Book Review: Fatal Code

 Fatal Code

by Natalie Walters

Pub Date 03 May 2022 

 Revell 

 Christian  |  Mystery & Thrillers  |  Romance

I am reviewing a copy of Fatal Code through Revell and Netgalley:

The Granddaughter of one of the group of scientists known as the Los Alamos five who in 1964 came close to finishing a nuclear energy project for the United States government when they were abruptly disbanded, finds herself carrying a secret from her Grandfather that leaves a target on her back.  Elinor Mitchell discovers that she has highly sensitive information on the project in her possession, information people are willing to kill for.

Kekoa Young is a Snap Agent and former Navy cryptologist who was tasked with monitoring Elinor. This is both convenient since she's his neighbor in Washington, DC, and decidedly inconvenient because he likes her.

When Elinor starts following the clues her Grandfather left behind, clues to a top secret nuclear project, Kekoa has no choice but to step in. When Elinor learns he has been spying on her, she's crushed. But with danger closing in on all sides, she'll have to trust him to ensure her discoveries stay out of enemy hands.

In this book Natalie Walters sucks you into a story into the global race for space domination in this perfectly paced second installment of her SNAP Agency romantic suspense series.

I give Fatal Code five out of five stars! 

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Why, Believe

 

Why Believe?

A Reasoned Approach to Christianity

by Neil Shenvi

Pub Date 21 Jun 2022 |

 Crossway 

 Christian 

I am reviewing a copy of Why Believe? through Crossway and Netgalley:

Skeptics have disputed the claims of Christianity such as belief in an eternal God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ arguing that they simply cannot be accepted by reasonable individuals. Furthermore, efforts to demonstrate the evidence and rational basis for Christianity through apologetics are often deemed too simplistic to be taken seriously in intellectual circles.

Neil Shenvi, an apologist and theoretical chemist, engages some of the best contemporary arguments against Christianity, presenting compelling evidence for the identity of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels, his death and resurrection, the existence of God, and the unique message of the gospel.

I give Why, Believe five out of five stars!

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Book Review: When the Meadow Blooms

 

When the Meadow Blooms

by Ann H. Gabhart

Pub Date 03 May 2022 

 Revell 

 Christian  |  Historical Fiction 

I am reviewing a copy of When the Meadow Blooms through Revell and Netgalley:

If there’s a place on the earth that allows one to heal, certainly it is Meadowland.  Meadowland is her brother-in-law’s Kentucky farm, Rose and her daughters can recover from the events of the recent past the loss of her husband during the 1918 influenza epidemic, her struggle with tuberculosis that required a stay at a sanatorium, and her girls' experience in an orphanage during her illness. At Meadowland, hope blooms as their past troubles become rich soil in which their faith can grow.

Though Dirk Meadows opened his home to his brother widow and her girls, he keeps himself tightly closed.  His pain and it’s roots run deep, and the evidence of this is written across his face.  Badly scarred by a fire and abandoned by the woman he loved, Dirk fiercely guards his heart from being hurt again. But it may be that his visitors will bring light back into his world and unlock the secret to true healing.

Once again Ann Gabhart, weaves a story that draws you in from the moment it begins and doesn’t let go.

I give When the Meadow Blooms five out of five stars!

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Book Review: Prayers for Prodigals

 

Prayers for Prodigals

90 Days of Prayer for Your Child

by James Banks

Pub Date 01 Mar 2022 

 Our Daily Bread Publishing 

 Christian  |  Parenting & Families  |  Religion & Spirituality 

I am reviewing a copy of Prayer s for Prodigals: 90 Days of Prayers For Your Child through Our Daily Bread Publishing and Netgalley:

Are you a Christian parent, with a child whose fallen away?  If so this book may be just the encouragement you need.

One of the most devastating experiences a Christian parent can face is when a Child falls away from that relationship with Jesus.  James Banks experienced this once but not twice, he has also experienced the joy of answered prayer, of a prodigal restored. In this updated and expanded Prayers for Prodigals, you will be directed to the source of peace in painful circumstances.  

