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shelfreflectionofficial's Reviews (858)
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
I read this book during the 40 days of Lent this year and it was an encouraging yet convicting time! This is by no means a book purely for anticipating Easter because the message of Easter is for every day. Read this at any time of year and you will find truth and hope for your soul.
This book consists of 40 devotional readings 1-2.5 pages long (of a small book) each ending with a short reflection paragraph and a short prayer. All of the material is taken from sermons given by Charles H. Spurgeon. The book was compiled by Jeff Medders.
There is an appendix in the book that lists each sermon the material was derived for each devotion as well as where you can locate those sermons if you want to read/hear more on the subject.
The devotions were very short but most of them packed a punch! Deep thinking here and bringing to light new facets of familiar passages for me that I really enjoyed.
I’ll share some of the things that stuck out and some quotes to give you a taste of what you’ll be reading.
In the devotion about John the Baptist he talks about how John the Baptist can’t be understood apart from Christ because he was to bear witness to Jesus.
“May our lives be such that they cannot be understood apart from Jesus. May it be the case that if we were to take him away, our whole character would become an inexplicable mystery. I am afraid that some professing Christians could be easily interpreted apart from Christ…”
“Repentance without hope is hell. It is hell to grieve for sin with the pangs of bitter remorse and yet to know that pardon can never come and mercy can never be granted. Repentance, with the cross before its eyes, is heaven itself.”
This next one was said within the context of evangelism— Jesus making us fishers of men. He talks about fishing being an act of faith: “Where has God’s providence taken you so you can cast your net and win souls for Christ?” We don’t want our relationship with God to be “only right doctrine and right living that never leads to right evangelism.”
And I love this quote for that purpose, but also just in the sense that we can’t truly encounter Jesus and come away unchanged. He transforms. He ‘makes.’ And in faith, we entrust him with who we are and who he wants us to be, and by his grace he will finish what he started. Exciting to think about.
“When Christ calls us by his grace, we ought not only to remember what we are, but we also ought to think of what he can make us. Jesus starts by saying, ‘Follow me, and I will make you…’ We should repent of what we have been but rejoice in what we may be. It is not ‘Follow me because you may make something of yourselves’, but ‘Follow me because of what I will make of you.’”
Talking of feeding the five thousand:
“Let us bring all we have to Christ in faith, laying it at his feet, believing that his great power can make little means suffice for mighty ends… We can bring our meager talents and abilities to him— and watch him work!”
In regards to the story of the prodigal son:
“We see the prodigal father ran. Slow are the steps of repentance, but swift are the feet of forgiveness. God can run when we can scarcely limp…”
And then he talks about the filthy rags the son shows up in and how the father has a feast prepared for him. When the son said, ‘Father, I have sinned’ the father’s next words are: ‘Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him’
“And so the Father covers all our sins with Christ’s righteousness… When the repentant sinner comes to God, his or her past is not only covered by the righteousness of Christ, but they are prepared for the future blessedness which is reserved for the pardoned ones.”
“Consecrate to the Savior all that you have: every faculty, power, possession, and ability… Half a heart given to Christ? Never. Half a life given to Christ? Half your faculties, half your powers given to Christ? It is an unworthy gift. He gave you his all, and he claims all of you.”
“The words ‘It is finished’ consolidated heaven, shook hell, comforted earth, delighted the Father, glorified the Son, brought down the Spirit, and confirmed the everlasting covenant to all the chosen ones… Your sins have received their death blow; the robe of your righteousness has received its last thread. It is done— complete, perfect. It needs no addition; it can never suffer diminution… Therefore in this cross of Christ we glory; yes, and in it alone will we glory evermore.”
Recommendation
I highly recommend this little book. It’s a book you can easily go through multiple times and still find good reflections and convictions to meditate on. Read one a day or one a week if you want to reflect more deeply on it.
The chapters definitely prepare you for the meaning of the cross to us, sinners, and how we can most glorify our risen King. It has a very clear gospel message and very clear hope for weary souls.
Easter was yesterday, but we glory in the cross of Christ every day— so don’t let this book pass you by: meditate on our Lord, his power and his love.
**Received a copy from The Good Book Company in exchange for an honest review**
This book consists of 40 devotional readings 1-2.5 pages long (of a small book) each ending with a short reflection paragraph and a short prayer. All of the material is taken from sermons given by Charles H. Spurgeon. The book was compiled by Jeff Medders.
There is an appendix in the book that lists each sermon the material was derived for each devotion as well as where you can locate those sermons if you want to read/hear more on the subject.
The devotions were very short but most of them packed a punch! Deep thinking here and bringing to light new facets of familiar passages for me that I really enjoyed.
I’ll share some of the things that stuck out and some quotes to give you a taste of what you’ll be reading.
In the devotion about John the Baptist he talks about how John the Baptist can’t be understood apart from Christ because he was to bear witness to Jesus.
“May our lives be such that they cannot be understood apart from Jesus. May it be the case that if we were to take him away, our whole character would become an inexplicable mystery. I am afraid that some professing Christians could be easily interpreted apart from Christ…”
“Repentance without hope is hell. It is hell to grieve for sin with the pangs of bitter remorse and yet to know that pardon can never come and mercy can never be granted. Repentance, with the cross before its eyes, is heaven itself.”
This next one was said within the context of evangelism— Jesus making us fishers of men. He talks about fishing being an act of faith: “Where has God’s providence taken you so you can cast your net and win souls for Christ?” We don’t want our relationship with God to be “only right doctrine and right living that never leads to right evangelism.”
And I love this quote for that purpose, but also just in the sense that we can’t truly encounter Jesus and come away unchanged. He transforms. He ‘makes.’ And in faith, we entrust him with who we are and who he wants us to be, and by his grace he will finish what he started. Exciting to think about.
“When Christ calls us by his grace, we ought not only to remember what we are, but we also ought to think of what he can make us. Jesus starts by saying, ‘Follow me, and I will make you…’ We should repent of what we have been but rejoice in what we may be. It is not ‘Follow me because you may make something of yourselves’, but ‘Follow me because of what I will make of you.’”
Talking of feeding the five thousand:
“Let us bring all we have to Christ in faith, laying it at his feet, believing that his great power can make little means suffice for mighty ends… We can bring our meager talents and abilities to him— and watch him work!”
In regards to the story of the prodigal son:
“We see the prodigal father ran. Slow are the steps of repentance, but swift are the feet of forgiveness. God can run when we can scarcely limp…”
And then he talks about the filthy rags the son shows up in and how the father has a feast prepared for him. When the son said, ‘Father, I have sinned’ the father’s next words are: ‘Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him’
“And so the Father covers all our sins with Christ’s righteousness… When the repentant sinner comes to God, his or her past is not only covered by the righteousness of Christ, but they are prepared for the future blessedness which is reserved for the pardoned ones.”
“Consecrate to the Savior all that you have: every faculty, power, possession, and ability… Half a heart given to Christ? Never. Half a life given to Christ? Half your faculties, half your powers given to Christ? It is an unworthy gift. He gave you his all, and he claims all of you.”
“The words ‘It is finished’ consolidated heaven, shook hell, comforted earth, delighted the Father, glorified the Son, brought down the Spirit, and confirmed the everlasting covenant to all the chosen ones… Your sins have received their death blow; the robe of your righteousness has received its last thread. It is done— complete, perfect. It needs no addition; it can never suffer diminution… Therefore in this cross of Christ we glory; yes, and in it alone will we glory evermore.”
Recommendation
I highly recommend this little book. It’s a book you can easily go through multiple times and still find good reflections and convictions to meditate on. Read one a day or one a week if you want to reflect more deeply on it.
The chapters definitely prepare you for the meaning of the cross to us, sinners, and how we can most glorify our risen King. It has a very clear gospel message and very clear hope for weary souls.
Easter was yesterday, but we glory in the cross of Christ every day— so don’t let this book pass you by: meditate on our Lord, his power and his love.
**Received a copy from The Good Book Company in exchange for an honest review**
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
“‘You could rattle the stars. You could do anything, if you only dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That’s what scares you most.’”
I know I’m late to the Sarah J. Maas party. Throne of Glass is her debut novel from 2012. Since then she has finished this series and written ACOTAR and Crescent City series that have become very popular.
I opted to read the Throne of Glass series instead of the ACOTAR (do you put ‘the’ in front of that??) because I was told the TOG series is less spicy. It’s hard for me to read series like I used to (my TBR is too long and I read a lot of different genres) so I am more selective of what I start. Since I can’t really commit to both series I decided the less spicy one was more speed. I’ve only read one book but the ‘less spicy’ descriptor holds true thus far.
There are some common tropes in this book. Our main character (Celaena Sardothien) is a young girl and warrior with the destiny to fight for her oppressed people. She most likely has some sort of magic ability; she is an orphan and must pretend to be loyal to the ones (most likely) responsible for their deaths; there is a bit of a love triangle, including someone from the ‘enemy side’.
“The King of Adarlan had outlawed it all— magic, Fae, faeries— and removed any trace so thoroughly that even those who had magic in their blood almost believed it had never really existed, Celaena herself being one of them.”
