Category Archives: Book Review and Content

Review: Storm Siren by Mary Weber

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,
Storm Siren by Mary Weber

Storm Siren (Storm Siren #1)
Mary Weber
Thomas Nelson
Published August 19, 2014

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Storm Siren

Since her parents’ deaths, Nym has lived as a slave with one unusual problem. An inexplicable ability erupts from her when she’s terrified or furious. Storms and lightning explode from the sky and take out her oppressors as well as any innocent bystanders. Nym carries memories of their deaths marked into her arms: the owners as rings on one arm, the innocent as an intricate mural on the other.

When a new owner purchases Nym and reveals that she’ll be trained to use her ability as a weapon to save her kingdom, Nym balks. Then she meets the handsome trainer whose skill and ability make her feel safe for the first time. Gradually he draws her out, builds her trust, and captures her heart. With the advancing army drawing ever nearer, Nym doesn’t have time for romance. A powerful foe threatens civilians. Nym can’t stand the thought of more innocent lives lost. She rushes into battle as a treacherous plot unfolds, one which could destroy her people before she even has a chance to save them.

My Review

Throughout the story Nym remains a complex character. It’s so easy to root for her, to want her to give in to her love for Eogan, her trainer, and to trust her new friends Rasha, Colin, and Breck. The whole cast of characters is well-balanced and interesting. From the cheerful blind servant girl, Breck, to Nym’s highly volatile new owner Adora, each character has a distinct personality and contributes something essential to the story.

The story may begin with gentle pacing, but it doesn’t take long for things to begin to rocket forward, growing more and more intense. Other reviewers commented on wishing for more world building. It’s true that there isn’t a lot of time pausing and going into the politics and history of the story world, but I enjoyed the fact that it kept the pace quick and allowed for more focus on the characters. There are things I would have wanted to know more about, but I’m hoping they will be revealed in subsequent books. I have a feeling there are reasons we weren’t told certain things… yet.

Overall I really enjoyed this story. I’d requested the second book, Siren’s Fury from NetGalley to review it and had started reading it before I realized I was just too interested in the characters and backstory to start with book two. I definitely recommend starting with Storm Siren if you’re new to the series.

Content Notes

Profanity/Crude Language Content
No profanity.

Sexual Content
Brief kissing. One very brief reference to Nym’s past in which she was forced to work in the “Favor House.”

Spiritual Content
Nym’s people (Elementals) possess powers, things like controlling water, wind, earth, etc. One very powerful man can shape shift and take over someone else’s body.

Violence
Nym trains for battle in a war her people are currently losing. Her powers have accidentally killed several people in the past, including her parents. She bears a lot of guilt for these deaths.

A terrible monster attacks Nym and her ally in the woods on their way to battle. Nym and another warrior battle an army. Descriptions are brief and not gory.

Drug Content
None.

Extra Goodies
Read an interview with author Mary Weber on the blog Love is Not a Triangle.

Check out the book trailer from You Tube:

Review: Draven’s Light by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, ,

Draven’s Light by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Rooglewood Press

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When the chief’s son comes of age, the tribe presents him with a prisoner. He is to kill this man and take up a new name as a man. He refuses and instead earns the name Draven, or “fainthearted.” Draven lives as a recluse, a shadow among his people with only his fierce sister Ita as a companion. The drums of war take the men of the tribe to battle, but Draven stays behind. A strange plague follows the warriors home, and when it strikes the one Draven loves most, he vows he will find a way to save her.

This short (less than 200 pages) tale is framed as a story repeated to a little girl as she battles her own fears. Before the end the author ties both the present and past together neatly. Stengl brings her usual powerful story-weaving ability and packs action, danger and romance into this tale, keeping it both moving and exciting. Perhaps the most beautiful part of the story is the relationship between brother and sister, Draven and Ita. Ita seems to understand instinctively when to push her brother, and he knows equally well when to respect her independence. While Draven’s Light isn’t saturated with the story world fans of the Tales of Goldstone Wood books have grown to love so well, they will recognize the mysterious Wood itself as well as two brothers from myth – Akilun and Etanun – and the little wood thrush who often leads heroes seeking aid.

Profanity and Crude Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
A couple brief references to “the airy gods.”

Violence
In Draven’s tribe, young men must kill an enemy prisoner in order to be recognized and honored as men. A fatal plague causes its victims to foam at the mouth and writhe on the ground.

Drug Content
None.

Review: Those Girls by Lauren Saft

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, ,

Those Girls by Lauren Saft
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Alex and Mollie have been best friends since kindergarten. Veronica, whose promiscuous reputation is her claim to fame, has recently joined their ranks. At the start of their junior year, each girl has an agenda.

V longs to turn over a new leaf and be the kind of girl a boy wants to keep around for more than an hour. Her good intentions are pretty constantly foiled by her revealing outfits and her drunken escapades.

Mollie wants to bring romance back into her relationship with her hot-and-popular boyfriend, Sam. She’s willing to do just about anything to keep him.

