The Shock of Night: Patrick Carr

By Kelly Bridgewater

Synopsis:

The Darkwater Claims All Who Enter It.

All But One. 

When one man is brutally murdered and the priest he works for mortally wounded, Willet Dura, reeve to the king of Bunard, is called to investigate. As he begins to question the dying priest, the man pulls Willet close and screams in a foreign tongue. Then he dies without another word.

Willet returns to his task, but the clues to the crime lead to contradictions and questions without answers, and his senses are skewed. People he touches appear to have a subtle shift, as though he can divine their deepest thoughts. In a world divided between haves and have-nots, gifted and common, Willet soon learns he's been passed the rarest gift of all--a gift that's not supposed to exist. 

Now Willet must pursue the murderer still on the loose in Bunard even as he's pulled into a dangerous conflict that threatens not only his city, but his entire world--a conflict  that will force him to come to terms with his inability to remember how he escaped the Darkwater Forest--and what happened to him inside it. 

From Amazon

My Thoughts:

I have read the first series by Patrick Carr, The Staff and the Sword, and I enjoyed it. It has everything I would want in a fantasy series. Intrigue. Action. A unique setting that is fully described with different characteristics. Carr’s newest series, The Darkwater Saga fulfills these similar requirements.

One of my favorite things about Carr’s writing is his ability to create a different world and make it jump off the page. Even though the world of Bunard is totally fictional, Carr uses descriptive images to bring the world to life, so I can suspend my belief and join Willet on the journey to solve the mystery. Carr captures the essence of a true fantasy novel like Tolkien and Lewis and invited me in to join the conflict on the page.

Speaking of the conflict, I was amazed at the unique tension in this story. Carr intermingles mystery with his world of fantasy, involving the gifts that every person has been created with by God. This takes a different path for the story. The conflict also centers on the social order of those who have the gifts and those who do not, which is comparable to the hierarchy in the world’s society today.

I did have an issue with how the story was written. There is A LOT of prose and not that much dialogue. As someone who enjoys reading a story that moves at a fast pace, The Shock of Night does not really move along at a nice clip. I trudged through the pages after pages after pages of description and back story, making it easy for me to put the book down and hurry into another book that I could lose myself in. I found it really hard to get into and wanted to put the book down a number of times. Actually, I did. I went to other books, but knew I had to finish this book in a timely fashion, so I picked it up again and skipped a lot of pages that were filled with prose.

I read the prequel novella, “The Divine Right”, and I recommend anyone to read that one before they jump into The Shock of Night. There is a lot of key information that needs to be understood before reading the actual series.

In true literary fashion, Patrick Carr’s The Shock of Night welcomed me into a world of disbelief that is filled with suspense, intrigue, and action. Get past all the prose and the story will capture your attention.

I received a complimentary copy of The Shock of Night from Bethany House and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Purchase The Shock of Night

What aspect of Patrick Carr’s writing sparks your interest in the fantasy genre?

Power of Story

www.writingyourlife.org

By Kelly Bridgewater

What is the character who stuck with you the most from any book?

A character who stuck with me is Edmund Dantes from Alexandre Dumas' literary masterpiece The Count of Monte Cristo. I felt so bad when he had everything going for him, being a captain of the Pharaon with the most beautiful woman in town about to marry him, a loving father, and the respect of important figures in town. But then, a couple of men became jealous and wanted to hide their secrets, so they shamed Edmund and stuck him in prison for 17 years before he got out. I'm not going to tell you how he got out. Everyone should read this book. It is a book I return to every year. LOVE it!! This story keeps me engaged.

While the character stick with me, I love the plot too. It is about revenge and forgiveness. If Edmund Dantes would have allowed the revenge to keep root in his heart, it would have torn him apart. Piece by piece. I love stories where the underdog comes out on top. Those are the types of stories that I am drawn to. 

But how many times do you hear from a reader commenting on a writer's Facebook page or a review of their book saying that this book changed their life?

A lot. I know. 

How about the woman who is struggling with her marriage, but Karen Kingsbury's A Time to Dance and A Time to Embrace helped reunite the couple? Or reading a certain book while int the hospital helped a patient fighting for his/her life with cancer?

I want to be the type of reader that keeps my reader engaged in the plot and interact with my characters on a personal and emotional level.  

www.moodywriting.blogspot.com

But I most want to write a story that God places on my heart and use it to help or change someone's life. I want to see someone grow closer to God after reading my story or see someone give their life to God because the Gospel wasn't even handed to them in that fashion. 

Don't we all want that?

The opportunity to change  a life.

What story have you read the changed your life and how?