Some elements remind me of Tahereh Mafi’s This Woven Kingdom series as Alizeh too is an orphan destined to help her people who has special powers and falls in love with a prince; she also is up against dark magic. In both worlds aspects of magic are outlawed.
Some elements remind me of Hunger Games or Red Rising series where youths are fighting each other. Similar to Red Rising, if Celaena wins her competition she earns a spot defending or fighting for the king, but like Darrow, will seek to secretly help her people when she can.
The setting for this series is your classic Medieval type world with horses and castles and swords mixed with the magical realm of faes and demons and some sort of sorcery known as the Wyrd.
Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.
The main premise: Celaena is approached by Prince Dorian while serving her sentence in his father’s labor prison (Endovier). His proposition: Come be my competitor in the king’s tournament. Winner becomes the king’s champion. Serve four years as his assassin and you’ll earn your freedom. Refuse, and you can remain here where death is imminent.
Of course, Celaena isn’t your typical eighteen year old. She’d been trained to be an assassin since the age of 8. We don’t know how she was betrayed, but she is serving her sentence for being the renowned ‘Adarlan’s Assassin.’ To fight other thieves and criminals is in her wheelhouse.
“Yes, she could go anywhere, even through the Gates of the Wyrd and into Hell itself, if it meant freedom. After all, you aren’t Adarlan’s Assassin for nothing.”
Of course she would compete and win her freedom.
But she wasn’t quite prepared for what awaited her in the glass castle. One, a couple love interests, including Prince Dorian, the womanizer. Two, the supposedly outlawed black magic that has been unleashed inside the castle taking out competitors left and right.
Can she survive long enough to win; and if she wins, can she stomach the thought of killing for the king?
This was a good first book and has drawn me into the world and the story. I suspect that this isn’t going to be my favorite book of the series and that the best is yet to come.
Throne of Glass feels like a good introductory book. The stakes start off high, but we’re still getting to know our characters and getting our bearings on what this world is about and who the good guys and the bad guys are.
There are plenty of unknowns yet to be uncovered like: What happened to Celaena’s parents? Who is Sam and what happened to him? Who betrayed Celaena and how did she come to be in the death camp? What is the wyrdmark about that was on her forehead? What’s the deal with Philippa— maybe there’s nothing here but it seems like there is something to learn about her and her role in Celaena’s future. What kind of chaos is Dorian’s brother going to cause when he returns home? Whose side is the Queen on? Is the assassin trainer going to reach out to Celaena now that she’s no longer imprisoned? How will Celaena be able to justify killing for the king and can she work around his plans to help her people? I have a feeling Kaltain, Nox, and Nehemia will resurface in important ways. And Fleetfoot has to become some sort of heroic dog, right?
So we have some major pieces of the puzzle and the pieces show us the puzzle is worth trying to put together. The series (at this point) is worth continuing to read. I like that Maas laid the ground work for more avenues to traverse in the series without trying to cram too much into the book.
When I explained the book to my husband after I read it, he was like- ‘So not much happened in the book?’ and in some ways, that’s a little true. But when you’re reading it, it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of dead space. (Ha… well there’s space with death but you know…)
Because it’s a romantasy it has to have some scenes of action and magic and fighting and plot movement, but there are also relationship building drama scenes that slow the book down in some ways.
I felt like there was good balance in this book. Hopefully the balance is sustained as we go deeper in.
I jumped ahead and looked at some reviews of the later books and it’s really hard to tell where I’m going to be with it all. There are some who love every book where this series is one of their favorites. And of course you have others who felt disappointed or hated the writing or the characters.
You’re pretty much always going to have both. The trick is figuring out which voices and preferences line up most with your own and following those people’s advice.
For now, I plan to continue to read, but 600+ page books are a big commitment and if I start to lose interest, I might have to give the series a rest.
Reading Order
I am no expert on this series at this point by any means, but I have been told that there is a recommended order for how to read this series. It’s not crazy, but there’s a prequel— The Assassin’s Blade— that is recommended to be read after book two.
Some also suggest reading books 6 & 7 in tandem. It sounds intense, but if I do that, I’ll be using this reading plan that tells you what chapters to read together.
Pronunciation Guide
I found this reference guide for the character pronunciations if you’re interested:
CHARACTERS:
Celaena Sardothien: Sell-Lay-Nuh / Sar-Doth (like 'cloth')-ee-en
Chaol Westfall: Kay-all (like "chaos") / West-fall
Dorian Havilliard: Door-ee-en / Have-ill-yard
Nehemia Ytger: Neh-heem-ee-yah / Yet-gerre (like "garrison")
Kaltain Rompier: Cal (like "calcium)-tane (like "cane") / Rom-pee-ay
Arobynn Hamel: Arrow-behn / Heh-mel
Elentiya: Elle-len-tee-yah
PLACES:
Eyllwe: Eel-way
Erilea: Err-rel-yah
Terrasen: Terra-sen (like "sent")
Adarlan: Ah-dar-len
Endovier: En (like the letter "n")-doe (like "dough")-vee-er
Orynth: Or-inth
Anielle: Annie-elle
Melisande: Mell-iss-sand
Wendlyn: Wend-lin
TERMS:
Wyrd: word
Wyrdmarks: word-marks
Recommendation
I would recommend this book. If you’re looking for a new series to get into and don’t want something too heavy or too spicy, this may be a good option. (Again, I’m only one book in, so it’s quite possible I don’t have a true grasp on the vibes of this book)
If you read a lot of fantasy books it’s possible that this may not feel super new or unique, but I don’t know because I don’t read enough from that genre. Based on the Goodreads Choice Award nomination and the ratings/reviews, it would seem that this book was well-received by fantasy lovers.
[Content Advisory: minimal if any swearing; romance but no sexual content; dark magic]
I know I’m late to the Sarah J. Maas party. Throne of Glass is her debut novel from 2012. Since then she has finished this series and written ACOTAR and Crescent City series that have become very popular.
I opted to read the Throne of Glass series instead of the ACOTAR (do you put ‘the’ in front of that??) because I was told the TOG series is less spicy. It’s hard for me to read series like I used to (my TBR is too long and I read a lot of different genres) so I am more selective of what I start. Since I can’t really commit to both series I decided the less spicy one was more speed. I’ve only read one book but the ‘less spicy’ descriptor holds true thus far.
There are some common tropes in this book. Our main character (Celaena Sardothien) is a young girl and warrior with the destiny to fight for her oppressed people. She most likely has some sort of magic ability; she is an orphan and must pretend to be loyal to the ones (most likely) responsible for their deaths; there is a bit of a love triangle, including someone from the ‘enemy side’.
“The King of Adarlan had outlawed it all— magic, Fae, faeries— and removed any trace so thoroughly that even those who had magic in their blood almost believed it had never really existed, Celaena herself being one of them.”
Some elements remind me of Tahereh Mafi’s This Woven Kingdom series as Alizeh too is an orphan destined to help her people who has special powers and falls in love with a prince; she also is up against dark magic. In both worlds aspects of magic are outlawed.
Some elements remind me of Hunger Games or Red Rising series where youths are fighting each other. Similar to Red Rising, if Celaena wins her competition she earns a spot defending or fighting for the king, but like Darrow, will seek to secretly help her people when she can.
The setting for this series is your classic Medieval type world with horses and castles and swords mixed with the magical realm of faes and demons and some sort of sorcery known as the Wyrd.
Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.
The main premise: Celaena is approached by Prince Dorian while serving her sentence in his father’s labor prison (Endovier). His proposition: Come be my competitor in the king’s tournament. Winner becomes the king’s champion. Serve four years as his assassin and you’ll earn your freedom. Refuse, and you can remain here where death is imminent.
Of course, Celaena isn’t your typical eighteen year old. She’d been trained to be an assassin since the age of 8. We don’t know how she was betrayed, but she is serving her sentence for being the renowned ‘Adarlan’s Assassin.’ To fight other thieves and criminals is in her wheelhouse.
“Yes, she could go anywhere, even through the Gates of the Wyrd and into Hell itself, if it meant freedom. After all, you aren’t Adarlan’s Assassin for nothing.”
Of course she would compete and win her freedom.
But she wasn’t quite prepared for what awaited her in the glass castle. One, a couple love interests, including Prince Dorian, the womanizer. Two, the supposedly outlawed black magic that has been unleashed inside the castle taking out competitors left and right.
Can she survive long enough to win; and if she wins, can she stomach the thought of killing for the king?
This was a good first book and has drawn me into the world and the story. I suspect that this isn’t going to be my favorite book of the series and that the best is yet to come.
Throne of Glass feels like a good introductory book. The stakes start off high, but we’re still getting to know our characters and getting our bearings on what this world is about and who the good guys and the bad guys are.
There are plenty of unknowns yet to be uncovered like: What happened to Celaena’s parents? Who is Sam and what happened to him? Who betrayed Celaena and how did she come to be in the death camp? What is the wyrdmark about that was on her forehead? What’s the deal with Philippa— maybe there’s nothing here but it seems like there is something to learn about her and her role in Celaena’s future. What kind of chaos is Dorian’s brother going to cause when he returns home? Whose side is the Queen on? Is the assassin trainer going to reach out to Celaena now that she’s no longer imprisoned? How will Celaena be able to justify killing for the king and can she work around his plans to help her people? I have a feeling Kaltain, Nox, and Nehemia will resurface in important ways. And Fleetfoot has to become some sort of heroic dog, right?
