Review: Price of Creation by Lance Conrad

Source: Dawnstar Press

Price of Creation, by Lance Conrad (Historian Tales #1)
My Rating: 1/5

(Note: This review is for an audio-book version)

I first heard about Price of Creation through one of my brothers, and I'm always open to a new fantasy novel. Price of Creation was so terrible, and it's one of the few novels that left me feeling angry by the end; that hasn't happened since Angela Hunt's Esther.

First I'll talk about the pros. I liked the idea of people being born with stones, and the division between the land and the misunderstanding going on between the creators and the destroyers. I thought Sadivir's growth and training through his adolescence was well thought-out and -written.

That may be about all that this story really had going for it. The story had several cons, and they mostly circled around one thing.

The Historian.

Review: Courageous by Dina L. Sleiman

Source:
 http://valiantheartsseries.blogspot.com/

Courageous, by Dina L. Sleiman (Valiant Hearts Book 3)

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

In an earlier review on Chivalrous I addressed my issue with the sub-plot about Rosalind aborting her unborn child, and how it didn't seem to go anywhere.  Later on I learned about this upcoming book, Courageous, and how it follows Rosalind.  I'm grateful that Ms. Sleiman wrote this one, as one of the central plots of this story is Rosalind reconciling that choice in Chivalrous.

I actually didn't have too many issues with this story.  Historical fiction/romance isn't my favorite genre, but I enjoyed reading about the adventure Rosalind and other characters go through on a Christian crusade in the Middle East.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of, which weakened the story a bit for me, but fortunately the author stuck most of the development to Rosalind and Randel Penigree.  Rosalind goes through a gradual but believable self-healing process, learning more to depend on God.  Randel has some PTSD after accidentally killing one of his own allies, which he deals with with Rosalind's help.  One of the other characters tries to frame Randel for killing their brother, but fails miserably, showing that hate doesn't let you progress anywhere.

One of my few issues with the writing was using incomplete sentences to describe an experience or reaction.  For example:

"Five fighters remained, but they were fierce.  Swinging and slashing with the desperation of men who knew they were outnumbered."- Pg. 219

A good reader expects a sentence to be complete and properly punctuated, no matter how long or short.  I actually had to read the bolded part of this sentence a few times to understand that she was progressing the action into a new but incomplete sentence.  This made reading jarring and unpleasant.  Fortunately there were only a few instances of this bad editing.

I really enjoyed the adventure aspect of this story.  Our characters sail to Tripoli, and then travel south to find prisoners to free.  The several different personalities present in the large group made for a dynamic read.  The inspiration for their adventure is a visionary young woman named Sapphira, and she develops from being just one of the children to a source of leadership for her older sister and even a group of Templars.

Rosalind and Randel developed a romance throughout this story, even though they keep trying to convince themselves that they're destined for paths of celibacy.  However, through their romance they come to understand that they need to follow the plans God has for them.  Of course, this means that the two get together in the end.

Rosalind's redemption from her sins and self-deprecation was my favorite aspect of this story; I'm a sucker for redemption stories in general, and I appreciated the approach Ms. Sleiman took to Courageous.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Love Unexpected

Love Unexpected
by Jody Hedlund

My rating: 3/5 Stars

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  I think it's a win-win situation for reader, publisher, and author.  Free marketing is awesome.

Anywho, this is my first dive into historical romance.  I'm not very familiar with the genre, and so this review is going to be a little hard for me.  I'm so used to reviewing mostly fantasy stories, which I have discovered have a very different sort of feel than this sort of story.

Review: Esther: Royal Beauty

Esther (A Dangerous Beauty Novel Book #1): Royal Beauty by Angela Elwell Hunt

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

 This novel shouldn't be called “Esther.” It should be called “Eunuch, Royal Eunuchs: a Dangerous Castration Novel.”

 I got this book through the Blogger Review Program with Bethany House, and I chose it because I thought it might be a good retelling of the story of Esther. I love the Bible's account of Esther. I love her story of internal struggle, trying to live up to the expectations of her people. It is a story of fear and triumph.

 This novel slaughtered the original story. But I'm willing to give it some benefit of a doubt. I tend to read like a writer, which can be a double-edged sword for me and the stories I read. However, the cons outweighed the pros so much that this novel got hung on the gallows of bad storytelling.

 Readers, prepare yourselves for my brutal honesty as a reader and author.

Review: Dragonwitch

Dragonwitch by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

 I had picked up this book a while back and tried to read it, but life happened and I had to put it down. I wish I had finished it sooner, because then I would have remembered more from Starflower, but oh well.

 I have one word for this book: haphazard. I wish I didn't have to say that about this book, seeing as the previous four in the series were well-done in terms of writing, story, and characters. However, I really struggled with Dragonwitch, and it didn't live up to the expectations I had gained from the four first entries of Goldstone Wood. As I normally do with my lengthier reviews, I'll break my review down into characters, plot, setting, and writing.

