Category Archives: Christian World-View

Review: Lightning by Bonnie Calhoun

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

lightningLightning
Bonnie Calhoun
Revell

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Selah has finally found her father only to lose the rest of her family. And with her transformation to novarium in process, the clock is ticking down to her destruction if she doesn’t complete the final phase in time. Answers will only be found by returning to the one place Selah least wants to go: the Mountain. She must gather the answers she needs, rescue her family, and bring her friends to safety before time runs out.

I think my first mistake was probably in reading this book without having read Thunder, the first book in the series. I never felt like I could fully grasp the storyworld elements critical to the tale. I’m still not totally sure what Landers are and I definitely didn’t follow the First, Second, and Third protocol explanations or understand why they were relevant. A lot of the information comes out in the form of dialogue, but I kept feeling like I was missing the pieces of information that would make everything suddenly make sense.

The side characters were my favorite. Mari and Cleon and Treva, in particular. Selah felt uneven to me, sometimes acting like a grown adult and other times reading much more like a younger teen. Some of her conversations with Bodhi (I LOVED the character names in the story) felt like they were arguing because this is the scene in which they’re supposed to argue. Some of the dialogue felt like it was jumping around and responses didn’t seem to follow any linear ideas.

I liked that there were all these groups vying to use Selah for their own means. Even her father had his own agenda. That kept me guessing and wondering what would be around the next bend in the story.

Bottom line for me: if you’re going to read this series, start with Thunder. I haven’t read it, but I think I would have enjoyed Lightning a lot more if I wasn’t struggling to understand the mechanics of the storyworld in the midst of the tale itself.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
There are some brief battles, but very little gory detail. One of Selah’s companions is fatally injured and asks to be left behind.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: A Daring Sacrifice by Jody Hedlund

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Historical, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

A Daring Sacrifice
Jody Hedlund
Zondervan

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

The mysterious Cloaked Bandit lives in the forest of Wessex, robbing its nobility to feed peasants displaced when the current Lord usurped the lands. Now he combs the forest seeking the identity of the Bandit, unaware that in fact, she is the rightful heir to Wessex.

When the Cloaked Bandit robs a neighboring noble, Lord Collin recognizes the girl as his childhood friend. Concerned for her safety, he convinces her to stay a week in his home, far away from Lord Wessex’s soldiers. As he learns the terrible truths that led to Juliana’s impoverished circumstances, he vows to do something to help her. Her compassion for the poor moves him, and the injustice of her father’s death stirs him to outrage. But before Collin can enact a plan to right the wrongs in Juliana’s life, she slips away, her feelings for him suddenly more than she can bear. Collin pursues her, but if Lord Wessex finds her before Collin does, his love will be lost forever.

I liked the Robin Hood-ish element of the Cloaked Bandit, and the way Juliana’s band of thieves operates like a family. Fans of the series will remember Lord Collin as one of the three knights who competed for Lady Rosemarie’s hand in marriage. I enjoyed the fact that this story followed him, but I found it difficult to connect with his character. He spent a lot of time obsessing about Juliana’s or his sister’s feelings. I wanted to feel more of the warrior-knight in him, and that stronger side didn’t show until very late in the story. I also found his flippant attitude about his wealth to be a bit strange. It was okay that he started out feeling that way, but I guess I wanted to see more maturity emerge on that front? I don’t know.

Romance dominates this medieval tale. I lost track of how many times Collin or Juliana experienced butterflies in their bellies over being near each other. I had a hard time really buying into exactly why they felt this powerful attraction toward each other. It seemed like the physical attraction overshadowed the development of their relationship. It’s definitely one of those swoony, sweet stories, which is great. I think I just wanted a little more bite or something to balance out that sweetness.

If you like Melanie Dickerson’s medieval fairy tale novels, you’ll want to check out this series by Jody Hedlund. Though A Daring Sacrifice isn’t a true retelling of the story of Robin Hood, it definitely has some similarities. If you’ve already read and enjoyed A Daring Sacrifice, and you’re looking for another story with a bit of a feminist spin on Robin Hood, try Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley.