So we have some major pieces of the puzzle and the pieces show us the puzzle is worth trying to put together. The series (at this point) is worth continuing to read. I like that Maas laid the ground work for more avenues to traverse in the series without trying to cram too much into the book.
When I explained the book to my husband after I read it, he was like- ‘So not much happened in the book?’ and in some ways, that’s a little true. But when you’re reading it, it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of dead space. (Ha… well there’s space with death but you know…)
Because it’s a romantasy it has to have some scenes of action and magic and fighting and plot movement, but there are also relationship building drama scenes that slow the book down in some ways.
I felt like there was good balance in this book. Hopefully the balance is sustained as we go deeper in.
I jumped ahead and looked at some reviews of the later books and it’s really hard to tell where I’m going to be with it all. There are some who love every book where this series is one of their favorites. And of course you have others who felt disappointed or hated the writing or the characters.
You’re pretty much always going to have both. The trick is figuring out which voices and preferences line up most with your own and following those people’s advice.
For now, I plan to continue to read, but 600+ page books are a big commitment and if I start to lose interest, I might have to give the series a rest.
Reading Order
I am no expert on this series at this point by any means, but I have been told that there is a recommended order for how to read this series. It’s not crazy, but there’s a prequel— The Assassin’s Blade— that is recommended to be read after book two.
Some also suggest reading books 6 & 7 in tandem. It sounds intense, but if I do that, I’ll be using this reading plan that tells you what chapters to read together.
Pronunciation Guide
I found this reference guide for the character pronunciations if you’re interested:
CHARACTERS:
Celaena Sardothien: Sell-Lay-Nuh / Sar-Doth (like 'cloth')-ee-en
Chaol Westfall: Kay-all (like "chaos") / West-fall
Dorian Havilliard: Door-ee-en / Have-ill-yard
Nehemia Ytger: Neh-heem-ee-yah / Yet-gerre (like "garrison")
Kaltain Rompier: Cal (like "calcium)-tane (like "cane") / Rom-pee-ay
Arobynn Hamel: Arrow-behn / Heh-mel
Elentiya: Elle-len-tee-yah
PLACES:
Eyllwe: Eel-way
Erilea: Err-rel-yah
Terrasen: Terra-sen (like "sent")
Adarlan: Ah-dar-len
Endovier: En (like the letter "n")-doe (like "dough")-vee-er
Orynth: Or-inth
Anielle: Annie-elle
Melisande: Mell-iss-sand
Wendlyn: Wend-lin
TERMS:
Wyrd: word
Wyrdmarks: word-marks
Recommendation
I would recommend this book. If you’re looking for a new series to get into and don’t want something too heavy or too spicy, this may be a good option. (Again, I’m only one book in, so it’s quite possible I don’t have a true grasp on the vibes of this book)
If you read a lot of fantasy books it’s possible that this may not feel super new or unique, but I don’t know because I don’t read enough from that genre. Based on the Goodreads Choice Award nomination and the ratings/reviews, it would seem that this book was well-received by fantasy lovers.
[Content Advisory: minimal if any swearing; romance but no sexual content; dark magic]
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
“Thoughts swirling, they wonder what clues the police will find. The group chat? The social-media posts? The video of the horror that brought them here?”
This is my third Alex Finlay book. I’ve read The Night Shift and What Have We Done?.
I have learned that Alex Finlay’s writing style involves a lot of unlikable characters. Sarah Keller— the FBI agent that is in this book and The Night Shift— and her husband are likeable, but in all the books I’m not sure I liked anyone else.
Out of all three books I think I liked What Have We Done? the best.
Parents Weekend is not a spectacular book because I saw the ending a mile away but it’s still a decent enough read. Just like the other two, it reads very quickly so your time commitment to the book is low.
I actually hesitated to request this book from NetGalley because I tend to be a pessimistic reader of story lines that involve youths and partying as a main plot point. But I remembered liking What Have We Done? so I thought I would give it a chance.
And my original instinct was somewhat accurate: I’m just not that interested in thrillers that revolve around youths doing stupid things while drunk or on drugs which are in and of themselves stupid things. I don’t even have a ‘that’s just kids being kids in college I can relate to that’ kind of perspective because that was nowhere close to my desired or actual college experience.
This book takes place over parents weekend at Santa Clara University in California. We are first introduced via multiple POVs the different parental units of a group of friends:
The Roosevelts (Blane): parents divorced, mother (Cynthia) is high up in the State Department; Blane was abducted as a kid
The Maldonados (Stella): dad (David) is a plastic surgeon who recently cheated on mom (Nina) who is a yoga teacher and things went bad
The Goffmans (Felix): mom divorced abusive dad a long time ago and now works for the dean at the school
The Akanas (Libby): dad (Ken) is a judge that just presided over a well known case regarding a rock star and ruled against him, mom (Amy) is a lawyer turned stay at home mom who quit working to take care of their son who has since died from cancer
Mark Wong: estranged dad did jail time for sexual assault of minors
An arranged dinner for these families is the first sign of trouble. None of the kids show up and they aren’t answering any texts or phone calls.
Because two of the families are high profile, FBI agent Keller is called in to work with campus police to determine what happened to the students.
Of course all the families have to have some sort of abuse, infidelity, or problem to create additional avenues of investigation on who would have targeted these kids. Unless it’s all some sort of ruse, prank, or just irresponsible decision making that is classic of young freshmen college students.
The longer they go without news of the students the less likely they are to find them alive.
Random Comments:
I thought there was going to be something more substantial come from the encounter between Cynthia and Mitch.
Alice read a book about how to be a better communicator and if you want to read it too, it’s most likely Supercommunicators.
The quote I put at the beginning of this review talks about a group chat, and I’m not sure that was ever discussed…
They mention a cliffside in Australia that is known as a location for a lot of suicides and that reminded me of Sally Hepworth’s thriller The Soulmate that revolves around a cliff in Australia with suicides but it’s called The Drop instead of The Gap.
Recommendation
This was never going to be my favorite book, but it’s still a pretty standard, decent thriller.
I probably just need to trust my instincts on college-related stories and save those for others that are more interested in that. I can still see myself reading another Alex Finlay book if the premise is compelling.
I would recommend Parents Weekend for people who enjoy thrillers and don’t care if they like the characters or not.
If you prefer hard to figure out thrillers or ones with a lot of likable characters, this might not be the book for you.
[Content Advisory: 20 f-words, 35 s-words]
This is my third Alex Finlay book. I’ve read The Night Shift and What Have We Done?.
I have learned that Alex Finlay’s writing style involves a lot of unlikable characters. Sarah Keller— the FBI agent that is in this book and The Night Shift— and her husband are likeable, but in all the books I’m not sure I liked anyone else.
Out of all three books I think I liked What Have We Done? the best.
Parents Weekend is not a spectacular book because I saw the ending a mile away but it’s still a decent enough read. Just like the other two, it reads very quickly so your time commitment to the book is low.
I actually hesitated to request this book from NetGalley because I tend to be a pessimistic reader of story lines that involve youths and partying as a main plot point. But I remembered liking What Have We Done? so I thought I would give it a chance.
And my original instinct was somewhat accurate: I’m just not that interested in thrillers that revolve around youths doing stupid things while drunk or on drugs which are in and of themselves stupid things. I don’t even have a ‘that’s just kids being kids in college I can relate to that’ kind of perspective because that was nowhere close to my desired or actual college experience.
This book takes place over parents weekend at Santa Clara University in California. We are first introduced via multiple POVs the different parental units of a group of friends:
The Roosevelts (Blane): parents divorced, mother (Cynthia) is high up in the State Department; Blane was abducted as a kid
The Maldonados (Stella): dad (David) is a plastic surgeon who recently cheated on mom (Nina) who is a yoga teacher and things went bad
The Goffmans (Felix): mom divorced abusive dad a long time ago and now works for the dean at the school
The Akanas (Libby): dad (Ken) is a judge that just presided over a well known case regarding a rock star and ruled against him, mom (Amy) is a lawyer turned stay at home mom who quit working to take care of their son who has since died from cancer
Mark Wong: estranged dad did jail time for sexual assault of minors
An arranged dinner for these families is the first sign of trouble. None of the kids show up and they aren’t answering any texts or phone calls.
Because two of the families are high profile, FBI agent Keller is called in to work with campus police to determine what happened to the students.
Of course all the families have to have some sort of abuse, infidelity, or problem to create additional avenues of investigation on who would have targeted these kids. Unless it’s all some sort of ruse, prank, or just irresponsible decision making that is classic of young freshmen college students.
The longer they go without news of the students the less likely they are to find them alive.
Random Comments:
I thought there was going to be something more substantial come from the encounter between Cynthia and Mitch.
Alice read a book about how to be a better communicator and if you want to read it too, it’s most likely Supercommunicators.