Alex needs a change. Mollie’s Sam obsession left a hole in her life that she’s ready to fill. A garage band might be exactly the change she needs. The change she doesn’t need? Her best friend (and secret love) Drew going after Veronica.

The drama does not stop, from page one all the way to the end. Rotating narrators (all three girls take turns spilling their guts) keep the story flying forward and reveal what each girl really thinks as events unfold. It’s nonstop gossip, parties, social disaster, love, and heartbreak.

Despite the quick pace and the celebration of friendship between girls, I had a hard time connecting with Mollie. She’s selfish, vindictive and extremely negative. I couldn’t really get why the other two valued her as a friend. I found Alex to be much more palatable, but ultimately disappointing. I had the most sympathy for Veronica. In a home with absent parents, it made perfect sense that she had little sense of social cues and relied on her body to form connections with people, then felt depressed when a one night stand didn’t result in a relationship.

The story definitely captures the catty spirit that sometimes plagues high school girls. While Alex and Veronica seem to have learned some hard lessons and grown personally by the end of the story, there were some elements of the resolution that were not believable. (See spoiler section below.)

Language Content
Extreme profanity and crude language used really frequently.

Sexual Content
Several explicit scenes depicting sexual encounters (one in which two girls make out, another involving two girls and a boy) as well as crude references to sexual situations and encounters.

Mollie’s boyfriend is all about the sexual pressure. Gross.

Spiritual Content
The girls go to a Catholic school. Mollie’s mother is very religious and forces Mollie to attend extra church services and say extra prayers when she misbehaves. (These efforts don’t appear to affect Mollie’s personal beliefs or her behavior.) At one point, Mollie commits to sabotage a fellow student and claims she has Jesus on her side. (I think she was aiming for funny, but because of the nature of her intentions, it fell pretty flat for me.)

Alex’s family is Jewish. She laments not being invited to celebrate Christmas with her friends and being bored around that holiday.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
Lots of scenes in which teens drink alcohol or smoke pot. Someone slips a roofie into a girl’s drink.

Spoiler
Mollie’s boyfriend (total schmuck) cheats on her with Veronica. Alex has sex with Veronica’s boyfriend. These are pretty serious betrayals. Yet, just a few weeks later, they’re all happy and friends again. Totally did not buy that. Did not seem possible, especially for someone as image-conscious as Mollie. Drew’s reaction to the whole thing was a lot more my speed. He pretty much up and headed for the hills. Too much drama. Bravo, dude.

Review: Siren’s Fury by Mary Weber

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Siren’s Fury (Storm Siren #2)
Mary Weber
Thomas Nelson
Published June 2, 2015

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About Siren’s Fury

Nym’s power saved her people, but it wasn’t enough to save those she loved most. While there’s still hope, she vows rescue and revenge. But to have even a chance, she’ll have to risk harnessing herself to a darkness that may destroy rather than save. As Draewulf rallies his armies to march into surrounding kingdoms, Nym and her friends scramble to keep ahead of his plot. To understand Draewulf’s plan, Nym must uncover truths about who she really is, facts she may not be ready to face. She and her friends must face an even more terrifying question: what if every move they make simply brings the dark wolf one step closer to his ultimate victory?

My Review

Weber’s second novel begins with the same intensity with which its predecessor ended. It’s a wild ride from page one all the way to the ending. I thought the plot had good layering. I’d start thinking I had things figured out only to discover that there was another layer I hadn’t accounted for which altered everything.

As with the first book, the characters really make this novel shine. I loved the development of relationship between Nym and Rasha. Even some minor characters, like Kel, the boy Nym meets on the airship, really added to the story. I found myself wishing he’d been more of a part in the tale’s resolution, but that was a small disappointment.

Honestly, I do recommend beginning this series with the first book. I started reading this one first and quickly found myself so intrigued I had to go back and read the first one. If you do start with book two, it’s not impossible to piece together the important bits of what you missed in book one. I did find myself scrambling to figure out what was going on several times before I went back for Storm Siren.

Some of the questions readers had about the relationships between kingdoms and politics will be answered in this novel. Still, many things are just hinted at as important clues preparing readers for the final installment of the trilogy.

Content Notes

Language Content
No profanity.

Sexual Content
Brief kissing. When Nym goes to Myles’s room in the middle of the night, she reluctantly allows guards to think she’s visiting him as a lover.

Spiritual Content
Nym’s people (Elementals) possess powers, things like controlling water, wind, earth, etc. One very powerful man can shape shift and take over someone else’s body. A woman uses her ability to kill men by internal injuries and control an army of dead. They’re pretty creepy. A witch offers powers to the right buyer.

Violence
Nym and her allies fight an advancing army from behind the lines. Descriptions are brief and not gory.

Drug Content
None.

Review: Tattooed by Jesus by Bonnie Kae Lentz with Patti Lacy and Angie Reedy

Book Review and Content, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Tattooed by Jesus by Bonnie Kae Lentz
with Patti Lacy and Angie Reedy
CreateSpace

Amazon | Goodreads

Looking back at her life, Bonnie recognizes a hunger for spiritual things. Throughout the course of her mixed up life, she searches for something deeper in relationships with men, experimentation with drugs, and the darker spirit world of the occult. She and her husband Tom journey across the US looking for stability, peace, and hope. Ultimately it is an encounter with Jesus that changes Bonnie’s life forever.