Each week you will find encouragement from a father who understands your heartbreak. And you will find daily scriptural prayers and prayer tips to help you come to the heavenly Father with gut-wrenching honesty and hope-filled persistence. As you face heartbreak and hopelessness, this book points to the ultimate source of hope God. And encourages you and your family to trust Him.

I give Prayers for Prodigals five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Invisible Child

 

Invisible Child

Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

by Andrea Elliott

Pub Date 05 Oct 2021

 Random House Publishing Group - Random House,  Random House

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Multicultural Interest 

I am reviewing a copy of Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City through Random House Publishing Group - Random House,  Random House and Netgalley:

Invisible Child by Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter.   Elliot weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. 

As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter “to protect those who I love.” When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?

I give Invisible Child five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Children of the Stone City

 

Children of the Stone City

by Beverley Naidoo

Pub Date 04 Oct 2022 |

 HarperCollins Children's Books,  Quill Tree Books

 Children's Fiction  |  Middle Grade 

I am reviewing a copy of Children of the Stone City through HarperCollins Children’s Books, Quill Tree Books and Netgalley:

From Carnegie Medal Winning Author Beverly Nairobi comes the story of Adam and his sister Leila, they are Nons, second class citizens, who live under the permitted ruling class.  Despite the fact that their life in Stone City being filled with family, stories, and music, they must carefully follow the rules, have all paperwork on hand, and never, ever do anything to anger a Permitted. When their father unexpectedly dies, they are even restricted in how they are allowed to grieve.

It isn’t long before Adam and Leila are back in school, practicing music, but after Adam’s friend Zak plays a bold prank on a group of Permitted boys, and Adam is implicated in Zak’s “crime,” Adam knows their lives will never be the same again.

I give Children of the Stone City five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: The Complication

 

The Complication

A Camille Delaney Mystery

by Amanda DuBois

Pub Date 14 Jun 2022

 Girl Friday Books 

 General Fiction (Adult)  |  Mystery & Thrillers  |  Women's Fiction 

I am reviewing a copy of The Complication through Girl Friday Books and Netgalley:

Seattle attorney Camille Delaney is determined to find out why her best friend    Dallas Jackson suffers a fatal complication during routine surgery.  Dallas acted as a Father to Camille , and she feels she owes it to him and his family to get answers.   She knows she could lose her partnership at her high-profile law firm for undertaking such an investigation, Camille takes a huge risk and starts her own firm, determined to bring Dallas’s killer to justice.  She looks to her friend Trish Seaholm for help, Seaholm is a quick-witted chameleonlike private investigator with an uncanny knack for blending into any situation.

Diving headfirst into a dangerous investigation, they discover disturbing evidence that Dallas’s case is not an isolated incident.   An alarming numbers of patients are dying during run-of-the-mill surgeries at small-town hospitals—at the hands of the same two surgeons. Can Camille uncover the reason for these unexplained deaths before more patients fall victim? Or will her search for answers land her in the crosshairs of a killer?

I give The Complication five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: The Wild Girls

 

The Wild Girls

A Novel

by Phoebe Morgan

Pub Date 26 Apr 2022 

 William Morrow and Custom House,  William Morrow Paperbacks

 General Fiction (Adult)  |  Mystery & Thrillers 

I am reviewing a copy of The Wild Girls through William Morrow and Netgalley:

Grace, Felicity, Alice, and Hannah hadn’t been together for years.  The “Wild Girls,” as they were once called, are no longer so wild. Alice is a teacher. Hannah has a new baby. Grace is a homebody. Only Felicity seems to have retained her former spark.

Felicity invites them all on the weekend of a lifetime—a birthday bash in Botswana.   It’s a chance to have fun and rekindle their once bomb-proof friendship… and finally put that one horrible night, all those years ago, behind them for good.

Soon after arriving at the luxury safari lodge, a feeling of unease settles over them. There’s no sign of the party that was promised. There’s no phone signal. They are on their own… and things start to go very, very wrong.