The quote I put at the beginning of this review talks about a group chat, and I’m not sure that was ever discussed…
They mention a cliffside in Australia that is known as a location for a lot of suicides and that reminded me of Sally Hepworth’s thriller The Soulmate that revolves around a cliff in Australia with suicides but it’s called The Drop instead of The Gap.
Recommendation
This was never going to be my favorite book, but it’s still a pretty standard, decent thriller.
I probably just need to trust my instincts on college-related stories and save those for others that are more interested in that. I can still see myself reading another Alex Finlay book if the premise is compelling.
I would recommend Parents Weekend for people who enjoy thrillers and don’t care if they like the characters or not.
If you prefer hard to figure out thrillers or ones with a lot of likable characters, this might not be the book for you.
[Content Advisory: 20 f-words, 35 s-words]
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“Seven writers board a train. At the end of the line, five will leave it alive. One will be in cuffs.”
This is my third Ernest Cunningham novel— yes I read the Christmas one out of order. That being said, I would definitely recommend reading them in order. Especially the first two.
If you read this book first I think you’ll feel like you’re missing something important. I honestly don’t remember a ton from Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone so I can’t tell you exactly how much you’ll be missing but you’ll feel it.
He admits that there is a bit of similarity between this book and the first: “I will point out that one inadvertent mimicry is the curious coincidence that both cases are solved by a piece of punctuation. Last year it was a full stop. This time, a comma saves the day.”
I don’t even remember enough to know if I just gave away a spoiler from book one. But seeing as he is pretty tight lipped about those events in this book I have feeling that tidbit is provided early on.
This series has a very consistent tone and writing voice that I love. They’re all told first person from the perspective of Ernest Cunningham, a writer who keeps having murders happen around him that he just so happens to be good at solving.
The schtick of the series is that these are all ‘Golden Age’ mysteries. He describes it in detail in book one, but basically it’s supposed to be like an Agatha Christie novel where all the clues are available to the reader to solve the mystery, the narrator doesn’t lie, there is nothing supernatural, and no secret twins.
As the narrator, Ernest gives us hints and tells us when we should pay attention, but even then I think it would be hard for a reader to solve the mystery in its entirety. In all three books I’ve been able to figure out some of the clues but there is always something I didn’t catch or put together. I think if I had really gotten into it and took my own notes down on paper and attempted to figure it out I could have come closer, but I was too busy reading.
Ernest is the kind of guy that doesn’t take himself too seriously so there is a lot of humor in this book. Stevenson is really creative with his word choices and descriptions. It definitely doesn’t feel like a run of the mill kind of mystery, but has its own unique vibe.
Here are a few quotes I enjoyed:
“I’d say Van Dine would be rolling in his grave, though that would break one of the golden rules about the supernatural. So he’d be lying very still but disappointed all the same.”
“His sentences had a way of cascading over one another, the oven between thought and speech undercooking everything: he spoke in first drafts.”
“‘Pisssss off’ he said, spending S’s like he’d robbed a bank of them.” [pardon the language on this one… I debated about putting it in but it was a good simile]
The setting of this book takes place on a train. You may have heard of Murder on the Orient Express. This is not the same train. This is a cross country luxury train that spans Australia north to south.
The context is a crime-writing conference. Ernest, who is with Juliette (from book one), is supposed to be writing a fiction book and participating in panels for the conference attendees, but when a murder happens aboard the train, he may be writing another true-crime book after all.
I will say that I had a hard time picturing this writing conference group in reference to the train as a whole. There are other guests in other carriages and we are not told the names of all the conference attendees, but when I read it it feels like a big shindig for like 12 people. I think I’m mis-picturing it.
I will also say that I loved the Andy cameo and all of Ernest’s side comments about him. Great comedic relief.
The first book focuses on Ernest’s family. The Christmas book is a bunch of strangers in his ex-wife’s life. This one has a combination of people he knows and people he doesn’t. It also gives a little glimpse into the writing world with the pressures of writing and dealing with agents, publishers, fans, and bad reviews.
Ernest is talking to the reader about the book that he is writing and how he is writing it so that’s an interesting perspective, almost like a book within a book feel.
He even throws in a Jane Harper blurb reference. So I checked and sure enough, Jane Harper blurbed this book!
I don’t have new Australian vocabulary on this one, but seriously, every book I read that takes place in Australia astounds me with new information about the continent as a whole. There really is so much more than kangaroos and venomous things and the bush.
Three of the stops on the train excursion are Katherine Gorge (a huge gorge great for canoeing), Alice Springs (a town in the middle of Australia) and Coober Pedy.
And dude, Coober Pedy is wild! It’s like a real life version of Holes (see below). They do opal mining and to protect from the dangers of people improperly filling in their mine shafts they leave their hole and the mound of dirt so everyone knows it’s there. It’s also so hot there that a majority of the people live underground.
[to see pics of these places check out my original blog post]
What a continent of hidden gems. Good on ya, Australia.
If you would like to read more books that take place in Australia, check out Jane Harper or Sally Hepworth, or the books Homecoming or Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder (which is basically an Aussie version of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine).
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend this book. While I think I might have liked the other two books a smidge bit better for their ability to keep things straight a little easier, this is a series I think I will always enjoy reading.
It’s got the mystery, the likeable characters, and the humor. It’s a unique take on a murder mystery with creative writing and an interesting setting.
Somehow these are ‘feel good’ books even though there is death and murder and body pieces to collect and I’m here for it.
But a recommendation for Stevenson on the next one: I think we’re going to need to include some of the venomous creatures of Australia as part of the story so I can learn more about those and how to visit Australia for all the gems without the immense fear I have of death by creature.
[Content Advisory: 4 f-word, 6 s-words; no sexual content; mention of rape]
This is my third Ernest Cunningham novel— yes I read the Christmas one out of order. That being said, I would definitely recommend reading them in order. Especially the first two.
If you read this book first I think you’ll feel like you’re missing something important. I honestly don’t remember a ton from Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone so I can’t tell you exactly how much you’ll be missing but you’ll feel it.
He admits that there is a bit of similarity between this book and the first: “I will point out that one inadvertent mimicry is the curious coincidence that both cases are solved by a piece of punctuation. Last year it was a full stop. This time, a comma saves the day.”
I don’t even remember enough to know if I just gave away a spoiler from book one. But seeing as he is pretty tight lipped about those events in this book I have feeling that tidbit is provided early on.
This series has a very consistent tone and writing voice that I love. They’re all told first person from the perspective of Ernest Cunningham, a writer who keeps having murders happen around him that he just so happens to be good at solving.
The schtick of the series is that these are all ‘Golden Age’ mysteries. He describes it in detail in book one, but basically it’s supposed to be like an Agatha Christie novel where all the clues are available to the reader to solve the mystery, the narrator doesn’t lie, there is nothing supernatural, and no secret twins.
As the narrator, Ernest gives us hints and tells us when we should pay attention, but even then I think it would be hard for a reader to solve the mystery in its entirety. In all three books I’ve been able to figure out some of the clues but there is always something I didn’t catch or put together. I think if I had really gotten into it and took my own notes down on paper and attempted to figure it out I could have come closer, but I was too busy reading.
Ernest is the kind of guy that doesn’t take himself too seriously so there is a lot of humor in this book. Stevenson is really creative with his word choices and descriptions. It definitely doesn’t feel like a run of the mill kind of mystery, but has its own unique vibe.
Here are a few quotes I enjoyed:
“I’d say Van Dine would be rolling in his grave, though that would break one of the golden rules about the supernatural. So he’d be lying very still but disappointed all the same.”
“His sentences had a way of cascading over one another, the oven between thought and speech undercooking everything: he spoke in first drafts.”
“‘Pisssss off’ he said, spending S’s like he’d robbed a bank of them.” [pardon the language on this one… I debated about putting it in but it was a good simile]
The setting of this book takes place on a train. You may have heard of Murder on the Orient Express. This is not the same train. This is a cross country luxury train that spans Australia north to south.
The context is a crime-writing conference. Ernest, who is with Juliette (from book one), is supposed to be writing a fiction book and participating in panels for the conference attendees, but when a murder happens aboard the train, he may be writing another true-crime book after all.
I will say that I had a hard time picturing this writing conference group in reference to the train as a whole. There are other guests in other carriages and we are not told the names of all the conference attendees, but when I read it it feels like a big shindig for like 12 people. I think I’m mis-picturing it.
I will also say that I loved the Andy cameo and all of Ernest’s side comments about him. Great comedic relief.
The first book focuses on Ernest’s family. The Christmas book is a bunch of strangers in his ex-wife’s life. This one has a combination of people he knows and people he doesn’t. It also gives a little glimpse into the writing world with the pressures of writing and dealing with agents, publishers, fans, and bad reviews.
Ernest is talking to the reader about the book that he is writing and how he is writing it so that’s an interesting perspective, almost like a book within a book feel.
He even throws in a Jane Harper blurb reference. So I checked and sure enough, Jane Harper blurbed this book!
I don’t have new Australian vocabulary on this one, but seriously, every book I read that takes place in Australia astounds me with new information about the continent as a whole. There really is so much more than kangaroos and venomous things and the bush.