Book Review: Taken

Taken by Dee Henderson

My Rating: 1/5 Stars

I had selected Taken from Bethany House Publishing for the blogger reviewer program hoping to get away from the Christian Romance books they seem to feature a lot their lists. Unfortunately this book, which at first appeared to be a mystery thriller, did not do that for me. If Bethany House does nothing but publish romances, someone please let me know, because that would make a lot more sense. (However, I don't think this is the case, as I've read most of the Tales of Goldstone Wood books they publish, and not all of those are focused on romance.)

 There was nothing thrilling about this book, and the mystery aspect was pathetic.
 In a traditional story, you have several parts: introduction, build-up, climax, aftermath, and conclusion. This entire book was aftermath with a weak conclusion. All the exciting stuff the story mentions (abductions, survival, action, maybe even adventure) already happened before this story happened.

 This book is about a lady who approaches a detective after escaping her captors, hoping he'll help her regain a normal life. During this, there is an awkward romance between the two I simply could not relate to, but I'll discuss that more in my Story part of the review.

Book Review: Chivalrous

Chivalrous by Dina L. Sleiman My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Chivalrous was an odd mixture of adventure, relationships, and faith. They weren't balanced together very well, but there were a few elements of the story I really liked I don't have a favorite character in Chivalrous, but I do like how most of the characters interacted with one another.

 The main male character, Allen, thought almost constantly about God and his faith, and while that got overbearing at times, I like how it affected his decision-making. I liked Gwendolyn more in the parts where she wasn't being a sissy and more of a tomboy, but I can understand her backing down at times because of her abusive father. 

Also, her relationship with Allen was the most interesting aspect of this book. It was an insta-love story, which I don't normally like, but I honestly didn't know if these two were going to have a happily ever after with all the twists and turns in their romantic plot. The romance between these two saved the story, I believe.

 The other main character is Rosalind, Gwendolyn's lady in waiting. I enjoyed her character through most of the book; she's a loyal friend that sometimes shows some snark. However, towards the last half of the book,the author added a pointless sub-plot about abortion with this character that was never resolved, and I don't understand why it was included in the story. The character Merry from the first Valiant Hearts book made a cameo appearance. I guess she's a Robin Hood character, but she was a damsel in distress in this book, and her part in the story seemed kind of pointless except to show how bad the bad guy was. Why make her the victim, and she never makes another appearance in the book.

 The whole ordeal with Merry was meh. I probably would have liked this book better if I had read the first book in the series, but this book does okay as a standalone. 3/5 stars. View all my reviews

Book Review: The Shock of Night

The Shock of Night by Patrick W. Carr My rating: 2 of 5 stars

 “Despite their conviction of my guilt, they weren't stupid, and the village idiot could piece the reason for the attack together.” Willet Dura stated this over 200 pages into the book. After 300 pages, I still couldn't “piece the reason” together for why anything was happening in this story. Maybe it was because I would read this before bed, so I was tired, but I've read engaging books while being exhausted and understood them. I didn't finish this book, but I may finish it at a later time.

 This book had some interesting concepts going on. Religious orders and magical gifts that enhance people's abilities were some of the biggest ones. The concepts and setting took a background to the story probably too much. World-building should contribute to the plot, but there was such a lack of world-buildling that it weakened the plot. Points in the plot were presented briefly before jumping to another plot point, and then to another, and another. Then we would return to one of those plot points, and then jump back to another one or a new one. Characters were mentioned that I had never heard of without explanation, or hadn't read about for a while, as if I as the reader should know everything about the characters already. The story became rather convoluted and jerky, and I easily became lost in the overall plot.

 Part of my problem with the story was the whole ordeal about Willet's “vault.” I guess cracking it can make a guy a vegetable, but I don't understand why it was so important that they do it except to figure out how he stumbled out alive from the Darkwater. When I put this book down I had finally gotten somewhere interesting.

Book Review: King's Folly

King's Folly (The Kinsman Chronicles, #1) by Jill Williamson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was an interesting book. It's hard to describe how I feel about it, which is one reason why this book floats between 3-4 stars for me (marked as 4/5 on Goodreads because I rounded up :p).

I like big tomes I can really dig into, and this story did it for me. The story flowed pretty well throughout, and I think that's what really kept me going. <em>King's Folly</em> was super long; over 500 pages in about a 6x9 format, and the font size is probably 10 pt. at least. Just think Wheel of Time: the Great Hunt long, and you'll get an idea of how long this is. I think this is supposed to be a YA novel, as I think Bethany House Publishers intends to publish YA (correct me if I'm wrong), but due to the length and more mature themes, this definitely came off as adult level to me.

For some background, this is a story about a land that's falling apart due to the greediness and general immorality of its people. The story focuses on royal families, most of which are involved in sleeping around with concubines and mistresses. Normally a book with this sort of content, even though it's not explicit, would have made me set it down pretty early on. However, I have a habit of looking at the end of the story/book soon after I start reading it, where I found the Author's Note. Basically, she explains this is a story about a people slowly turning to the true God of this fantasy world, so that helped me see all the immorality and corruption, and the eventual turning to truth and godliness, in the right light.