Cultural Elements
None.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Lots of description of tingling hands and fluttering tummies when Juliana and Collin are in close proximity to each other. A few kisses. At a midnight picnic (with a chaperone) a man places his head in a lady’s lap.

Spiritual Content
Juliana wrestles with the morality of her life as a thief. She knows her father raised her to do right, and that stealing is wrong. She looks for the courage to find another way to stand against her uncle. She prays in times of need. One young woman ends the story shaken and disillusioned about love and marriage. She joins a convent.

Violent Content
Juliana recalls finding pieces of her father’s body after her uncle tortured him to death. Not a lot of gory detail, but even the straight descriptions are pretty harsh. Something about a young girl finding her father’s body in pieces just can’t be anything other than disturbing to me, no matter how few details there are beyond that. Juliana’s uncle captures a young thief and tortures him in an attempt to find the location of the Cloaked Bandit. The boy suffers broken bones and having his nails removed. The torture itself isn’t described, only his injuries afterward.

Juliana’s uncle arranges to have a young woman burned to death. Later, he arranges to have a man tortured to death.

Juliana describes the servant uprising that led to her father’s death. Collin describes another battle in which soldiers and civilians are injured or killed.

Drug Content
Servants give ale and wine to guests at a dinner party. Collin and Juliana both drink ale.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Review: The Choosing by Rachelle Dekker

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

The Choosing
Rachelle Dekker
Tyndale

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Seventeen year-old Carrington Hale is at the top of her class, a sure pick for some lucky man on her day of Choosing. Only, no one chooses her. Devastated and forced to leave her family behind, Carrington joins the masses of other unworthy, unchosen girls to serve as Lints, laborers whose only value lies in completing the menial tasks assigned to them.

Authorities are troubled by the murder of several Lint workers. The brutal killer must be stopped before he undermines the Authority of the Law and upsets the people. To reassure the people, when widowed leader Isaac makes the unorthodox request to choose a second bride, the ruling leaders ask him to choose a girl from among the Lints. And Carrington realizes this may be the second chance she’s been hoping for.

I liked that this wasn’t strictly a dystopian story. It definitely had all the elements of one, but it’s also the story of the pursuit of a serial killer. I’ve never seen a mash-up of those two genres before, and I think it really worked.

That said, I’m super squeamish to violence, particularly anything sexual or creepy, so this was not an easy read for me. If you have similar sensitivities or abuse history, consider this a trigger warning. You might want to steer clear of this one. The details are limited to a few scenes, but it definitely creeped me out.

I enjoyed Carrington and Remko’s characters a lot, though. She’s a great strong yet sensitive heroine. Remko definitely fits that strong silent type, so he definitely had me won over. I loved the banter between him and his friend Helms.

Since this is a Tyndale book, I expected a strong spiritual element, and there definitely is one. I felt like the story was a bit all humans are good, it’s the system that tries to tell you otherwise. I didn’t think it translated well to Christian doctrine. That said, often Christian fantasy follows the thread of a Creator God and leaves out the Jesus elements of the faith, so maybe I’m being too strict in my interpretation. But that was my opinion. For more on that, see the Spiritual Content section below.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kisses.

Spiritual Content
Carrington’s people believe a sort of perverted version of the Bible, handed down to them by a historical leader. According to the rules, women are unworthy second-class citizens to be helpers and laborers. A spiritual revolutionary named Aaron challenges the ideas of the current leadership, telling his followers, you are blameless, perfect, worthy.

The twisted version of scripture used by leadership to control the populace reminded me a little bit of the book used by leadership in Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I found Aaron’s teaching to be really more Unitarian than strictly Christian, if that makes sense. I felt like the idea that we are blameless and perfect sort of flies in the face of the Christian doctrine that it’s only by Jesus’ sacrifice that we are found blameless.

Violent Content and Trigger Warning
An assassin slashes the throat of a guard before killing himself.

A man at first woes his potential bride with kindness, but soon turns to threats and abuse.