I give The Wild Girls five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Violeta

 

Violeta [English Edition]

A Novel

by Isabel Allende

Pub Date 25 Jan 2022 |

 Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine,  Ballantine Books

 Historical Fiction  |  Literary Fiction  |  Multicultural Interest

I am reviewing a copy of Violeta through Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Netgalley:

Violeta was born on a stormy winters day in 1920, she was the first girl after five boisterous sons.  From the beginning, her life was marked by extraordinary events!  The  ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

With her Fathers prescience there family will come through that crisis unscathed, but they will have to face a new one when the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses everything and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling.

Violeta tells her story the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting times of devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life is shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women’s rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and ultimately not one, but two pandemics.

I give Violeta five out of five stars! 

Happy Reading!

Book Review: The Woman in the Library

The Woman in the Library

A Novel

by Sulari Gentill

Pub Date 07 Jun 2022

 Poisoned Pen Press 

 General Fiction (Adult)  |  Mystery & Thrillers 

I am reviewing a copy of The Woman in the Library through Poisoned Press Library and Netgalley:

In the ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, but soon the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream.   The security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained.

While waiting for the all clear four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

I give The Woman in the Library five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Penny For Your Thoughts

 

Penny for Your Secrets

by Anna Lee Huber

Pub Date 29 Oct 2019 

 Kensington Books,  Kensington

 Historical Fiction  |  Mystery & Thrillers 

I am reviewing a copy of Penny For Your Secrets through Kensington Books and Netgalley:

Get ready to be transported back to England, 1919, where we meet former Secret Service agent Verity Kent, who is finding that life after wartime offers its own share of danger.

The Great War is over but for many there are still obstacles on the home front. Reconciling with her estranged husband makes Verity sympathetic to her friend Ada’s marital difficulties. Bourgeois-bred Ada, recently married to the Marquess of Rockham, is overwhelmed trying to navigate the ways of the aristocracy. And when Lord Rockham is discovered shot through the heart with a bullet from Ada’s revolver, Verity fears her friend has made a fatal blunder.

While working to prove Ada’s innocence, Verity is called upon for another favor. The sister of a former Secret Service colleague has been killed in what authorities believe was a home invasion gone wrong. The victim’s war work, censoring letters sent by soldiers from the front, exposed her to sensitive, disturbing material. Verity begins to suspect these two unlikely cases may be linked. But as the connections deepen, the consequences not just for Verity, but for Britain—grow more menacing than she could have imagined.

I give The Great War five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Behind the Lights

 

Behind the Lights

The Extraordinary Adventure of a Mum and Her Family

by Helen Smallbone

Pub Date 12 Apr 2022 

 K-LOVE Books 

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Christian  |  Nonfiction (Adult)

I am reviewing a copy of Behind the Lights through K-Love Books and Netgalley:

Helen Smallbone is the mother of seven creative children, including Christian music artists for KING & COUNTRY and Rebecca St. James chronicles the family’s journey of faith across the ocean to go where God was leading.  Behind the Lights is written from a Mothers perspective, and shares the stories of peaks, valleys, and a family trusting God for provision.

In this heartfelt memoir Helen Smallbone’s heartfelt story illustrates what it means to really let God lead, which almost always means living outside the box of how the world says to live.   How did an ordinary Australian family produce two Grammy Award–winning artists—Rebecca St. James and for KING & COUNTRY? What happened to bring the Smallbones through closed doors and to new beginnings in the United States? In Behind the Lights, Helen shares not only these stories of her family but of the life lessons they all learned along the way.

Helen and her husband, David, packed up their family and sixteen suitcases to move from Australia to the United States in 1991.  They were isolated from the support of family and friends, they relied on God to provide them with hope and direction. Helen watched her children join forces as Rebecca St. James’ career grew, soon followed by blossoming careers for the others—as artists, entrepreneurs, filmmakers—and the rise of Joel and Luke’s for KING & COUNTRY on Christian music charts

I give Behind the Lights five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!