Three of the stops on the train excursion are Katherine Gorge (a huge gorge great for canoeing), Alice Springs (a town in the middle of Australia) and Coober Pedy.
And dude, Coober Pedy is wild! It’s like a real life version of Holes (see below). They do opal mining and to protect from the dangers of people improperly filling in their mine shafts they leave their hole and the mound of dirt so everyone knows it’s there. It’s also so hot there that a majority of the people live underground.
[to see pics of these places check out my original blog post]
What a continent of hidden gems. Good on ya, Australia.
If you would like to read more books that take place in Australia, check out Jane Harper or Sally Hepworth, or the books Homecoming or Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder (which is basically an Aussie version of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine).
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend this book. While I think I might have liked the other two books a smidge bit better for their ability to keep things straight a little easier, this is a series I think I will always enjoy reading.
It’s got the mystery, the likeable characters, and the humor. It’s a unique take on a murder mystery with creative writing and an interesting setting.
Somehow these are ‘feel good’ books even though there is death and murder and body pieces to collect and I’m here for it.
But a recommendation for Stevenson on the next one: I think we’re going to need to include some of the venomous creatures of Australia as part of the story so I can learn more about those and how to visit Australia for all the gems without the immense fear I have of death by creature.
[Content Advisory: 4 f-word, 6 s-words; no sexual content; mention of rape]
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“There are things you need to know. To understand. Our family… it isn’t what you’ve always believed.”
This book is a dual time period historical fiction that explores war-related challenges in both WWII and the Vietnam War.
I have some mixed feelings about this one. Overall I enjoyed reading it and it gave me some things to think about. However, after I finished it and was reflecting on the story I realized I felt a little underwhelmed. What I read was good, but I think I wanted a little bit more.
Also the ending wasn’t as dramatic as I was hoping for.
I have not really read anything set during (or about) the Vietnam War (The Women is on my TBR), so I really liked exploring that. It reminded me of the show This Is Us and the experiences for the brothers while they were in Vietnam and how it affected each of them differently. This story kinda taps into the controversy about America entering that war, but also about the soldiers coming home to an angry populace— a welcome that looked a little different than the soldiers in WWII.
I liked how Shocklee juxtaposes WWII and the Vietnam War. I think because I’m so far removed from both that I forget that so many people who were alive for the Vietnam War still remembered and held trauma from WWII and that had to have influenced how they viewed the Vietnam War.
Mattie Taylor is the main character in the 1969 time period and I must say she is not super likeable. After news that her mother is dying of cancer she returns home to the horse farm in Tennessee. She had abruptly left the year prior after her twin brother died in Vietnam, angry at her parents for letting him enlist. She spent the year living the hippie, free love and drugs lifestyle in California, trying to mask the pain of her loss.
Now that she’s home her anger has not subsided but has now been leveled up as she accuses her father of not caring about her mother’s health. Mattie is determined that there is more to be done to save her mother from the cancer.
There is also the character of Nash, (who was probably my favorite and I would have loved to have more of his story in it) who has become a farmhand for Mattie’s dad in her absence. He went to Vietnam with Mattie’s twin and his best friend, Mark. Nash lives with his own survivor’s guilt and an amputated arm to remind him of what he lost in the war. Part of the character development in this book is Mattie’s attitude towards Nash, which at first is the familiar anger we have come to associate with her.
In all of this, it’s evident from the start that Mattie needs to get off her high horse. Pun intended.
The other time period (1942) revolves around the character Ava Delaney (of Delaney Horse Farms) who has just lost her husband (of a few weeks) in the attack at Pearl Harbor. With nowhere to go she lives with her bitter mother-in-law on the horse farm in Tennessee. She ends up getting a job at the military base, Camp Forrest (historically accurate and interesting to read more about), where she comes into contact with internees— civilians detained just because they were of German, Japanese, or Italian descent.
She develops a relationship with one particular German internee— Gunther— as she helps him improve his English.
The title of this book is what draws these two time periods together— All We Thought We Knew.
Both Ava and Mattie think they know something about the war or about the prisoners or about the soldiers or for Mattie- about their family, but as the story progresses they realize they may have gotten some things wrong. Perhaps not all Germans detained are like Hitler. Perhaps the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War should still be heralded as heroic even if America’s involvement was a mistake. Perhaps wars are still necessary even if they aren’t good.
This leads me to probably the main reason I felt underwhelmed by this book. There is a lot of build up to this family secret that Mattie’s mom wants her to know. The WWII timeline holds the clues.
But once the big reveal is made, instead of the splash of a boulder hitting the water, it is like the blip of a pebble. The payoff from the build up was disproportionate.
I would have liked to see some more drama as the timelines converge.
The Problem of Evil
Another aspect of this story is Mattie’s struggle with the goodness of God and the evil in the world.
“I can’t believe in a God who would fill your body with a vile disease and then sit back and do nothing to help. I won’t believe in a God who let my brother die a horrific death, fighting a horrific war that should have never happened.”
“I couldn’t blindly believe, I needed logical answers.”
Shocklee uses Mattie’s character to touch on this very common objection to Christianity— If God exists, how do we explain the evil in the world? If God exists either he isn’t good because he doesn’t stop the evil or he can’t because he isn’t powerful enough.
To her credit, Shocklee does point to the cross where we see evidence that whatever happens to us that we can’t explain, we can see Jesus’ sacrifice for us, his entering into a broken world to experience suffering and death, and know that it’s not because he doesn’t love us.
If I had been writing the book I think I would have spent more time answering Mattie’s questions, but Shocklee chose to be more subtle and to allow the reader to do more work as they work through their own struggles. I’m sure there are readers who were already flinching at the ‘God stuff’ in the book and would not have liked any further apologetics, but I say- if you’re going to go there, go all in.
So I’ll offer a few things that were not in the book as a way of defense:
In his book Why Believe? Neil Shenvi mentions C.S. Lewis’s quote as he reflects on his experience as an atheist: “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.”
The argument of evil is actually evidence FOR the existence of God. If there is no objective good or evil then how can you argue that evil exists without God? If there is objective good or evil, then where does it come from? Furthermore, knowing my own propensity to be selfish and choose things that only benefit myself, the fact that the world is not completely destroyed by human evilness, that there is any good in the world at all is evidence that God exists, restraining evil however much he sees fit and transforming hearts to desire what is good when before there was only selfishness.
Another important point is that if we think a good God would never allow evil, we are operating out of an assumption that God’s ultimate goal for his people is their happiness. But that is not true. His goal for us is knowledge of him that leads to true and eternal life.
Shenvi says, “If God is less interested in our physical comfort and more interested in producing in us a certain kind of character, then it makes much more sense that we face trials, hardships, and suffering that can produce in us forbearance, bravery, mercy, and compassion.”
Of course there are certain evils that don’t seem to fit into this explanation and so logically we come to place where we have to acknowledge— there is a difference between saying ‘I see no good reason for this evil’ and saying ‘There are no good reasons for this evil.’ Is it possible that if an all-knowing and all-powerful God could stop evil, it’s also possible God is doing it for reasons we don’t understand?
Lastly, we know that God’s ultimate goal is to bring glory to himself. Humans exist to that end. When we find joy in him, it brings glory to him, but we also bring glory to him when we see the fullness of his character— his mercy AND his justice.
“Evil can remain evil and yet can permit two great goods that would otherwise be impossible: the display of God’s mercy to sinners and the display of God’s judgment on sin.”
Much has been written on this and if you’re struggling with this seeming dichotomy of evil and a good God, I would highly encourage you to explore more because there is peace and comfort and truth to be had.
Here is a podcast, an article, this video and ones like it, and this list of relevant articles to start.
Recommendation
If you enjoy historical fiction books, I think you’ll mostly enjoy this one. In my mind the historical fiction genre is not about explosive secrets and big reveals as much as the thriller genre so what let me down could very well have been wrong expectations and you may not be super miffed about it.
Overall, it reads fairly fast and the setting of the story was interesting to read about.
Based on my reviews of most of the historical fiction I’ve read this year, I think I’m still exploring what it takes to be a five star historical fiction read for me and I’d hate to skew your interest in this book just because I want my history to be more surprising.
I also do appreciate that Shocklee included the very real human struggle we have with evil in the world and I think the Vietnam War setting along with the cancer diagnosis was a good ‘storm’ to introduce it and I hope readers contemplate and explore how we can answer that.
So yes, I would loosely recommend this book but it’s not going to knock your socks off.
**Received a copy via Tyndale in exchange for an honest review**
This book is a dual time period historical fiction that explores war-related challenges in both WWII and the Vietnam War.
I have some mixed feelings about this one. Overall I enjoyed reading it and it gave me some things to think about. However, after I finished it and was reflecting on the story I realized I felt a little underwhelmed. What I read was good, but I think I wanted a little bit more.
Also the ending wasn’t as dramatic as I was hoping for.
I have not really read anything set during (or about) the Vietnam War (The Women is on my TBR), so I really liked exploring that. It reminded me of the show This Is Us and the experiences for the brothers while they were in Vietnam and how it affected each of them differently. This story kinda taps into the controversy about America entering that war, but also about the soldiers coming home to an angry populace— a welcome that looked a little different than the soldiers in WWII.