A serial killer has been killing women laborers using bleach internally and externally. Some scenes feature the killer with a bound victim who begs for help.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: That’s Not Hay in My Hair by Juliette Turner

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

That’s Not Hay in My Hair
Juliette Turner
Zonderkidz

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Jules finishes fifth grade just in time to move from her tiny New York apartment to a 300 acre ranch in Texas. While her mom overflows with confidence that she and Jules can care for the longhorn cattle, horses, dogs and cats on their own, Jules carries some doubts. Sure enough, zany adventures abound as she and her mom struggle to find their inner cowgirls. Through it all, Jules determines to remain positive. When tragedy strikes, though, she’ll have to reevaluate her feelings for her new Texas life.

Turner really hits her stride in the scenes in which one wacky event follows another. In one, Jules struggles to get ready for school in the morning amid animals running amok. Another shows her frantically helping her party diva grandmother prepare for a Fourth of July barbecue. Lots of good-humored, clean fun.

The writing feels young, which mostly works for a story in the middle grade genre. At times the story loses focus, and lingers in scenes and dialogue that don’t really move the plot forward. Overall, it’s a sweet story with a lot of humor and heart. Jules’ struggles over changing schools definitely seem believable. I wished her peer community had been better developed. I expected there to be a little more connection with friends in the story, as those relationships become more and more important in the middle grade years. The story primarily focused on Jules’ relationships with her family members, and those feel genuine and fun.

Something about the story reminded me a little bit of the stories by Bill Wallace called Beauty (one of my favorites!) and Buffalo Gal. That’s Not Hay in My Hair is a lighter story about a modern city-girl-gone-cowgirl. But readers who’ve enjoyed one should consider trying the others.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Several mentions of animal poop. At one point Jules slips on a cow patty.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Jules mentions the church she and her mother attended weekly while they lived in New York. She also attends a Christian school, and at one point her teacher asks her to share a favorite Bible verse. Jules doesn’t know one off the top of her head, so she names a reference she sees on a classmate’s notebook. She or her mom pray at different points in the story. After the death of one of the animals, Jules wonders if the animal is in heaven. She sees an image of the animal that makes her believe so.

The vet briefly references a Native American burial tradition.

Violent Content
Jules and her mom live on and work a 300 acre ranch with cattle, horses, dogs and cats. At one point, an animal has to be put down. A vet handles everything.

Drug Content
None.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

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Review: The Crowd by Alleece Balts

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

The Crowd
Alleece Balts
Available January 10, 2016

Amazon | Goodreads | Author web site

Ella’s excitement over her acceptance into a prestigious school quickly fades when she has her first run-in with the Crowd. These future politicians and business leaders possess the power to make life miserable for the other students. When Jackson, the Crowd leader, turns his attention to Ella, she wants nothing more than to slip back into anonymity. Only her friendship with Lucas, a boy from another school, gives her any joy. With each new challenge the Crowd tosses her way, Ella reminds herself of her father’s words: be kind. Her mother quotes Eleanor Roosevelt, Ella’s namesake, and Ella strives to live up to those lofty words. But if she’s going to find peace at school, she’ll have to take down the Crowd.

One of the things I liked about this book was how often the people and relationships in Ella’s life turned out to be different than they first seemed. She’d make judgments about the people around her and then have to decide whether or not to shift her expectations as she gained more experience. I thought that was pretty realistically portrayed.

The story kind of follows two separate tracks. On one hand, it’s a romance. On the other, it’s a tale about bullying. Most of the time I thought those two ideas played well with each other, but there were moments where the romance seemed to overshadow the other story elements. Overall, this didn’t lessen the enjoyment for me. I just sometimes forgot that there was more going on than blossoming love.

The faith elements come through naturally, and I enjoyed the way those moments unfolded. I liked how her faith was integrated with the wise voices in her life, like her dad’s reminders to be kind and her mom’s Eleanor Roosevelt quotes.

Overall, I thought this was a sweet, clean story. If you’re looking for a lighter read that still explores issues like bullying, maybe as an alternative to something like Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers, check out The Crowd.

Cultural Elements
Most of the characters in The Crowd are or appear to be white. Ella becomes friends with a girl named Jayla, who is the only African-American student at their school. Ella’s friend Lucas is described as Latin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
No profanity. There are a couple of crude comments. For example, one boy makes a comment to another boy about wanting to “bang” a girl.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. A boy and girl fall asleep on a bed after talking for hours.

