The Remnant by Monte Wolverton

I thoroughly enjoyed this dystopian novel. It is entertaining and is full of thought provoking scenes and interesting insights.

The year 2062 saw what was called the Final War. Major cities and nations were devastated. The war, combined with environmental disasters and pandemics, has left the world with merely a tenth of its previous population. A world government was formed and the World Federation banned all religion. All religious literature was destroyed. If a person would not sign the Affidavit of Renunciation, they were taken to work camps. The world economy was now based on this free work force.

In 2131, Grant and a number of others escape from their work camp. His parents and grandparents had been Christians and he still believed. He and his small band set out on a quest to find authentic Christianity. What they find is a commentary on what happens to Christians when there is no Bible to guide them, no authority or standard.

Grant and his group stumble across several “Christian” groups as they look for a genuine Christian experience. There is the leader who is obsessed with Christ's second coming. He's given dates for the return – all of them wrong. But he is really a con man and has a dedicated group of followers. Then there was the “health” group. Disease is of spiritual origin and they have incantations and odd foods to cure people. Their secret weapon was a “Holy Ghost cockroach.” Another group venerated a saint. Another group ingested drugs and had “spiritual” experiences. As I was reading this book I kept thinking of the many segments of Christianity we see promoted today.

There are a number of issues explored in this well written novel. How do groups get taken in by an errant leader? How would we survive if we didn't have our Bibles? Wolverton has deftly brought in lots of church history into the novel. How familiar are we with heresies from the past so that we could recognize them today? And, what is the real meaning of “church”?

Of all the issues covered in this book, perhaps the last one is the most important. Is it better for Christians and Christianity to have Christianity be against the law or to have it be accepted and used by the empire? We'll find out in a sequel.

I recommend this novel to readers who are ready to be challenged by a very possible future of being in a post apocalypse world without having been raptured.

I am taking part in a blog tour of this book and you can read more reviews here.

You can read excerpts here.

Find out more on Facebook and Twitter.

My rating: 5/5 stars.

Monte Wolverton is an award-winning author and syndicated editorial cartoonist. He is associate editor of CWR magazine. He is an ordained minister and holds a MA from Goddard College in Vermont. He and his wife make their home in southwestern Washington State.

Plain Truth Ministries, 272 pages. You can purchase a copy here.

I received as complimentary digital copy of this book through Litfuse. My comments are an independent and honest review.

End of the Roadie by Elizabeth Flynn

I enjoyed this British police procedure mystery, the third featuring D.I. Costello. It starts out with a bang, literally. D.C. Houseman and his date attend the concert of a popular singer. The rock star uses guns and whips to add sound effects to his performance. All goes well until after the concert is over. Houseman hears noise in the alley by the theater. Investigating, he finds the body of one of the band members. The man has been shot.

Flynn has given us a narrative with a good mix of police work and character development. The action is methodical and consistent. There are no scenes of suspense nor is there really any danger to any officers. I do like the personal nature of the narrative, getting to know Costello as she interacts with her team. We get to learn a bit about the theater, especially how a possible ticket scam might be run.

I recommend this novel to those who enjoy a good one about British police investigations. The thorough nature of Costello's work uncovers layers of misdeeds, including blackmail. This book is from England so there might be a little confusion with some of the terms. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the novel, the consistent police work, and knowing a bit more about Costello's team.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Elizabeth Flynn is a Londoner of Anglo-Irish parentage. She has a background in theater as both an actress and in stage management. You can find out more at http://elizabethflynnauthor.com/.

Lion Hudson, distributed in the U.S. by Kregel, 304 pages.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Keeping the Fire by Rolland Baker

The Bakers have had decades of a fruitful ministry in Mozambique. Rolland Baker shares in this book what has kept their fire going.

He gives the core values that have guided their ministry. 1. Find God. Hearts are hungry for a Person. Their focus has been seeking and finding God with all their hearts. 2. Depend on Miracles. That requires humble hearts and trusting God. Baker recounts many of the miracles they have experienced. 3. Go to the Least. Prove the love of God by helping the poor. Adorn the Gospel with love and good works. 4. Suffer for Him, if Necessary. They know they must die to live. They are willing to give up all for the Gospel and they share many experiences. 5. Rejoice in the Lord. Many reasons for joy in their work are given and we are reminded of the subject of their joy, Jesus.