The dark parts of Bonnie’s journey get pretty dark. She’s witnessed some brutal things and though the narrative is gentle, reading the memories evokes deep feeling. Yet it’s a story that so many who lived through the same decades will recognize. Their children will hear echoes of parents’ stories within it.

While many memoirs relay a valuable story, Lentz’s tale also tells it well. Not only are the events relayed in a meaningful way, but the people around Bonnie come to life in each scene. Strong narrative pulls one girl’s recollections together and stitches them into a more meaningful, focused whole. True peace, Lentz reveals, can only come through faith in and relationship with a loving God.

Language Content
Heavy profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
Bonnie very briefly tells of being molested as a girl. She’s specific about what happened but not graphic. It’s brief but intense and may be difficult for some readers. Later, she discusses her own sexual journey – no details, but mention of encounters with boyfriends, lovers and her husband. See violence section for more info.

Spiritual Content
Bonnie feels a pull toward spiritual things throughout the course of her life. At one point, she experiments with some witchcraft with two female roommates. Those experiences become really negative. Eventually she becomes a Christian and is moved to make several big life changes as well as finding her internal self irreversibly changed.

Violence
Bonnie grows up with an alcoholic father who becomes pretty monstrous when he’s drunk. She listens to him brutalize her mother and rape her. (We realize what he’s doing through his ignoring her refusal and some references to sounds that indicate sex, things like that.)

Drug Content
Bonnie’s father is an alcoholic. She begins experimenting with drugs herself, and particularly develops a fondness for marijuana, which she smokes often over a number of years.

Why We Need Christian YA

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Why is Christian YA Important?

Some of the answers to this question seem obvious. Evangelism (introducing Christian beliefs to those unfamiliar or searching.) Reinforced values. “Safe” stories without graphic sex, profanity or violence. Those are all important reasons.

I spent a considerable portion of my early teen years figuring out what I believed, why I believed it and what I wanted to do about it. I think this is the case for a lot of people. As a public school kid, I wasn’t surrounded by Christian faculty and curriculum. (For me, I think this was ultimately a good thing, though that’s another story.) I found friends who shared the same moral ideas that I did, though not always the same faith base. (I think this was also ultimately good, but also another story.)

When I read Christian YA featuring characters facing that struggle – the wrestling with faith to craft our own beliefs, or perhaps more accurately, make our beliefs our own – it reminds me of my own battles. Reminds me that I’m not the only person to ask those questions.

Because I’m involved (or at least a fly on the wall near) some pretty mainstream YA discussions, I hear a lot about how teens need freedom to experiment, need access to stories in which characters have the same kinds of experiences that their readers have. Sometimes this is an argument in favor of including explicit language or sex. I have lots of thoughts about why I think this very often is a flawed argument, but one of the bloggers I love says it really well on her blog Reading Teen.

Perhaps ironically, I think that same argument can be made about more books including authentic spiritual experiences in faith shared by readers. For me, those are experiences in Christian faith. We need those stories. We all need to be reminded that life throws us curve balls we didn’t expect, and sometimes it’s easy to fall back on faith, but sometimes it’s hard. Stories that explore those trials can be very validating.

Why Aren’t There More Christian YA Novels On Bookstore Shelves?

The single reason I hear most is that it’s difficult to get Christian YA books actually onto those shelves. Think about your local bookstore. Is there a section for Christian YA? (At my local Barnes & Noble, there’s possibly one half of a shelf, I mean maybe 6 books or so last I looked.) If there is a section, is it with the other YA books? (Not at my B&N.) Is it easily accessible? (Or is it buried back near bathrooms or kids’ Bibles or something like that?)

If you have a great Christian YA section in your bookstore, that’s super awesome, and I might move to your town. For most people, I’m betting that’s simply not the case.

I find it fascinating that we segregate books and separate out the Christian fiction. Wouldn’t it be easier to shelve them all together? If you want to buy Christian fiction, learn the publishers or authors you love and shop by them. (Isn’t that pretty much how everyone else buys books?)

Some Christian publishers have seemed to give up on YA altogether. Others seem to have focused on stories with milder Christian content. Sometimes there’s talk about God but maybe not Jesus. Maybe prayer, but not really any specifics. In some stories, that’s really where the protagonist’s journey takes him. I’m glad to read those stories, but it’s also important to hear the bold ones, ones in which characters share deeper parts of a Christian life.

The Good News: There Are Some GREAT Authors Out There

Through my own journey as a writer and blogger, I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredible Christian authors. I’m humbled by their excellent stories and challenged by the messages within them. If you’ve been a long-time follower at The Story Sanctuary, you’ve heard their names.

Here are some of the great books by Christian authors that I’ve reviewed:

By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson

Glass Girl by Laura Anderson Kurk

It’s Complicated by Laura L. Smith