Thursday, November 19, 2015

Rising Darkness by Nancy Mehl

Rising Darkness's main character is Sophie Wittenbauer aka Sophie Bauer aka Emily McClure. Sophie escaped her Mennonite hometown, Kingdom, Kansas, when she was eighteen, and reinvented herself. She achieved college, and is now an aspiring crime writer/ journalist. In the story, she tracks down a murderer named Terrence Chase to a small town, Sanctuary, Missouri, where she thinks he's hiding out. There she finds some ghosts from her past, and memories that won't stop haunting her.

After trying to maintain a cover and alias for all of two days, she is confronted by the sweet, elderly woman she is staying with. Sophie soon begins to realize that everyone in Sanctuary has a not-so-perfect past, and that maybe if she makes the choice to trust, she could finally feel grace.

This was a very good book. The characters were deep and emotionally three dimensional. Mehl did a fantastic job pulling the reader in, keeping them interested, and ending the story in a satisfying fashion, but also let the reader formulate the next chain of events.

Though I thought I knew who the criminal was, I was, of course, mistaken. The end of the mystery was an outcome that I never would have considered!

All in all, I loved this book, and I highly recommend it!

DISCLAIMER :I was given Rising Darkness in exchange for my honest opinion by Bethany House Publishers.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

A Refuge at Highland Hall by Carrie Turansky

A Refuge at Highland Hall is a romance about a young British woman and a Royal Naval Air Service officer during World War I.

http://images.randomhouse.com/cover/9781601425003?width=125&alt=no_cover_b4b.gifPenelope (Penny) Ramsey lives with her sister Kate, and Kate's husband, Jon. She takes on the role of nanny to  Kate and Jon's adopted children and loves them very much. One day she meets Alex, an aviator in training, and there is an instant attraction for both of them. They develop a friendship after a German Zeppelin raid, where he saves the youngest of the children, Irene. Just a few days later, Alex is stationed in St. Pol, France, where he quickly forges friendships, makes successful bombings, and continues his and Penny's relationship through letters.

At the risk of sounding harsh, the characters weren't believable, the story idea itself was unoriginal and predictable, and the dialogue was unrealistic. "He had a duty a to preform. And he wouldn't let anything stand in his way... even his own traitorous heart." (Page 12) Are there really grown men who talk like that?

I may not have enjoyed the aforementioned things, but I really did like Alex's missions. They were exciting, fun (for the most part), and I found myself on the edge of me seat during them.

I wish I had liked the story more and given it a better review, but I can't.

I was sent this book in exchange for my honest opinion by Blogging for Books.