I really like how the Bakers approach ministry. Their theology is well developed and balanced. They embrace the work of the Spirit but do not neglect the work of the cross. Baker is quick to say that these are their core values and every ministry cannot be made to fit them. Each ministry must seek God and find their own values.

He also suggests that these core values should be a part of the normal Christian life. As we stay on the path of adoration of Christ, we live out these values.

I recommend this book to Christians who want to know how to keep the fire of revival burning in their own lives and in the lives of others. The ministry of the Bakers' is a good example and great inspiration.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Rolland Baker and his wife, Heidi, are the founders of Iris Global (www.irisglobal.org). After serving as missionaries in Indonesia and Hong Kong, the Bakers followed God's call to Mozambique in 1995. Through their ministry, they watch God provide miraculously for well over 10,000 children every day, plus many more through the Iris network of more than 15,000 churches, Bible schools, primary schools and remote outreach programs. They live in Mozambique, Africa.

Chosen Books, 144 pages.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Kissing Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn

Finding Father Christmas, a Hallmark movie, airs November 13.

This is the third novella in the Father Christmas series. You can read my review of the first two here.

We are introduced to a new main character in this story. Anna is a niece of Andrew's first wife. She had visited England earlier to attend the wedding of her cousin Ian and Miranda. She had met Peter, Ian's best man, and fallen for him. After several months back in Minnesota, Anna has returned to England to celebrate Christmas with her relatives and friends. She has let her imagination form a romantic future with Peter. Unfortunately, he has another plan for his future and it does not include Anna.

Gunn has crafted another good Christmas romance. The story will tug at your heart. Openness and honesty are strong themes in the plot. We learn some interesting facts about structures in London as Peter takes Anna on a tour.

I would have liked to know a little more about Anna. Even though she is the main character, I felt she was not developed well. She is an artist and a romantic dreamer. How did she get to be that way, living in a sort of fairy tale world? How did this branch of Andrew's in-laws come to be in Minnesota? There was much action in this novella but I do wish there had been more background material. Gunn set the standard in the earlier novellas in this series, helping readers understand Miranda. I wish she had done the same here with Anna.

Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable story. It is a good portrayal of the true nature of grace and love. There is a Reading Group Guide included.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Robin Jones Gunn is the bestselling author of more than 90 books with five million copies sold worldwide. She and her husband have two grown daughters and live in Hawaii. You can find out more at www.robingunn.com.

FaithWords, 192 pages.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My thoughts are an independent and honest review.

Finding Father Christmas, Engaging Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn

Finding Father Christmas, a Hallmark Christmas movie, airs November 13.

This combination of two previously published Christmas novellas by Gunn is a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

We are introduced to Miranda in Finding Father Christmas. An American, she's taken a Christmas vacation from her work and flown to a village in England. She's trying to find information about her father, someone her mother never talked about. The only clue she has is a photograph of a boy crying while in the lap of an oddly dressed Santa. She had found the photograph among her mother's things after her death. The address of the photograph studio on the back of the photo had led her to this quaint location. What she is about to find out would change her life forever.

In the sequel, Engaging Father Christmas, Miranda has returned to England for Christmas a year later. She's met by Ian, a close friend of her newly discovered family. Miranda's dream of an idyllic Christmas with the man she deeply loves is marred by the hospitalization of Ian's father. There is also the tension radiating from some in her new family. Will grace and peace from Christ heal the fractures in Miranda's life?

I thoroughly enjoyed these stories. Gunn knows how to tug at our heart strings. The characters she develops in the stories pull at our emotions. Since these are short stories, the only well developed character is Miranda. She has scars from being raised by a single parent, an actress, who died when Miranda was still young. Her longing to find the other half of her family is well portrayed. On the English side, we have some typically reserved characters as well as some surprisingly welcoming ones. I really liked Miranda's newly discovered niece and nephew. Those youngsters had good insight into expressing the love of Christ.

