My April reads
May. 3rd, 2015 05:04 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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christianreaderPatrick W. Carr – The Hero’s Lot 5/5
After the attack at the end of A Cast of Stones, the country of Illustra has come to rest again, but only for a while, because the King is old and frail. Errol is accused of a conspiracy and sent on a dangerous journey to the enemy kingdom of Merakh to find and kill one of Illustra's corrupted readers. Luckily, he has loyal friends and allies who go with him to help fulfill this almost impossible task.
I fell head-over-heels for the first book in this series: Christian high-fantasy with an interesting world and an engaging hero. The Hero's Lot suffered a little bit from 'second book syndrome' with too much going on in seperate story threads, but was still totally amazing. Discoveries shedding new light on the story, interesting new characters, sword and staff fighting and an interesting secondary romance: I loved it! Can't wait to read the third part and see how it all ends for Errol and his friends.
Michelle Griep – Brentwood’s ward 3/5
Nicholas Brentwood is a Bow Street runner or 'policeman'. By the Bow Street agency he is placed as a guardian of Emily Payne, a spoiled young socialite, when her father goes abroad for business. Despite what her father thinks, Emily doesn't believe she needs someone looking over her and tries to escape Nicholas at every turn. But then people start dying and attacks start happening and Nicholas and Emily must work together to find out what secret her father kept.
I picked up this book because I'm always interested in new Regency novels. This one was okaish, but not great. Nicholas was quite a great hero: upstanding, helpful and loyal. Emily was quite silly and I didn't see enough change in her for my liking through the novel. I'm not a big fan of mystery, so I'm afraid that aspect was a bit lost upon me, while others might really enjoy that.
Bonny Calhoun – Thunder 3/5
In post-apocalyptic America, Selah Chavez is about to turn 18. She knows she will be expected to marry now, but actually wants nothing more than to be taken seriously by her father and help him and her father capture Landers; strange people who come from across the sea. Then Selah manages to capture a Lander for herself and it changes her life.
This is the first YA novel from a Christian publisher I read. The interesting cover drew me in and it's certainly an interesting world Selah lives in. Like in more post-apocalyptic novels, there's a mixture of old and new technology, but there's also a society living inside a mountain and another group of people living across the sea with supernatural powers. Though I liked the world-building, I wasn't completely convinced by the story. I couldn't really connect to Selah and didn't see much character development in her over the course of the story. Also, I felt as if I didn't get to know the 'bad guys' good enough to understand their motives. Ofcourse, this is the first book in a trilogy (?), but I felt like there was a definite lack of giving away information. After reading this book, I still feel like I know nothing about the Landers or about the scientists. And I also don't really know if I want to read the next book...
Elizabeth Byler Younts – Promise to cherish 3,5/5
It's 1944 and Eli Brenneman, a young Amish man, finds himself at a severely understaffed mental hospital to fulfill his duty as a conscientious objector. Slowly, he finds joy and pride in working with the patients and befriends Christine Freeman, one of the nurses. Christine gets into trouble and Eli offers her a place in his Amish community to get back on her feet. Christine is surprised she feels at home among the Amish and she and Eli grow closer, but is there really a future for them?
I read the first book in this series and despite being a little dissappointed, I still picked up this second, because I like the background of these stories so much: how the Amish community was impacted by WWII and the public service the young Amish men had to fulfill. In Promise to cherish, we follow Eli and Christine in their work at the mental hospital and it was really interesting to read about this part of healthcare and how it was almost neglected as the country had other priorities in wartime. I found this part more interesting than the second part where Christine goes to live in the Amish community. This was basically an Amish-Englisher love story like there are many, only taking place in the '40s. Still, both Eli and Christine where interesting and well-crafted characters.
Books read in April: 4
Books read in 2015: 17
After the attack at the end of A Cast of Stones, the country of Illustra has come to rest again, but only for a while, because the King is old and frail. Errol is accused of a conspiracy and sent on a dangerous journey to the enemy kingdom of Merakh to find and kill one of Illustra's corrupted readers. Luckily, he has loyal friends and allies who go with him to help fulfill this almost impossible task.
I fell head-over-heels for the first book in this series: Christian high-fantasy with an interesting world and an engaging hero. The Hero's Lot suffered a little bit from 'second book syndrome' with too much going on in seperate story threads, but was still totally amazing. Discoveries shedding new light on the story, interesting new characters, sword and staff fighting and an interesting secondary romance: I loved it! Can't wait to read the third part and see how it all ends for Errol and his friends.
Michelle Griep – Brentwood’s ward 3/5
Nicholas Brentwood is a Bow Street runner or 'policeman'. By the Bow Street agency he is placed as a guardian of Emily Payne, a spoiled young socialite, when her father goes abroad for business. Despite what her father thinks, Emily doesn't believe she needs someone looking over her and tries to escape Nicholas at every turn. But then people start dying and attacks start happening and Nicholas and Emily must work together to find out what secret her father kept.
I picked up this book because I'm always interested in new Regency novels. This one was okaish, but not great. Nicholas was quite a great hero: upstanding, helpful and loyal. Emily was quite silly and I didn't see enough change in her for my liking through the novel. I'm not a big fan of mystery, so I'm afraid that aspect was a bit lost upon me, while others might really enjoy that.
Bonny Calhoun – Thunder 3/5
In post-apocalyptic America, Selah Chavez is about to turn 18. She knows she will be expected to marry now, but actually wants nothing more than to be taken seriously by her father and help him and her father capture Landers; strange people who come from across the sea. Then Selah manages to capture a Lander for herself and it changes her life.
This is the first YA novel from a Christian publisher I read. The interesting cover drew me in and it's certainly an interesting world Selah lives in. Like in more post-apocalyptic novels, there's a mixture of old and new technology, but there's also a society living inside a mountain and another group of people living across the sea with supernatural powers. Though I liked the world-building, I wasn't completely convinced by the story. I couldn't really connect to Selah and didn't see much character development in her over the course of the story. Also, I felt as if I didn't get to know the 'bad guys' good enough to understand their motives. Ofcourse, this is the first book in a trilogy (?), but I felt like there was a definite lack of giving away information. After reading this book, I still feel like I know nothing about the Landers or about the scientists. And I also don't really know if I want to read the next book...
Elizabeth Byler Younts – Promise to cherish 3,5/5
It's 1944 and Eli Brenneman, a young Amish man, finds himself at a severely understaffed mental hospital to fulfill his duty as a conscientious objector. Slowly, he finds joy and pride in working with the patients and befriends Christine Freeman, one of the nurses. Christine gets into trouble and Eli offers her a place in his Amish community to get back on her feet. Christine is surprised she feels at home among the Amish and she and Eli grow closer, but is there really a future for them?
I read the first book in this series and despite being a little dissappointed, I still picked up this second, because I like the background of these stories so much: how the Amish community was impacted by WWII and the public service the young Amish men had to fulfill. In Promise to cherish, we follow Eli and Christine in their work at the mental hospital and it was really interesting to read about this part of healthcare and how it was almost neglected as the country had other priorities in wartime. I found this part more interesting than the second part where Christine goes to live in the Amish community. This was basically an Amish-Englisher love story like there are many, only taking place in the '40s. Still, both Eli and Christine where interesting and well-crafted characters.
Books read in April: 4
Books read in 2015: 17
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