I liked how Shocklee juxtaposes WWII and the Vietnam War. I think because I’m so far removed from both that I forget that so many people who were alive for the Vietnam War still remembered and held trauma from WWII and that had to have influenced how they viewed the Vietnam War.
Mattie Taylor is the main character in the 1969 time period and I must say she is not super likeable. After news that her mother is dying of cancer she returns home to the horse farm in Tennessee. She had abruptly left the year prior after her twin brother died in Vietnam, angry at her parents for letting him enlist. She spent the year living the hippie, free love and drugs lifestyle in California, trying to mask the pain of her loss.
Now that she’s home her anger has not subsided but has now been leveled up as she accuses her father of not caring about her mother’s health. Mattie is determined that there is more to be done to save her mother from the cancer.
There is also the character of Nash, (who was probably my favorite and I would have loved to have more of his story in it) who has become a farmhand for Mattie’s dad in her absence. He went to Vietnam with Mattie’s twin and his best friend, Mark. Nash lives with his own survivor’s guilt and an amputated arm to remind him of what he lost in the war. Part of the character development in this book is Mattie’s attitude towards Nash, which at first is the familiar anger we have come to associate with her.
In all of this, it’s evident from the start that Mattie needs to get off her high horse. Pun intended.
The other time period (1942) revolves around the character Ava Delaney (of Delaney Horse Farms) who has just lost her husband (of a few weeks) in the attack at Pearl Harbor. With nowhere to go she lives with her bitter mother-in-law on the horse farm in Tennessee. She ends up getting a job at the military base, Camp Forrest (historically accurate and interesting to read more about), where she comes into contact with internees— civilians detained just because they were of German, Japanese, or Italian descent.
She develops a relationship with one particular German internee— Gunther— as she helps him improve his English.
The title of this book is what draws these two time periods together— All We Thought We Knew.
Both Ava and Mattie think they know something about the war or about the prisoners or about the soldiers or for Mattie- about their family, but as the story progresses they realize they may have gotten some things wrong. Perhaps not all Germans detained are like Hitler. Perhaps the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War should still be heralded as heroic even if America’s involvement was a mistake. Perhaps wars are still necessary even if they aren’t good.
This leads me to probably the main reason I felt underwhelmed by this book. There is a lot of build up to this family secret that Mattie’s mom wants her to know. The WWII timeline holds the clues.
But once the big reveal is made, instead of the splash of a boulder hitting the water, it is like the blip of a pebble. The payoff from the build up was disproportionate.
I would have liked to see some more drama as the timelines converge.
The Problem of Evil
Another aspect of this story is Mattie’s struggle with the goodness of God and the evil in the world.
“I can’t believe in a God who would fill your body with a vile disease and then sit back and do nothing to help. I won’t believe in a God who let my brother die a horrific death, fighting a horrific war that should have never happened.”
“I couldn’t blindly believe, I needed logical answers.”
Shocklee uses Mattie’s character to touch on this very common objection to Christianity— If God exists, how do we explain the evil in the world? If God exists either he isn’t good because he doesn’t stop the evil or he can’t because he isn’t powerful enough.
To her credit, Shocklee does point to the cross where we see evidence that whatever happens to us that we can’t explain, we can see Jesus’ sacrifice for us, his entering into a broken world to experience suffering and death, and know that it’s not because he doesn’t love us.
If I had been writing the book I think I would have spent more time answering Mattie’s questions, but Shocklee chose to be more subtle and to allow the reader to do more work as they work through their own struggles. I’m sure there are readers who were already flinching at the ‘God stuff’ in the book and would not have liked any further apologetics, but I say- if you’re going to go there, go all in.
So I’ll offer a few things that were not in the book as a way of defense:
In his book Why Believe? Neil Shenvi mentions C.S. Lewis’s quote as he reflects on his experience as an atheist: “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.”
The argument of evil is actually evidence FOR the existence of God. If there is no objective good or evil then how can you argue that evil exists without God? If there is objective good or evil, then where does it come from? Furthermore, knowing my own propensity to be selfish and choose things that only benefit myself, the fact that the world is not completely destroyed by human evilness, that there is any good in the world at all is evidence that God exists, restraining evil however much he sees fit and transforming hearts to desire what is good when before there was only selfishness.
Another important point is that if we think a good God would never allow evil, we are operating out of an assumption that God’s ultimate goal for his people is their happiness. But that is not true. His goal for us is knowledge of him that leads to true and eternal life.
Shenvi says, “If God is less interested in our physical comfort and more interested in producing in us a certain kind of character, then it makes much more sense that we face trials, hardships, and suffering that can produce in us forbearance, bravery, mercy, and compassion.”
Of course there are certain evils that don’t seem to fit into this explanation and so logically we come to place where we have to acknowledge— there is a difference between saying ‘I see no good reason for this evil’ and saying ‘There are no good reasons for this evil.’ Is it possible that if an all-knowing and all-powerful God could stop evil, it’s also possible God is doing it for reasons we don’t understand?
Lastly, we know that God’s ultimate goal is to bring glory to himself. Humans exist to that end. When we find joy in him, it brings glory to him, but we also bring glory to him when we see the fullness of his character— his mercy AND his justice.
“Evil can remain evil and yet can permit two great goods that would otherwise be impossible: the display of God’s mercy to sinners and the display of God’s judgment on sin.”
Much has been written on this and if you’re struggling with this seeming dichotomy of evil and a good God, I would highly encourage you to explore more because there is peace and comfort and truth to be had.
Here is a podcast, an article, this video and ones like it, and this list of relevant articles to start.
Recommendation
If you enjoy historical fiction books, I think you’ll mostly enjoy this one. In my mind the historical fiction genre is not about explosive secrets and big reveals as much as the thriller genre so what let me down could very well have been wrong expectations and you may not be super miffed about it.
Overall, it reads fairly fast and the setting of the story was interesting to read about.
Based on my reviews of most of the historical fiction I’ve read this year, I think I’m still exploring what it takes to be a five star historical fiction read for me and I’d hate to skew your interest in this book just because I want my history to be more surprising.
I also do appreciate that Shocklee included the very real human struggle we have with evil in the world and I think the Vietnam War setting along with the cancer diagnosis was a good ‘storm’ to introduce it and I hope readers contemplate and explore how we can answer that.
So yes, I would loosely recommend this book but it’s not going to knock your socks off.
**Received a copy via Tyndale in exchange for an honest review**
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“I assumed I was walking into a happily-ever-after, but now… now I can’t help but think I might have walked into a horror film.”
Gasp. That was intense! What a brilliantly crafted thriller!
I loved this book. Although it had dark themes, I thought Patch did a great job shaping it into a redemption story and bringing the light into the darkness. And the twists were spot on! I did suspect some of them, but there were also ones I didn’t see coming! Even the ones I figured out, I’m not mad about it. I would have been mad if she didn’t go that direction.
The title is perfect, the premise compelling, and the execution thrilling.
The basic premise is this:
Charlotte has been in and out of foster homes due to her mother’s drug addiction. When her mother dies of overdose, Charlotte receives a box of her mother’s things, including the surprising knowledge that Charlotte has an identical twin.
Charlotte finds and contacts her twin, Acelynn, to meet up with her in Chicago, but when they’re together, Charlotte’s foster brother and close friend gets himself in trouble with a mobster. Things go bad fast and Charlotte witnesses the murder of not only her friend, Tommy, but also Acelynn. Her only escape route now is to lay low at Acelynn’s house, using her funds to help her find a more permanent way to disappear.
But of course, she is spotted and forced to fess up to her true identity or play the part of Acelynn until she can figure a way out. Charlotte’s own sketchy past has given her the skills to pull it off.
“We all keep certain things about ourselves locked deep down. No one knows every single thing about us or our thoughts. I even try to hide truths from my own self.”
But instead of a dream life, it’s a nightmare. There’s a serial killer on the loose nearby and apparently Acelynn was in a bit of a mess before she went to Chicago.
“I’m not sure I’ve met a single person in Acelynn’s life who isn’t pretending to be someone they aren’t. And that includes me.”
Charlotte’s abilities and street smarts are put to the test as she maneuvers a life and circle she doesn’t know, a suspicious circle Acelynn was at the middle of… with a target on her back.
“I’ve survived a lot. But can I survive this many secrets and knives plunging into my back?”
Though there is no swearing in this book, the darkness is real. There are no graphic descriptions or grisly scenes, but one of the themes in this book is about the evil in our hearts— what are we really capable of?
“Maybe we’re all coexisting, both sides fighting against each other. Sometimes the beauty wins, and sometimes it loses to the beast.”
“I’m believing more than ever that maybe it’s not our upbringing or financial status or even education that shapes us, but our hearts. And our hearts seem to all be dark and wicked to the core.”
Patch uses this identical twin trope to explore the similarities and differences (nature or nurture) between Charlotte and Acelynn— born from the same drug addict mother, but one was a product of the system and the other was adopted, now living a life of luxury and influence.
