christianreader | My September reads

Linda Francis Lee - The Glass Kitchen 4/5
Portia Cuthart never intended to leave Texas for the 'Big Apple', like her sisters did. But when her husband betrays her, she flees to the only place that feels safe, her aunt's New York appartment. Unfortunately, there are other tenants in the house and Portia has to life alongside two motherless teenage girls and their businessman father Gabriel Kane. Soon, Portia's gift with food she had surpressed in her marriage, comes to the surface again and with her two sisters, Portia decides to open a Texas-style restaurant in New York.

Magical realism can be a difficult genre: either it works or it doesn't. In The Glass Kitchen, it works. The magical realism is only a small part of the whole story, which is interesting in itself: a woman trying to redefine her life after something shocking has happened. The food descriptions in the book where quite amazing, if you don't start craving some of the food which Portia prepares, you have a strong stomach! The description of the bond between Portia and her sisters was lovely, really one of the high points of the book. I love stories about sisters.
Lisa Jewell - 31 Dream Street 5/5
Leah and Toby have lived across the street from each other without ever meeting, though Leah has often wondered about the strange house across the street, where a whole group of singular people without obivous connections seems to live together. Then one day, an accident on their street finally lets Leah and Toby meet and they realize they need each other's help and become good friends quickly.

What a sweet, lovely and positive novel this was! It's really all about connection between fragile humans and how they can help each other change and grow. Toby was such a sweet man, but also naïve and Leah just needed someone to like her for who she was. I liked the descriptions of the people sharing one house, because I share my house myself (luckily my housemates are not half as excentric as Toby's!)

Julie Klassen - The Tutor's Daughter 4/5
Emma Smallwood's father has had a boy's academy as long as she can remember. When he is invited to become a private tutor at an estate in Cornwall, Emma decided to go with him. The elder sons of the estate have been students at Smallwood academy and Emma knows them well, with Philip she was good friends, while Henry alwals mercilessly teased her. Now Emma will be acquainted with them again and need their help when strange things start to occur at the manor.

As expected from Julie Klassen, this was a pleasant Regency read. Well researched historical background and interesting characters. I really liked Henry, his thoughtfulness, his kindness, the way he treats his brother and his bravery; a real gentleman. I wasn't too interested in the 'gothic' part of the story, it could've been just a romantic character drama and I would have liked it just as much. But I wasn't too bothered by it either.

Cathy Gohlke - Saving Amelie 4/5
Rachel Kramer is the daughter of an American eugenics researcher. She has increasingly become wary of her father's research and his connections with the German Nazi regime. On a trip to Germany in 1939, she receives a frantic letter from an old friend, begging her to rescue her deaf daughter Amelie. With the help of American journalist Jason Young, Rachel devices a dangerous plan to make Amelie 'dissapear', but soon she will become more involved herself than she ever thought.

I was very much impressed by Cathy Gohlke's novel Promise me this and although that one remains the favourite, I really liked Saving Amelie as well. It had a super thrilling plot set in Nazi Germany and focused on a group persecuted by the Nazi's which is not written about that often: the handicapped, which the Nazi's deemed 'unworthy of life'. The characters were all great and easy to connect with, from 'spoiled' Rachel to brave Leah and the selfless pastor. I thought the romance was a little bit underdeveloped and I would have liked there to have been a little bit more background to the experiments that Leah and Rachel had been subjected to, but apart from these little things, a really good Christian WWII novel.

Lucy Maud Montgomery - The Blue Castle 4/5
Valancy Stirling is 29 and unmarried and every day her family treats her like she is still a child. Deeply unhappy with her life and after some shocking news, Valancy decides to move out of her mother's house and get a job. Here she meets the excentric Barney Snaith and becomes friends with him. Her new life shocks Valancy's family, but for the first time in her life she feels free and valued.

I heard so much about this book, I thought it was high time I read it for myself. And I really liked it! It started out a bit slow and rather bleak, but soon became engrossing and was so beatifully written overall. The descriptions of nature and the trips Barney and Valancy undertook was almost poetic. And how I loved the ending!

Charity Bishop - Thornewicke 3/5
Seventeen year-old Evangeline has always known she was different than everyone around her, but when she is invited to spend the summer with her excentric aunt Henoria at the Dragonspire estate, she will discover what she really is and will have to make big decisions about the future.

This novel, self-published by the editor of the e-magazine Femnista that I write for, is definitely unique and interesting. In it's worldbuilding, but also in the way of storytelling, it was different from what I usually read. Unfortunately, it did not really click with me despite this. I was confused by the timing of the story, where it could suddenly be two days later in the space of one sentence. And I was confused about the magic: who is able to do what and how are the different villains connected in particular? I never realized this so much, but I guess I need a lot of clarity in my reading!

Simon Butler - The war horses 4/5
Simon Butler explores the tragic fate of over a million horses sacrificed in WWI. This is a subject which lies close to my heart: horses and history. This book was very rich in photographs and first-hand accounts and really brought the life of the war horses very close: what their tasks where, how they were cared for, what dangers they faced etc. Though the text was sometimes a bit too simple for my taste, it gave a good overview of the changing role of the horse from 1914-1918.

Carre Armstrong Gardner - All right here 4/5
Ivy can't have children of her own and the silent resentment of her husband Nick is slowly driving them apart. Then, three neighbourhood children suddenly need a place to stay and Ivy opens her home and her heart to these kids, who quickly become part of their family. But Nick refuses to accept this situation as permanent.

A really lovely contemporary Christian novel, a genre which is definitely hit-and-miss for me. But I loved this story, it felt very real and the characters became people you might know in your own life. It was great to read about the day-to-day life of Ivy with her three foster children and how she had to learn to parent in record time. I was a bit confused by the side story of Ivy's sister Laura which ended rather open and thought she might be the main character of Armstrong Gardner's next book, but from the description this doesn't seem to be true. I also thought the 'road towards resolution' at the end of the novel went rather quick for Nick and Ivy. But otherwise, warm, wise and funny, a definite recommendation.

Books read in September: 8
Books read in 2014: 54