James Rubart: The Five Times I Met Myself

By Kelly Bridgewater

Description:

What if you met your twenty-three year old self in a dream? What would you say?

Brock Matthews’ once promising life is unraveling. His coffee company. His marriage.

So when he discovers his vivid dreams—where he encounters his younger self—might let him change his past mistakes, he jumps at the chance. The results are astonishing, but also disturbing.

Because getting what Brock wants most in the world will force him to give up the one thing he doesn’t know how to let go of . . . and his greatest fear is it’s already too late.

My Thoughts:

From Amazon

James Rubart is an author that I have never read. I have heard many people talk about how good his books are, and even took a class offered by him at the 2014 ACFW conference. I even planned to read all his books this year, but review copies of books keep showing up at my door, and I don’t have time to squeeze anything else in. But when The Five Times I Met Myself came up for review, I said yes because I finally get to read a book by James Rubart. And I’m really glad I did.

Getting down into the soul of a person is Rubart’s greatest strength in my opinion. Right from the first chapter, I could totally relate the marriage of Brock and Karissa. Being married for fourteen years with three boys and one a teenager, I sometimes feel like my husband and I are missing the fun we used to have together. Time flies by and schedules for the kids and our lives keep us busy, so we don’t date and pursue each other much as we should. I have had doubts and wondering if I went back and made different decisions would my life be different? That is what Rubart is getting at. God has a plan for our lives, and we should trust him with the plan.

Rubart’s use of short chapters intermingled with time jumps didn’t confuse me at all. Brock comes back to a number of different versions of 2015 before dream hopping back into the past. When he dreams, he travels to a whole bunch of different times in the past. The transitions between the time periods were woven seamlessly together with Brock going to sleep or waking up to an alarm that I followed Brock on his journey. I had a really hard time putting the book down. It captured my attention and did not let go. I wanted to see how Brock would end up.

The title says five times that Future Brock met younger Brock, but I counted seven. As I reflected on the story, I wondered why Rubart only mentioned five times in the title, not seven. I think, and I could be wrong here, but the five times he first met him are the times he asked for younger Brock to change something in his life. Those five times had a profound effect on his future. The last two times were to fix the mistakes he instructed younger Brock to take. Seven is an important number in the Christian faith so that could be a connection too.

Restoration can happen at any time and can take many years to feel the full effect. Rubart did a great job at showing how one decision can affect our entire future. If we’re not spending time with our kids, what could our children perceive our relationship as? If our job is more important or finishing the last chapter in a book instead of hanging out with them, do they resent you as the years pass? Even I struggle with this.

I wouldn’t change anything about the story; I truly loved it.

In conclusion, James Rubart’s The Five Times I Met Myself is a original, gripping narrative that had me questioning what do I place value in and do I really trust God’s will for my life. I really enjoyed this book and need to go find the rest of Rubart’s books, so I can stand stronger on my faith. The Five Times I Met Myself haunts me even now, long after I finished the story.

I received a complimentary copy of The Five Times I Met Myself from Thomas Nelson and the opinions stated are all my own. 

My Rating: 5 out 5 stars                      

Purchase The Five Times I Met Myself

What Susan May Warren Means to Me

By Kelly Bridgewater

I hope that this past couple of months you have joined this journey with me on sharing the twelve authors who have influenced my writing. This will be the tenth post. I have discussed C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Steven James, Robin Jones Gunn, and Dee Henderson.

From Amazon

Today, I will be discussing an author who writes fabulous books while using her God-given talent to teach others through her My Book Therapy. Of course, I’m talking about Susan May Warren. I have met her twice at the 2013 and 2014 ACFW conference. She is always smiling and giving away free hugs.

I was introduced to Susan May Warren after my family moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, and I was checking out about 15-20 books a month at the library. The library was only a fifteen minute walk from my house, so I would load up the boys and head there practically every other day. It was a great way to get my toddler boys out of the house. Plus, they loved to explore the neighborhood.

I was perusing the books and came across Happily Ever After, one of the first Deep Haven books written by Susan May Warren. In the upper right hand corner is a yellow promotion bubble with the words, “I enjoyed every minute. Dee Henderson.” Being an avid reader of Dee Henderson (if you read last month’s entry, you’ll know why!), I took her advice and checked out my first Susan May Warren book. I agreed with Dee Henderson. The book was great.

Then I found out she wrote a three-book series called “Team Hope,” which was romantic suspense. They had those at the library. I checked them out and devoured them within two days. Just in time for me to return to the library and check out more.

Susan May Warren creates stories that grab at your heart and doesn’t let go. I still buy her books and review them the moment they are offered by the publishing company. I couldn’t ask for someone who writes so well and uses the talent God has given her to teach and encourage others to write better.

