Christian Bookworm

Another Stab at Life by Anita Higman is a good mystery with several twists and turns. Bailey inherits a rundown house that is straight out of  a horror movie and has a gruesome surprise waiting for her on her first night in her new home. She also meets Max, the man who promised to look after her until she finds a husband (who also happens to be a neighbor, and good looking).

She discovers she has some crazy neighbors, like the couple next door who she never sees and the lady across the street who hates cats. Bailey also makes a major discovery that enables her to remodel her house but also discovers someone trying to scare her off.  

Add a blossoming romance, the return of an old flame and a former best friend, some strange noises and spooky neighbors and you have the recipe for a great read. Once I started Another Stab at Life, I couldn’t wait to finish to see what happened in the end. It was worth it.

When we meet our heroine in Killer Cargo by Dana Mentink, she’s sitting on a small runway in her private plane waiting for someone to pick up her delivery of pet food. This is a routine delivery for her for one of her steady customers, so she thinks nothing of flying out to the back of beyond to deliver pet food. While she’s waiting she goes back and makes friends with a 3 legged bunny rabbit she names Homer. While sorting through her cargo, she discovers something she wasn’t meant to see and thus begins her “adventure.”

While running from some unsavory guys, she’s shot at, borrows a car, has a wreck and ends up at an animal refuge called One Word. She’s trying to convince the owner she’s telling the truth about what happened, and then the town Chief of Police, both of whom are suspicious of her. She also has to face her past and make her peace with God. There are a few more twists and turns, but I won’t give it away.

I enjoyed reading Killer Cargo. I couldn’t wait until the end, to see who the bad guy was..I guessed right..but will you? The book was an easy read with a good story line. I identified with the characters and felt myself pulling for Maria and her hero, hoping everything worked out in the end, even though I knew it probably would.

Killer Cargo (Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense #106)

Dana Mentink. Steeple Hill 2008, Mass Market Paperback, 224 pages, $5.50

My Soul to Keep by T. Davis Bunn is a modern day David and Goliath story. The book has several important characters, but the central character in the book is Brent, a former Hollywood star who spent time in prison because of drugs, alcohol and a wreck. In prison he became a believer, and has spent the last several years going to AA meetings, working hard at his landscape company, and acting in local theater productions.

Brent is approached by Bobby Dupree, a businessman who has been called by God to make a movie. And he has been led to Brent, who has no hope of ever working in film again. The movie he feels called to make is one that several years earlier, the writer had a huge legal battle after the studio changed her script and she fought to get it back.

Brent also goes to Celia Breach, the actress he was involved with when he was sent to prison and seeks her help on the project. She is angry and bitter, and determined to not give h im the forgiveness he seeks.

As Brent, Bobby, Celia, Candace and others are making this movie, Hollywood is determined to stop them at all costs. A fire, a lawsuit, damaging lies, all are tricks thought up by Shari Khan, a woman determined to make it big in Hollywood. But as they discover, when things look hopeless, that is when God’s work is most evident.

I loved this book. It made me laugh and cry. The characters are so very human and so flawed, but because of God’s grace even a life lived in destruction can become a testimony to His love and power.

My Soul to Keep

Davis Bunn. Bethany House 2007, Paperback, 400 pages, $13.99

Stonehaven by Amanda LacLean is the sequel to Westward. This is the story of Callie, who has traveled to Ohio to attend college, and is now 22. While attending Oberlin College, Callie becomes involved in the Underground Railroad after witnessing the murder of a child and assault of a runaway slave. Her position as leader of the Railroad is compromised and she is forced to leave in the middle of the night with one of her friends.

They decide to travel to Mississippi, to her friend Sheridan’s cousin Liam and the beloved plantation she had to leave behind when she was 16. Callie has vowed to once again have Stonehaven in her family and is suspicious of her Uncle Caleb’s business dealings. Once in Natchez, they enlist the help of Liam, who has also had dealings with her uncle and is in danger of losing everything to him.

Callie’s real plan however, is to return to Stonehaven and turn it into a major hub for the Underground Railroad. She is invited back by her uncle once he knows she is in town and soon she is overseeing the duties of the house. She also becomes involved with the Railroad, and then the man whom she has loved for several years, the son of friends from New Mexico, shows up in Natchez. She can’t tell him her secret, but with her Uncle Caleb searching out her secrets and determining the best way to get her out of his way, time is getting short. Hawk (her love) has been called to minister as a doctor to the people of his mother, the Mandan Indians, while she has no such calling and is determined to stay at Stonehaven.

Stonehaven (Palisades Pure Romance)

Amanda Maclean. Multnomah Books 1995, Paperback, 303 pages, $9.99

In The Betrayed, A Novel of the Gifted, Lisa Bergren picks up where we left our group. They were escaping Siena,the hometown of Lady Daria, the healer, after being betrayed by one of their group, and were on their way to Firenze to try to locate more parts of the letter they have and more of The Gifted.

The attacks of the enemy become more personal in The Betrayed. He decides to attack each one personally based on their weaknesses since they seem to be strong together. While in Firenze they discover one in their midst who is one of The Gifted, and they discover important clues that lead them where to travel to.

In the meantime, the Cardinal who used to employ Gianni is plotting to use The Gifted to further his own cause with the church to have the Vatican placed in the city of his choice. Lady Daria and her intrepid travelers make the acquaintence of a very influentianal couple in Firenze, when God intervenes as she gives birth to twins. Little does Lady Daria know how this will be of help to her later.

Once again, we see the humanity in our group of Gifted as they fall prey to human emotions and the flesh even though they have seen the power of God (you have to read the first book) time and time again. It reminds us that even though God calls us all differently and gifts us according to the call He plaes on our life, even though we are human and make mistakes, God can still work through us if we are willing.

I can’t wait until the third book in the series is released, sometime in 2008. I hope some inspired movie producer picks this series up and makes an epic of it such as Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia. What a testimony to God’s power and Grace.

The Betrayed (The Gifted Series, Book 2)

Lisa Tawn Bergren. Berkley Publishing Group 2007, Hardcover, 416 pages, $23.95