As Charlotte finds out more and more about Acelynn’s life and the people who fear her, she finds herself introspective, knowing the things she, herself, is capable of, and wondering what’s in their DNA and can she escape the evil intent she finds in her own heart?
Throughout the book we also get chapters titled ‘Then’ where a woman is sharing about her disturbing daughter:
“Other parents would judge me if they knew how terrified of my daughter I am. But they don’t know the evil I live with. The fear that always haunts me, forcing me to keep my mouth shut. They don’t have a child like mine. Vindictive. Evil. A monster. A child they fear.”
These are the darkest parts of the book as we learn the extent to which this daughter is a sociopath, doing evil things and blaming others for it and gaining power by gaining secrets, while the mother is drugged and always on the precipice of being sent away to a psychiatric facility.
As readers we are trying to identify who this sociopathic girl is and what the fallout will be when she strikes in the present.
That’s the true question of this book: how is this all connected? Or is it?
The web woven in this book was phenomenal and strong. Perhaps after sitting with it longer I might think of a loose end, but my first and second thoughts are that no, Patch covered everything and she did a fantastic job!
I wish I could read it for the first time again!
Was it too dark?
Patch actually addresses this question as she talks about one reviewer’s negative thoughts on the book saying it needed more mention of God. I found the blog post HERE and if this is a question you’re asking, her defense may be helpful for you to read.
I’ve read a lot of secular thrillers and some that are really dark, sometimes making me feel disturbed when I’m done. I did not feel that with this book at all. This book does have light and hope and truth that other dark thrillers don’t.
In most secular thrillers there may be a ‘good ending’ to some extent but there isn’t usually any sort of redemption. You’re just stuck with the twisted story.
The reality is that there is darkness in the world. And there is darkness in our hearts.
“No one’s life is filtered on the inside. We’re all a bunch of messy, broken people pretending. Except for those who are free.”
Patch uses the detective character, Christian Patrick, as the light-bringer, almost a Christ figure. In a genre where distrust is a key element, I found it nice to have a character I could trust. Christian is that character.
“He saved me in spite of my failures and flaws, and has kept the door open for confession and truth.”
I liked the illustration Christian gives Charlotte at some point in the book when he’s investigating her and she’s trying to obtain information from him. She is using Acelynn’s interior design job as a way to infiltrate Christian’s house and access his notes on the case. They are discussing new paint colors for his house.
Charlotte- “You know you can paint over wallpaper. Saves time.”
Christian- “I could. But when you paint over another layer like that, it eventually peels, and what’s underneath is revealed. I find stripping away the old, even if it appears pretty, is the right way to go about it. It’s so much easier to work with a completely bare source. It’s fresh and clean and ready for color. I don’t mind the time it takes. I’ll be happier with the results.”
Such a good illustration and a natural way to introduce truth into the story without making it preachy. The only way to break free from the chains of darkness in our hearts is to become a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. We can’t just ‘cover it up’ and make it look nice on the outside. We need a complete overhaul.
Patch doesn’t share the gospel message word for word, so I would bet that some people reading this book may not fully get where she’s going with some of the subtle hints (it’s hard for me to know what they’ll think) but I think the light is hard to miss.
Along these same lines, we have Charlotte’s discontent with her own life and her desire for what others have. I thought this was a really profound line Patch wrote in regards to that:
“Want is an open grave that needs to be constantly filled.”
So yes, we have wickedness in this story, but we also have light and truth and I can attest that this reads different than your typical secular twisted psychological thriller even if God isn’t mentioned on every page.
Patch says in that blog that instead of telling: “I’d rather SHOW the brokenness. I’d rather use other characters to reveal parts of her heart–corruption, lies, justification of sin, wickedness and even depravity.”
I think Patch’s message is clear: Each of us has brokenness in our hearts, a depraved nature regardless of our upbringing, because we are all sinners. Sin is a path of destruction, an open grave that wants more and more. But we are not without hope. Even when we feel we have done too much and that we are outside the reach of grace, we find an outstretched hand beckoning us to come clean, to free ourselves from the chains of our sin.
And I would agree with Patch when she says, “[My God] is an all consuming fire whether he’s spoken of once or 8 times or 800.”
If you feel convicted to not read this book, by all means, stick to your convictions, but I think Patch’s writing has a great quality to it that invites readers who would not normally pick up a ‘Christian’ book to take in a story that is not afraid to enter into the real mess that we know is in the world, and offer light and hope in a way they may be more willing to hear.
It offers opportunities for us as readers to consider and wrestle with the darkness in our own hearts and the things like discontent, lies, and justification for our sin that we may need to come to terms with.
Recommendation
If you enjoy a good thriller, I would definitely recommend this book! Even if you’re generally put-off by Christian fiction, I would give this book a chance.
If you really try to avoid books that have some dark themes, then it may not be the book for you, but even with the darkness I will reiterate that there is no swearing or graphic scenes and there is plenty of light that contrasts with the darkness.
Jessica Patch is up there for some of my favorite authors and I look forward to reading more of her work!
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
[Content Advisory: no swearing; dark themes of a sociopathic child, a serial killer, abuse, infidelity; nothing graphic is described in detail, no sex scenes but sexual things are referenced]
Gasp. That was intense! What a brilliantly crafted thriller!
I loved this book. Although it had dark themes, I thought Patch did a great job shaping it into a redemption story and bringing the light into the darkness. And the twists were spot on! I did suspect some of them, but there were also ones I didn’t see coming! Even the ones I figured out, I’m not mad about it. I would have been mad if she didn’t go that direction.
The title is perfect, the premise compelling, and the execution thrilling.
The basic premise is this:
Charlotte has been in and out of foster homes due to her mother’s drug addiction. When her mother dies of overdose, Charlotte receives a box of her mother’s things, including the surprising knowledge that Charlotte has an identical twin.
Charlotte finds and contacts her twin, Acelynn, to meet up with her in Chicago, but when they’re together, Charlotte’s foster brother and close friend gets himself in trouble with a mobster. Things go bad fast and Charlotte witnesses the murder of not only her friend, Tommy, but also Acelynn. Her only escape route now is to lay low at Acelynn’s house, using her funds to help her find a more permanent way to disappear.
But of course, she is spotted and forced to fess up to her true identity or play the part of Acelynn until she can figure a way out. Charlotte’s own sketchy past has given her the skills to pull it off.
“We all keep certain things about ourselves locked deep down. No one knows every single thing about us or our thoughts. I even try to hide truths from my own self.”
But instead of a dream life, it’s a nightmare. There’s a serial killer on the loose nearby and apparently Acelynn was in a bit of a mess before she went to Chicago.
“I’m not sure I’ve met a single person in Acelynn’s life who isn’t pretending to be someone they aren’t. And that includes me.”
Charlotte’s abilities and street smarts are put to the test as she maneuvers a life and circle she doesn’t know, a suspicious circle Acelynn was at the middle of… with a target on her back.
“I’ve survived a lot. But can I survive this many secrets and knives plunging into my back?”
Though there is no swearing in this book, the darkness is real. There are no graphic descriptions or grisly scenes, but one of the themes in this book is about the evil in our hearts— what are we really capable of?
“Maybe we’re all coexisting, both sides fighting against each other. Sometimes the beauty wins, and sometimes it loses to the beast.”
“I’m believing more than ever that maybe it’s not our upbringing or financial status or even education that shapes us, but our hearts. And our hearts seem to all be dark and wicked to the core.”
Patch uses this identical twin trope to explore the similarities and differences (nature or nurture) between Charlotte and Acelynn— born from the same drug addict mother, but one was a product of the system and the other was adopted, now living a life of luxury and influence.
As Charlotte finds out more and more about Acelynn’s life and the people who fear her, she finds herself introspective, knowing the things she, herself, is capable of, and wondering what’s in their DNA and can she escape the evil intent she finds in her own heart?
Throughout the book we also get chapters titled ‘Then’ where a woman is sharing about her disturbing daughter:
“Other parents would judge me if they knew how terrified of my daughter I am. But they don’t know the evil I live with. The fear that always haunts me, forcing me to keep my mouth shut. They don’t have a child like mine. Vindictive. Evil. A monster. A child they fear.”
These are the darkest parts of the book as we learn the extent to which this daughter is a sociopath, doing evil things and blaming others for it and gaining power by gaining secrets, while the mother is drugged and always on the precipice of being sent away to a psychiatric facility.
As readers we are trying to identify who this sociopathic girl is and what the fallout will be when she strikes in the present.
That’s the true question of this book: how is this all connected? Or is it?
The web woven in this book was phenomenal and strong. Perhaps after sitting with it longer I might think of a loose end, but my first and second thoughts are that no, Patch covered everything and she did a fantastic job!
I wish I could read it for the first time again!
Was it too dark?
Patch actually addresses this question as she talks about one reviewer’s negative thoughts on the book saying it needed more mention of God. I found the blog post HERE and if this is a question you’re asking, her defense may be helpful for you to read.
I’ve read a lot of secular thrillers and some that are really dark, sometimes making me feel disturbed when I’m done. I did not feel that with this book at all. This book does have light and hope and truth that other dark thrillers don’t.