Spiritual Content
Ella’s faith is extremely important to her. She often prays for guidance. She and her aunt study proverbs together and attend church regularly. Ella volunteers to sing in the choir, but becomes discouraged when it feels more like performance than worship.

Violent Content
Kids at school pick on Ella. They do some hurtful things along the lines of ruining her skirt by placing a broken pen in her seat.

Ella learns some town history in which a boy shot two girls before killing himself in a school shooting. Another girl gets shot when a gun accidentally goes off.

Drug Content
Ella hears rumors about Jackson’s wild past involving a lot of drinking. Ella’s dad achieved great success as a musician in a rock band, and he lived a hard party life until becoming a Christian and leaving the band. We don’t learn many details about either Jackson’s rumored past or Ella’s dad’s rock star days. There are no descriptions of alcohol or drug use, just references to the fact that they happened.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: When Mountains Move by Julie Cantrell

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Historical, New Adult 18up, , , , , , , ,

When Mountains Move
Julie Cantrell
David C. Cook / Thomas Nelson

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Millie and Bump set off for Colorado and a new life together. Leaving Mississippi is all Millie ever wanted, but it seems the dark memories she thought to escape have followed her. With the memory of what Bill Miller did still hanging over her, Millie isn’t sure she can ever accept her husband’s love, and she’s not sure the past will stay buried long enough for her to try.

As Millie’s new life begins to unravel, her Choctaw grandmother arrives. She anchors Millie with the roots of family and tradition and teaches her the healing power of forgiveness.

Just like Cantrell’s debut, Into the Free, this novel bursts with beautiful narrative. Millie’s experiences are achingly real and deeply moving. Her grandmother, Oka, stands as my favorite character. As I’d hoped after reading Into the Free, the story revisits a part of the earlier tale that happened too fast to be satisfying to me. Millie’s able to get some closure and to explain more of what was in her head in those tumultuous moments.

Additionally, though, there’s a plot element that unfolds that didn’t feel so well resolved. I don’t want to spoil the story, but it felt like one of those “just trust me” sorts of resolutions, and I think I expected more from the story which had so many other intricate conflicts. I did enjoy the ending and I’m glad I read more of Millie’s tale. The Colorado setting felt incredible realistic in all its rugged, frontier power. I loved Cantrell’s descriptions of Millie’s relationship with her horse, too.

See below for the content breakdown. This is a new adult story, exploring the first few years of a troubled marriage and Millie’s healing after a sexual assault.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content – and Trigger Warnings
Millie has flashbacks to the afternoon she was raped. There are snippets of sharp detail, things like her remembering the way her dress tore, or him tearing into her. Millie experiences triggers in her relationship with Bump and has to navigate those moments. We know after they are married that they are intimate. The descriptions are vague, usually hinting at coming intimacy with things like him unbuttoning her nightgown and then leaving off to begin a new scene. Millie’s struggle to connect with her husband is a significant part of the story, though. While graphic sex isn’t described, her relationship to this part of her life is one of the biggest conflicts in the story.

Spiritual Content
Millie and Bump share their faith about God being able to move mountains. Millie remembers scriptures shared with her by her mother. She prays often, especially in times of peril and need.

Oka, Millie’s Choctaw grandmother visits her and shares some traditions with Millie. She cleanses the house, for example. Millie respects the significance of this ritual.

There’s a brief mention of Millie’s conversation with Babushka, an elderly palm reader she knew in Mississippi. Millie never had her palm read, but the woman seemed to see into her soul and tell Millie things she needed to hear.

Violent Content
Rumors spread about a traveling man and his connection to two murders. When the man begins working for Bump, Millie fears for their safety. Millie learns about the night her grandmother was violently attacked and her grandfather killed. Two men get into a fist fight. A man is killed by a mountain lion. Millie witnesses the attack and others come with her to recover the man’s remains.

Drug Content
Millie remembers how damaging morphine use was to her mother.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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