I liked the setting of a small English village at Christmas. I enjoyed the tradition of villagers presenting an adaptation of The Christmas Carol. I liked how the villagers coped with their main character in hospital.

I recommend this combination of two stories to those who would enjoy a heartwarming Christmas in England with the true spirit of the season revealed. There are very good Reading Group Guides at the end of each novella. This would be a good choice for a reading group to read during the Christmas season.

Finding Father Christmas is going to be a Hallmark Christmas movie, airing November 13 on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Robin Jones Gunn is the bestselling author of more than 90 books with five million copies sold worldwide. She and her husband have two grown daughters and live in Hawaii. You can find out more at www.robingunn.com.

FaithWords, 352.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

The Visitor's Book by Sophie Hannah

This is the second short story collection I have read by Hannah. (You can read my review of The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets here.) I found the impact of the stories in this book to be rather uneven. These are supposed to be ghost stories and there are a few that rise to the level of spine-tingling. There are others, however, that I felt were not very exciting.

Hannah does, in several of the stories, take scenes from everyday life and add a sense of fear. The story about the visitor's book is a good one. Invited on a date to a very ordinary dwelling, a young woman balks when asked by the fellow to sign a visitor's book. She later investigates and finds out the significance of signing that book. Characteristic of Hannah's plot construction, we are left hanging.

Another story I really liked was of a young boy's birthday party. After the chaos of a house full of children, there is one child left unclaimed by parents. His presence, real or not, is a vision of the future for the family.

There were two stories that were excerpts from Hannah's novels. I found these stories did not have the impact that some others in the collection had.

I appreciate some of the issues Hannah covers in her stories. One deals with perception. How do we know that what we see, or at least think we see, is reality? How can we tell if it is our imagination? Another issue is dealing with preconceived ideas and what we observe or miss seeing because of them.

Each of the stories in this collection was interesting. The impact of each story varied greatly. I was disappointed that there wasn't more of the spine tingling fiction included.

I am taking part in a blog tour of this book. Click here to view the 'The Visitor’s Book by Sophie Hannah' Tour Participants.

My rating: 4/5.

Sophie Hannah is the New York Times-bestselling author of numerous psychological thrillers, which have been published in 27 countries and adapted for television, as well as The Monogram Murders, the first Hercule Poirot novel authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie. Catch Up with Sophie Hannah on her Website & Twitter!

Book Details:

Genre: Short Stories, Thriller
Published by: Witness Impulse
Publication Date: November 1st 2016
Number of Pages: 120
ISBN: 0062562126 (ISBN13: 9780062562128)
Purchase Links: Amazon Barnes & Noble Goodreads

Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.

The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets by Sophie Hannah

Book Synopsis:

A collection of ingenious suspense stories from one of today's most acclaimed novelists in the genre. Everybody has their secrets, and in Hannah's fantastic stories the curtains positively twitch with them. Who, for instance, is the hooded figure hiding in the bushes outside a young man's house? Why does the same stranger keep appearing in the background of a family's holiday photographs? What makes a woman stand mesmerized by two children in a school playground, children she's never met but whose names she knows well? And which secret results in a former literary festival director sorting soiled laundry in a shabby hotel? All will be revealed...but at a cost. As Sophia Hannah uncovers the dark obsessions and strange longings behind the most ordinary relationships, life will never be quite the same again.

My review:

These short stories are certainly unusual, like nothing I have read before. Each one is an investigation into the hidden thoughts of the main character. Thoughts are swirling in one direction while the person is saying something in a different direction. Inner imaginations and desires are hidden by outer benign behavior.

The stories are a study in character and the psychology of the human condition. One person might be passive aggressive while another is a would be murderer. Each story centers on secrets. Perhaps one character wants to keep the secret hidden but another wants to tell all. Hannah takes what has been festering inside a person and creates a story around it.

