Translucent Facts isn't fiction. It could be fiction, but it isn't. I had the wonderful opportunity to meet the man this book is about. So this book gets a review on my "Seek Truth. Read fiction" blog for the "Seek Truth" part of my tagline. This book is a memoir and a memorial.  It expresses truth about the power of our God and the love of a man who lives in Christ's Spirit. It encourages the reader not to give up on the ideal of true love no matter your age while it breaks down the sentimentality of romance being all about roses instead of cutting boards.

Oh, and it's funny. Funny.  I mean smile on your face while you are reading, occasionally snort out loud funny.  That is, of course, if you like dry wit, clever turns of phrase, understated humor, and an author who isn't afraid to make fun of her own foibles and idiosyncrasies.

But, this story will catch your other emotions as well. I know not everyone is a waterworks like me, but you might want to find some tissues as you progress through the story.

Now, here's a cool thing you might want to know. Barbara Sutryn never uses a single name in the entire book, and I promise you, you will never be confused about who she is talking about. If you're an author, that might be enough to entice you to buy the book for study of craft as well as enjoyment.

Oh, did I forget to tell you what the book is about? The author in the 80th year of her life meets a man of equal age who so impacts her existence that their story needs to be told.

Told, not just for her or him. Not just for family to remember. Not just for people who know them. It needs to be told for seniors who no longer believe they have importance in this world. It needs to be told for the twenty-somethings who no longer believe love has value. It needs to be told for the rest of us somewhere in between who need reminded that God writes the best story for each of us, one day at a time.

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Here's my last bit of motivation on why you should read Translucent Facts. As many of you know, I hang out in the world of writers so I often know the people who write the books I review.  I write books, so if you know me well, you have probably been on the receiving end of "Look! Here's my latest book."  Well, this is the first time I get to pitch a book that I'm in.  On the page — interacting with the characters.  Of course, remember there are no names in this book, so here's my challenge.  If after reading this blog, you buy Translucent Facts, and post a comment here telling me the page number of the scene you believe to be about me, (we'll verify in some fashion) and then I'll send you a gift, probably one of my books. We'll see.

I just finished Abigail, book 2 in the Wives of King David series, by Jill Eileen Smith. I cried.  At least three times … in the portion I read today. It's biblical fiction so it isn't that I didn't know the story, or parts of it. I always liked the biblical Abigail — wise, beautiful, godly.  What's not to like?

That she married David when he already had a wife or two.

But, hey, a different time period, right? Women had less options, less hope, placed more of their worth on having children. Jill Eileen Smith brought all that out, but no matter how an author tries, it's impossible to convince me that sharing a husband is romantic.  Impossible for Abigail, too.  I imagine for Jill as well.  So just as with Michal, Book 1 in the series, the underlying message is that women need to find their hope and contentment in God, not a man, not even a king.

One of the scenes I found interesting in this presentation of Abigail's story was the "guess" of why Abigail's son Daniel was never in the running for the Kingdom. Amnon mentioned.  Absolom has his fifteen verses of fame in the Bible.  But no Daniel beyond the mention of him being born while David was King at Hebron.  I always guessed he died in childhood. Jill presented a different, equally acceptable reason why he wasn't considered David's heir to the throne.

Jill Smith writes an engaging story.  Lots of description to pull you into the time period. Obviously characters that appeal and the angst of life to draw my tears. Clean writing. Not a lot of dialogue, but the story still moved forward, covering many years. Beautiful cover. And a memorable story to show the truth of our unfailing, ever-faithful God.

Mind over Madi by Lynda Lee Schab is categorized as Women's Fiction from OakTara Publishers.  Six to ten years ago it would have been called Mom Lit because it is written in first person point of view of a thirty something mom with a unique voice in the middle of issues.  Of course, Women's Fiction is also about women with issues.  Because, what's fiction after all without some conflict?

Madi's conflict comes in the overexposed form of Fawn Witchburn, a single mom with no seemingly ingrained modesty. Fawn's daughter is in Madi's husband's class, but the interest doesn't seem to stop there.  Lipstick in Fawn's shade turns up on Rich's collar.  Which doesn't have to be an issue, except…

…Madi has bigger conflicts than a cheating husband.  She has trust issues with God, with man, with parents, with friends, and even her children.  She has eating issues.  She has communication issues.  She has phobias. She has a critical spirit.

