by an attack to kill the survivors, and the attacks continue until the end of the novel.

The descriptions pulled me into the story. The likable characters kept me there. I believed everything — the crash, the avalanche, the snow tunnels, the disease, the AMI program, the character emotions — everything — right up until Jenna accepted the word of a new secret service agent when her body guards weren't present. The ending suspended my disbelief. That didn't make it any less tense in the reading, just less enjoyable in the reflection.

Still recommend this novel for all its positive points and because it is an exciting, intense story.

The Baker's Wife by Erin Healy is contemporary Christian suspense. And yes, it is suspenseful. Even when I figured out what was going on, it didn't detract from the suspense of wondering how it was all going to conclude.

This was an intense story. Great, mature characters and empathetic, immature characters.  And some serious spiritual depth.  I loved the theme of suffering and understanding God's grace. I think every North American church-goer would benefit from reading this book and realizing that we can respond to horrible life injustices — without running, without hitting out in anger — but actually in Christ's strength with love, trusting God's word that the righteous will prevail.

I loved the great images of fog and bread (le pain) that played out in so many ways throughout the novel.

I don't want to go into too much of the plot, but the gist is that Audrey's husband is falsely accused and unjustly forced from his pastorial position. They open a bakery. One morning Audrey's car strikes something — or someone — at a fog-shrouded intersection in front of the bakery. Add in a newly released ex-con (who grew up in the apartment above the bakery), the scooter Audrey has hit and the blood surrounding it belong to the wife of Audrey's husband's biggest dissenter, and that Audrey has the supernatural ability to feel other people's pain, and Moseley has plenty of ingredients for a suspenseful tale. She doesn't disappoint.

Oh, it has pretty writing, too.

When Sparrows Fall by Meg Moseley is contemporary Christian fiction.  And that means it's a bit hard to categorize.  Some romantic elements.  Some suspense elements. Some just tug at your heart elements.

The gist of the plot is that widow and mother of six, Miranda Hanford has been installed in a toxic church since her marriage right out of college. It's been so long since she's known freedom that when it comes within reach, she's afraid to grab it and afraid to lose it. The book opens with her taking a nasty fall of the edge of a cliff near her home. Her brother-in-law is called in as legal guardian to care for her children.

Jack Hanford has wanted family all his life and has never really gotten over the rejection his brother had given him when he'd finally found him some ten years before. Now he has a chance to make a difference.

All the children in this novel are a delight and well-defined. I loved the phrase that Jack took on for the middle boys, Michael and Gabriel — the archangels, and how even Miranda picked it up as the story progressed.

Toxic churches are intriguing to me, and Meg Moseley did a great job of showing how a family could get caught up in one and how difficult it was to get out of one.  Even the leader of the church was portrayed as making one bad decision after another that led him to the place where he believed himself god-like.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the hurts, the scares, the striving to change, but not change too much. The struggles of the main characters to understand and forgive, but not yield to fear and evil any longer.  Excellent story.

Freezing Point by Elizabeth Goddard, a Love Inspired Suspense romance, was an enjoyable read.  It's about a reporter on the run for her life because of a human interest story that uncovered some criminal elements and an undercover Homeland security agent posing as an ice sculptor.  (Yes, I typed ice sculpture first by mistake and realize that would be an entirely different book.)  But the new-to-me vocation of ice sculpting made the book even more interesting.

Goddard provides characters with depth and conflict and some good suspense throughout the plot of discovering the bad guys and keeping the main characters alive.  I found the main character's thoughts of their inner conflicts a tad repetitious because I'm not a reader to forget what is going on in the story while I'm reading it. But overall, great Love Inspired Suspense.

Always like a book with symbolism, tying together the title, hero's profession, a near-death experience in the freezer, and the heroine's internal conflicts — Freezing Point.

Short-Straw Bride, historical romance, Texas, 1882, by Karen Witemeyer, my online critique partner and friend.

Of course, I like this book. If I hadn't liked it, Karen would have heard about it long before now.  What surprised me about how engaging it is is this:  some weeks ago (that's how behind in doing book reviews I am), I picked it up just as a refresher. We were discussing it on ACFW book club and I wanted to remind myself of the details from when I'd read it a year ago — chapter by chapter, week by week.

I was going to skim. Instead, I reread every word. In a day. Doing nothing else on my to-do list. Karen's writing is smooth and engaging. Her characters are broken but still mature, easy to like and relate to, easy to root for, and not so easy to put down.

Yes, this is straight-forward boy meets girl, boy gets stuck in an awkward situation and chooses to be honorable, marriage of convenience, or rather not so convenient marriage that teaches both characters a few things about love. Meri learns about yielding her wants to God and trusting Him to care for her.  Travis learns about surrendering and trusting God to protect his loved ones.  And in true fashion, God comes through and both are blessed beyond their expectations.

Interesting trivia:  Short-Straw Bride is the first proposed title of Karen's that Bethany House has accepted as the actual book title. The title is quite visual for the cover with Travis holding four straws, one for himself and each of his brothers, with Meri peeking over his shoulder. One of the most touching scenes in the book is near the end when Travis explains those straws to Meri.

Also a great part of this story is seeing the juxtaposition between a disfunctional family that loves and a disfunctional family that doesn't.  Again scripture is proved true:  Love covers over a multitude of sins.

I highly recommend all Karen Whitemeyer books.