Me with Susan May Warren at the ACFW Conference in 2014

During 2015, I have taken a number of her books and studied how she uses the senses to captivate her audience. That is one of the strongest things about Susan’s writing. I can always feel the wind on my neck as the characters stand in three feet of snow. I love feeling like I’m the character, struggling and feeling overjoyed with them. I know other writers do it well too, but for some reason, Susan May Warren just tugs at my writer’s part of the brain when I read her books.

I thank Susan May Warren, personally, for all her time she spends helping unpublished writers, like me, who are working and studying the craft, hoping to earn her first publishing contract.

What author do you study for inspiration to improve an aspect of your writing? What is that aspect of writing you hope to improve?

Janice Thompson: Every Girl Gets Confused

By Kelly Bridgewater

From Amazon

Back Cover Copy:

Katie Fisher and Brady James may be a match made in heaven, but that doesn't seem to guarantee them a happily ever after accompanied by angelic choirs. In fact, the sounds being heard at the bridal shop where she works are on the contentious side lately, as a bride- and groom-to-be try to mediate the growing rivalry between their basketball-obsessed families in the middle of play-off season. On top of that, Katie's parents are nagging her to get out of Dallas and come home to tiny Fairfield where her former boyfriend Carson is waiting for her, ready to rekindle their relationship. Oy vey! What's a girl to do? And will she ever be able to wear that gorgeous wedding dress she won?

The breezy fun continues as Janice Thompson throws everyone's favorite small-town girl into big-city bridal chaos--and makes her choose between the love she thought she lost and the love she stumbled upon in the aftermath.

My Thoughts:

I read Every Bride Needs a Groom, and I loved getting to know Katie Fisher. I was excited to know there was a second book in the series, Every Girl Gets Confused, which reminded me of why I enjoyed the first book. I love a story that has a small town girl who heads to the big city and tries to make a name for herself, something different than what she originally was. Thompson does exactly what a contemporary romance should do.

From the first page, I was reminded of the events that occurred in Every Bride Needs a Groom. I felt like no time had passed since I read that story. I remember the connection between Katie Fisher and the bridal shop, Cosmopolitan Bridal. I couldn’t forget her unengagement to Casey and her new developing relationship with ex-basketball player Brady James. Thompson created a story that brought comfort, joy, and a sense of familiarity when I opened this book.

In the second book, Katie struggles with feelings of homesickness. She keeps returning home to prepare for her grandmother Queenie’s upcoming wedding to a local pastor. During this book, Thanksgiving and Christmas occur, which brings a lot of memories of home and fitting in where she belongs. To throw another wrench in the pile, Thompson brings back Casey, her almost finance, and Katie ponders if she did the right thing in moving on to Brady. Even through all her emotions, Katie is still a successful business woman with tons of ideas to improve Cosmopolitan Bridal, even when she works herself to pure exhaustion. I really relate to how much she wants to succeed, but life throws her for a loop

Seasons. The story hits on the theme of the different seasons of our lives. Some seasons are good, warm, and bright while other seasons have more treacherous weather with a variety of storms, but we have to learn to trust in the Lord with every difficulty in our lives. The footprints poem came to mind when I think of all the different seasons and how we cope with them.

I think I enjoyed Every Girl Gets Confused more than most contemporary romance novel because of the continuing main character. I enjoyed returning to a setting that I knew well and returning to a character that I could relate to. It was nice watching her grow and mature from the girl I met at the beginning of Every Bride Needs a Groom. In that book, all Katie thought about was getting engaged and settling down. But now, Katie doesn’t define herself by whether or not she is getting married. She is making a name for herself in the Bridal business. She is still improving spiritually and emotionally. Just like me.

I wouldn’t change anything about the story; I enjoyed it just the way it was.

In true bridal fashion, Janice Thompson’s Every Girl Gets Confused comforted me and reminded me of all the trials in my life and how I need to stay focused on God’s plan for my life, not my plan for my life. I can’t wait for the third book in the series, so I can see what becomes of Brady and Katie’s whirlwind romance.

I received a complimentary copy from Revell Publishing and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Purchase Every Girl Gets Confused

Imagination is more important than . . . : *2 BOOK GIVEAWAY*

By Kelly Bridgewater

www.flickr.com

Imagination is more important than . . .?

Do you know the answer to that quotation?

Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Do you believe it?

As writers, we spend most of our days with our head in the clouds, looking for the next good chapter or book idea to fill our time. But I wonder, how did you allow your imagination to roam free as a child?