But I liked her. I had empathy and compassion for her situation, for her brokenness, for her need for God to be in charge of her life, but how she kept running and running and running.  I understood that she believed a lie "All men cheat" fed to her from her own mother from the time Madi was a young child. And I like a book that explores finding freedom in Christ by understanding who we are in Christ.

I wouldn't have minded a deeper exploration. Madi's counselor could have put some more truth to her statement "You are a princess," by explaining what that means in Christ. Of course, Madi's hunt for which princess she most resembled — Sleeping Beauty, Airel, or Fiona — was cute. And the scene where Madi quits running and finds God present displays truth of God's mercy and pursuit of us.

Neat twist on Fawn Witchburn.

Good writing.  Cute internal dialogue.  Lots of fun, zinger lines.  And a spiritual truth worth exploring:  what happens in our minds plays out in our actions and speech. What we think determines how we behave.  Definitely Mind Over Madi.

Ainsley Davis had it all, a job she loved with Park Ranger service at the Grand Canyon, a husband she adored, and a baby on the way. Then her husband is killed and she moves into her parents' basement to cope.

Love Is Grand takes place two years later, as Ainsley heals and begins to desire to be herself, or at least her new self, once again. She moves back to the Grand Canyon and her job with the national park. An overprotective mom to her young daughter, Ainsley finds she isn't as fearless as she was before her husband died, before her child was born. Which wouldn't necessarily be an unusually thing, except she finds that she has illogical fears such as terror of the canyon rim and crazy thoughts about all of her loved ones falling into it.

Ainsley's eighteen-year-old niece spends the summer to watch the baby and make some money before college in the fall. Her parents insisted on it to get her away from a bad relationship at home.  But the bad boy doesn't stay away.

Toss into the mix two different men who find Ainsley attractive — one who wants to protect her from her fears, and one who wants her to face them in the strength of her faith. But her faith needs rebuilt on the goodness she knows about God in spite of the circumstances of her life.

More emotional though just as cute as the first two novels in the series, Love Is Grand does a good job of making me believe that love can be as sweet the second time around.

Love is Monumental, contemporary Christian romance, is book 2 in the A Walk in the Park series from Barbour Books.  This time I'm not reading out of order.  I read book 1, Love is a Battlefield, a few years ago and just recently bought the rest of the series.

As the series name hints, these romance are centered at our national parks, and Love is Monumental is set in Washington, D.C. with all the wonderful sites there.  Park ranger Vickie Harris' favorite site to work at is the Washington Monument.  Vickie's friends have dubbed her the queen of first dates, because Vickie always finds something in her men to dissuade her from having a second date. The girl isn't picky, just selective.

As the book begins, she feels that she fallen into a rut. Facing her thirtieth birthday, she is ready to try something different to get some serious romance in her life.  Then she meets clueless bachelor Professor Thatcher Torrey. This can't be love, can it? The man needs a research assistant, and Vickie has the time to help, but often it seems that is all he wants — her help.

Thatcher has his own issues of which he is quite aware, but mostly he just doesn't know what to do to please Vickie.

Love Is Monumental is a cute read. No stress. No emotional angst — though I do believe I teared up in a mom/daughter scene. Vickie does learn how to realign her priorities and expectations. Thatcher learns how to step up and be proactive. The joint theme of learning not to run from problems is a good lesson for all of us.

If you like straight, contemporary Christian romance, I think you will enjoy this series. I didn't see anything not to like.

Everglades is a contemporary romance from Desert Breeze.  A smooth, easy read. Petie offers great details of the everglades, and I would be surprised to learn that she hasn't spent some serious time in them herself.

It was nice to revisit 1980s romance characters where the heroine immediately dislikes the hero for one scowling glance.  Plus, Everglades was a love-at-first sight romance, with the majority of the book covering two days in lives of Skye and Kayli. Their developing relationship is a slowburn lust rather than passionate kisses and too quick sex — so that's cool too.