The most disconcerting aspect of these stories is the endings, or rather, the non-endings. Each story seems to end unresolved. At first I was taken aback. Then I began to wonder what each character might have done next or how the situation might ultimately be resolved. A reading group might enjoy discussing the possible story resolutions.

Note: There is one story that contains explicit sex scenes and explores pornographic thoughts. Readers who disapprove of casual sex or the use of pornography will not appreciate that story.

Readers who are interested in the hidden thoughts of characters will find much to explore in these stories. 

I am taking part of a blog tour of this book. Click here to view the 'The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets by Sophie Hannah' Tour Participants.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Sophie Hannah is the New York Times-bestselling author of numerous psychological thrillers, which have been published in 27 countries and adapted for television, as well as The Monogram Murders, the first Hercule Poirot novel authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie. Catch Up with Sophie Hannah on her Website, Twitter, or Facebook

Book Details:

Genre: Short Stories, Thriller
Published by: Witness Impulse
Publication Date: October 11th 2016
Number of Pages: 120
ISBN: 0062562096 (ISBN13: 9780062562098)
Purchase Links: Amazon Barnes & Noble Goodreads

Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Partners in Crime Virtual Book tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Escape Velocity by Susan Wolfe

Wolfe has given us a great legal thriller with a twist. It took me a while to get into the novel but by midway, I was hooked.

Synopsis:

Georgia Griffin has just arrived in Silicon Valley from Piney, Arkansas in a battered car with bald tires. She desperately needs to keep her new job as a paralegal for Lumina Software so she can rescue her younger sister from the totally unsuitable situation back home. She spends her first weeks living in her car, saving money for an apartment. She realizes before long that there is something seriously wrong with her new company. Incompetence has paralyzed leadership. Self serving employees have a death grip on the business. She had promised herself she would not follow in her father's con artist footsteps. But then an opportunity presents itself and she decides to use her father's training to clean up the company. Soon she has become a masterful con artist, continuing in her attempts to save the software company. She stumbles across a secret that might prove deadly. It might also be the answer to all of Lumina's problems. Is she willing to take the risk?

My review:

Wolfe has crafted a very interesting character in Georgia. She's got a good heart and wants to really set things right in the software company. How she goes about it is innovative. She has learned well from her father and can spot the mark and set up the con. Her form of the con is to see an incompetent person leave the company. This is one of those times when I wonder if the end justifies the means. But I enjoyed learning about how Georgia would create the con, observing the personality of the person and finding their weak spot and then pouncing.

Additional characters in the novel reveal the atmosphere in the company. Wolfe has done a great job of creating the incompetent bully, the aspiring “yes” person, the arrogant CEO, and more. I learned much about how leadership in such a company might function, especially the inter-departmental jealousy.

The plot was well crafted too. It took me a while to get into the action. Georgia methodically pursues her cleansing work and I thought some of it a bit repetitive. The last quarter of the book made all the rest worth while. At the end we understand what was really going on in the software company. What a revelation of what powerful men can do. But they hadn't counted on Georgia!

I recommend this novel to those who enjoy a legal novel with a serious twist. Georgia is a crafty woman who combines her legal knowledge and her ability to create the perfect con with her passion to save Lumina. A con artist with a heart. An unusual character in an engaging plot made for good reading.

You can read an excerpt here.

I am taking part in a blog tour of this book. Click here to view the 'Escape Velocity by Susan Wolfe' Tour Participants.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Susan Wolfe is a lawyer with a B.A. From the University of Chicago and a law degree from Stanford University. After four years of practicing law full time, she bailed out and wrote the best-selling novel, The Last Billable Hour, which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. She returned to law for another sixteen years, first as a criminal defense attorney and then as an in-house lawyer for Silicon Valley high-tech companies. She and her husband live in Palo Alto, California. You can find out more at her website or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Book Details:

Genre: Thriller / Suspense
Published by: Steelkilt Press
Publication Date: October 4th 2016
Number of Pages: 432
ISBN: 0997211717 (ISBN13: 9780997211719)
Purchase Links: Amazon , Barnes & Noble , & Goodreads 

Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.