As a child, me and my best friend, Robin, used to run around and play in her side yard all day long. We used a tree that grew right next to her fence as horses. The branches moved up and down, so we would climb the tree and straddled the branches. We would go far across the open plain and fight knights and villians who attacked us.

Robin's side yard was pretty big or maybe it just appeared big to our imaginations. We saw a huge mansion where we would walk in circles, but we saw the curved stairs, leading to the upper floors of ornate home with our beds. The neigbor across the street had this huge tree with branches that grew up like stairs, so Robin and I would spend hours climbing up the tree and talking and laughing.

We even created our own world with our own storyline called IceLand. Robin and I were twin sisters sent to Earth when the Evil witch destroyed our Ice home, another planet out in the galaxy. We were sent in pods to earth by the king and queen who were our parents. It kept us occupied for hours.

Plus, what young girl in the early nineties did not play with Barbies. Robin and I played for hours. I enjoyed playing at her house because she actually had the Barbie dream house with all the furniture. Robin would buy two of the same dolls, which of course, we made as twins who lived in different homes.

www.inspirationalhunter.com

As a child, this was how I kept my imagination on overdrive. Since then, I have seen the benefit of my overactive imagination. It has allowed me to stayed glued to the computer screen and watch my characters interact with each other on the page. I can imagine my story world to the finest detail, even though sometimes it doesn't come out on the page like I want it to.

What did you do as a child to stimulate your imagination? Come on, I shared some stories that my friend, Robin will probably cringe that I have put out in cyberspace. Now it is your turn.

Amazon

**************Giveaway*******************

Want to win a hardback copy of A Novel Idea: Best Advice on Writing Inspirational Fiction? I'm also throwing in a copy of Hiding Places by Erin Healy.

Enter at the Rafflecopter below!

*Open to US Residents only! Sorry!

Good luck!

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Mrs. Roosevelt Confidante: Susan Elia MacNeal

By Kelly Bridgewater

Synopsis:

December 1941. Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C., along with special agent Maggie Hope. Posing as his typist, she is accompanying the prime minister as he meets with President Roosevelt to negotiate the United States’ entry into World War II. When one of the First Lady’s aides is mysteriously murdered, Maggie is quickly drawn into Mrs. Roosevelt’s inner circle—as ER herself is implicated in the crime. Maggie knows she must keep the investigation quiet, so she employs her unparalleled skills at code breaking and espionage to figure out who would target Mrs. Roosevelt, and why. What Maggie uncovers is a shocking conspiracy that could jeopardize American support for the war and leave the fate of the world hanging dangerously in the balance.

From Amazon

My Thoughts:

I am a huge World War II junkie. I love everything about the period. The clothes. The music. The external and internal conflicts. By reading Sarah Sundin, Liz Tolsma, and Kristy Cambron, it has sparked my renewed interests in the period. I wanted to find something to do with mystery during the same era, so I found Susan Elia MacNeal’s  Maggie Hope’s mysteries. Her books have everything you would want in a World War II historical mystery. A recurring character. An interesting setting. Unique perspective.

One of MacNeal’s greatest strengths in my humble opinion is her ability to bring characters to life who I have met in history books. For instance in Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante, I got to meet and hang out with Eleanor Roosevelt for a while. In the history books, I have learned about her accomplishments as she stood behind her husband President FDR, but MacNeal brings her to life. In her previous books in this series, I got to hang out with Prime Minister Winston Churchill. She does a good job at making these historical characters real.

I really enjoyed her descriptive setting. MacNeal captures London and America during the World War II conflict. I could see the burned out buildings in London and see the Christmas lights shining in America, even though Pearl Harbor just occurred a couple of weeks ago. MacNeal really understands how the setting makes the story.

The conflict is unique, yet powerful. For someone like me, suspense in any time period makes the story more riveting, grabbing me from the first page, and MacNeal does that. There is a dead woman lying in a bathtub with slit wrists, so MacNeal drags Mrs. Roosevelt and Maggie through the pages of the story as they try to figure out who murdered her.

For the members of the CBA market, there is a word of warning. MaNeal does mention homosexuality like it is nothing, so be prepared to read moments where she describes a couple of key characters in this type of relationship. It made me flip through those pages pretty quickly, but it doesn’t ruin the story.

In true historical significance Susan Elia MacNeal’s latest mystery in her Maggie Hope series continues with a familiar character and allows me to return to World War II and solve the mystery.  If you are a World War II buff and a mystery lover, than this book is for you!

I received a complimentary copy of Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante from Random House through Netgalley and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Purchase Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante

Have you ever tried anything from Susan Elia MacNeal? What aspect of her historical World War II suspense series captures your attention?