This novel wouldn't be pegged as Christian fiction, but it had the worldview of God as Creator, some moments of panic prayers, and an Indian guardian angel element of the supernatural.  Plus, the main story theme was trust.

The ending was intense, but the story was so caught up in plot and love relationship that a few threads were dropped.  The heroine never had to fess up to her part in not being honest.  And the political subplot, particularly the villain, left a lot to the reader's imagination how that ended up. But imagination is a good thing, right?

I liked this one for the setting, the instant attractions between hero and heroine, and the action scenes. See if you do, too.

Cooking the Books is an interesting mix of cozy mystery and romantic suspense in that many of the suspects were the heroine's past or current love interests, that the heroine wasn't actually trying to solve a crime, but stay alive, and that all the loose ends were not tied up at the end … as this is the first in a mystery series.

Sloane Templeton is neither extreme in the archetype of female sleuths — a Jessica Fletcher nor an Eve Dallas.  Sloane isn't knowledgeable about a variety of topics. She isn't physically fit, her body honed into a weapon, nor even is she knowledgeable about weapons. Yet she is a defender of underdogs and willing to sacrifice her own comfort to help others.  Of course she has actrocious taste in men.

The problems:  Sloane has inherited half of her mother's bookstore and she has no interest in books. Sloane is divorced and her ex is suing her for her inheritance. A big corporation wants to buy out the building that houses her apartment and the bookstore. Two professors are squabbling over buying a rare book she possesses. Her ex-lover is a gangster. Her current boyfriend isn't that into her. Her mom's business partner wants to buy out her interest in the bookstore. And Sloane would like to get back into the world of computer forensics, but she's still grieving and emotionally unable to take the steps needed to realign her life.

As I've said before, I'm not that into snark, but Sloane didn't seem to be either. I liked her.  I didn't always understand or agree with her decisions, but she never annoyed me to the point where I wouldn't want to be her friend. In fact, if she were real, I would pray for her because I see her potential to be a mighty force for the Lord.

As was, Cooking the Books struck me as spiritually lite. Even Sloane's revelation about her ability to defend herself and not be a victim didn't hold long before she was questioning again. So she may have taken a few baby steps toward healing, but Sloane has a long way to go — which I suppose is okay if it is going to be a long series.

Guess I'll have to keep reading to see.

Conception, Future Savior Book One, by Jennifer Hartz was one of the first Christian fantasy novels Desert Breeze Publishing offered. Of course, I'm late to the game and she has two more books in the series published with the fourth soon to be released.  This is good news, because in this case, when she says series, it doesn't mean loosely joined by a location but stand-alone books, like I mean in my Children of the King series.  Here, the end of Conception leads right into the next book.  So be prepared to read a series. 

Here's what I liked about Conception:  Christian symbolism — all over the place. Know your Bible and you'll see reflections of God throughout the story.

Christina, the sarcastic heroine. She does well under pressure.  Not perfect, but certainly exemplary, given the circumstances of being dropped into a new world/realm/time.

The world building.  I liked that Meric was just a little bit different than earth. I liked that animals were named the same, but maybe a different color, or had extra horns. I liked that I didn't have to work to understand the scenery.  And I liked the insinuation that the atmosphere was the same as pre-Noah days, allowing for longer life.

I liked all the good-looking male characters. I'm not a reader who wants the bumps and worts of real life in my heroes, so I appreciated the prettiness of Jenn's characters. The only problem I had with Shaw's gorgeousness was that he was a shape-shifter, and if I'd been Christina I would have commented on his good taste in choosing such a pretty face rather than just being impressed by his bod.

And speaking of Shaw's shape-shifting, what was that ending about?  During the climax of the novel, did he forget that he had that ability? (I know for plot purposes, Jenn did what she did to bring about the conclusion she wanted — another good biblical mirroring), but I was yelling at Shaw to change back into a skinny kid, and he wasn't doing it.

Read the book and you'll know what I'm talking about.  If you get to books 2, 3, and 4 before me, just tell me it all ends well. Don't be giving away secrets.

Check out Conception at Desert Breeze Publishing.