In most secular thrillers there may be a ‘good ending’ to some extent but there isn’t usually any sort of redemption. You’re just stuck with the twisted story.
The reality is that there is darkness in the world. And there is darkness in our hearts.
“No one’s life is filtered on the inside. We’re all a bunch of messy, broken people pretending. Except for those who are free.”
Patch uses the detective character, Christian Patrick, as the light-bringer, almost a Christ figure. In a genre where distrust is a key element, I found it nice to have a character I could trust. Christian is that character.
“He saved me in spite of my failures and flaws, and has kept the door open for confession and truth.”
I liked the illustration Christian gives Charlotte at some point in the book when he’s investigating her and she’s trying to obtain information from him. She is using Acelynn’s interior design job as a way to infiltrate Christian’s house and access his notes on the case. They are discussing new paint colors for his house.
Charlotte- “You know you can paint over wallpaper. Saves time.”
Christian- “I could. But when you paint over another layer like that, it eventually peels, and what’s underneath is revealed. I find stripping away the old, even if it appears pretty, is the right way to go about it. It’s so much easier to work with a completely bare source. It’s fresh and clean and ready for color. I don’t mind the time it takes. I’ll be happier with the results.”
Such a good illustration and a natural way to introduce truth into the story without making it preachy. The only way to break free from the chains of darkness in our hearts is to become a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. We can’t just ‘cover it up’ and make it look nice on the outside. We need a complete overhaul.
Patch doesn’t share the gospel message word for word, so I would bet that some people reading this book may not fully get where she’s going with some of the subtle hints (it’s hard for me to know what they’ll think) but I think the light is hard to miss.
Along these same lines, we have Charlotte’s discontent with her own life and her desire for what others have. I thought this was a really profound line Patch wrote in regards to that:
“Want is an open grave that needs to be constantly filled.”
So yes, we have wickedness in this story, but we also have light and truth and I can attest that this reads different than your typical secular twisted psychological thriller even if God isn’t mentioned on every page.
Patch says in that blog that instead of telling: “I’d rather SHOW the brokenness. I’d rather use other characters to reveal parts of her heart–corruption, lies, justification of sin, wickedness and even depravity.”
I think Patch’s message is clear: Each of us has brokenness in our hearts, a depraved nature regardless of our upbringing, because we are all sinners. Sin is a path of destruction, an open grave that wants more and more. But we are not without hope. Even when we feel we have done too much and that we are outside the reach of grace, we find an outstretched hand beckoning us to come clean, to free ourselves from the chains of our sin.
And I would agree with Patch when she says, “[My God] is an all consuming fire whether he’s spoken of once or 8 times or 800.”
If you feel convicted to not read this book, by all means, stick to your convictions, but I think Patch’s writing has a great quality to it that invites readers who would not normally pick up a ‘Christian’ book to take in a story that is not afraid to enter into the real mess that we know is in the world, and offer light and hope in a way they may be more willing to hear.
It offers opportunities for us as readers to consider and wrestle with the darkness in our own hearts and the things like discontent, lies, and justification for our sin that we may need to come to terms with.
Recommendation
If you enjoy a good thriller, I would definitely recommend this book! Even if you’re generally put-off by Christian fiction, I would give this book a chance.
If you really try to avoid books that have some dark themes, then it may not be the book for you, but even with the darkness I will reiterate that there is no swearing or graphic scenes and there is plenty of light that contrasts with the darkness.
Jessica Patch is up there for some of my favorite authors and I look forward to reading more of her work!
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
[Content Advisory: no swearing; dark themes of a sociopathic child, a serial killer, abuse, infidelity; nothing graphic is described in detail, no sex scenes but sexual things are referenced]
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“Did it all go wrong the moment I saw you?”
I thought this was a standalone book but it turns out it’s a sequel to Fool Me Once, which I read way back in 2016 and virtually remember none of. Even if you go back to read that book’s summary it doesn’t really give you much information about Sami Kierce and it doesn’t seem like he’s much of a main character.
If you plan to read Nobody’s Fool, I would recommend at least looking at spoilers for Fool Me Once because a couple members from the case show up in this book but with no context other than you know Sami Kierce does not like them at all. So if you want to know what that’s all about, you’ll have to do a little research.
This was a really good, fast-paced thriller. I read it in two days, somehow. But I’m not surprised because I’ve always liked Harlan Coben’s books. And I haven’t read one in awhile so it was fun to get back to one of his.
I will say, though, that I had to keep telling myself I wasn’t reading a Myron Bolitar novel. For some reason Sami Kierce felt like the same person. But Kierce is Pakistani and I kept picturing someone else. I wish there would have been more to describe him so I could better picture who he was as a character. Especially with this book being written so long after the first one it seems like Coben should have ‘refreshed’ the readers on who Kierce was.
Other than that, I can’t think of any other critiques of this book.
In Nobody’s Fool, Kierce is a bit of a disgraced police officer, thrown off the force for a mistake on a different case. He spends some of his time teaching a somewhat ‘off the books’ criminology class to an ecclectic bunch.
It’s in one of these classes that his past comes back to haunt him. A woman shows up that looks an awful lot like a girl he had a fling with in Spain on a backpacking trip many years ago. A girl he thought he had killed. Well… killed as in: he woke up from a drug and alcohol infused night to see her dead beside him and his hands covered in blood.
This shocking cameo (and then quick departure) sends Kierce on a new mission— to find her and find out what happened to her all those years ago.
We also have a side quest which may or may not be connected that also dredges up Kierce’s past. His first wife and fellow cop was murdered by an ex-boyfriend (also many years ago). But Kierce’s recent fall from grace has spurred reinvestigations and overturned verdicts based on any evidence gathered or touched by Kierce… including the prison release of the man convicted of killing his wife.
Kierce brings real life to the classroom as he uses the help of his students to look into both of these ‘problems’.
One of the things I really like about the book, other than the suspense and action, were the characters. Even if Kierce was too similar to Bolitar professionally and humorously, he had something Bolitar didn’t: a wife and son. I loved the relationship between Kierce and his wife and that he never tried to hide anything from her or lie to her… well I guess other than what happened in Spain… but he came clean about that. Filling Molly in on his investigations reiterated that they were a team and very close to one another and I liked that.
His students are also great characters. They all kinda have their own thing and come from different walks of life, but they all have a passion for solving mysteries so they’re willing to work together and they become bonded by the class and Kierce.
While I’m not entirely sure if I LOVED the ending (because I’m a hardcore justice fan), I think I can understand it. Maybe not on a personal level, but based on the compounded circumstances, I guess the outcome makes sense.
This book does end on a bit of a question mark or an open door to another book. And I would definitely read it.
Recommendation
I’m a fan of Harlan Coben and recommend his books, including this one. They have good characters, lots of action and suspense, and even some twists and turns. I never really had this one figured out and I’m totally okay with it!
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
[Content Advisory: 4 f-words, 19 s-words; not really any sexual content; mentions of child-trafficking with one of the characters]
I thought this was a standalone book but it turns out it’s a sequel to Fool Me Once, which I read way back in 2016 and virtually remember none of. Even if you go back to read that book’s summary it doesn’t really give you much information about Sami Kierce and it doesn’t seem like he’s much of a main character.
If you plan to read Nobody’s Fool, I would recommend at least looking at spoilers for Fool Me Once because a couple members from the case show up in this book but with no context other than you know Sami Kierce does not like them at all. So if you want to know what that’s all about, you’ll have to do a little research.
This was a really good, fast-paced thriller. I read it in two days, somehow. But I’m not surprised because I’ve always liked Harlan Coben’s books. And I haven’t read one in awhile so it was fun to get back to one of his.
I will say, though, that I had to keep telling myself I wasn’t reading a Myron Bolitar novel. For some reason Sami Kierce felt like the same person. But Kierce is Pakistani and I kept picturing someone else. I wish there would have been more to describe him so I could better picture who he was as a character. Especially with this book being written so long after the first one it seems like Coben should have ‘refreshed’ the readers on who Kierce was.
Other than that, I can’t think of any other critiques of this book.
In Nobody’s Fool, Kierce is a bit of a disgraced police officer, thrown off the force for a mistake on a different case. He spends some of his time teaching a somewhat ‘off the books’ criminology class to an ecclectic bunch.
It’s in one of these classes that his past comes back to haunt him. A woman shows up that looks an awful lot like a girl he had a fling with in Spain on a backpacking trip many years ago. A girl he thought he had killed. Well… killed as in: he woke up from a drug and alcohol infused night to see her dead beside him and his hands covered in blood.
This shocking cameo (and then quick departure) sends Kierce on a new mission— to find her and find out what happened to her all those years ago.
We also have a side quest which may or may not be connected that also dredges up Kierce’s past. His first wife and fellow cop was murdered by an ex-boyfriend (also many years ago). But Kierce’s recent fall from grace has spurred reinvestigations and overturned verdicts based on any evidence gathered or touched by Kierce… including the prison release of the man convicted of killing his wife.
Kierce brings real life to the classroom as he uses the help of his students to look into both of these ‘problems’.
One of the things I really like about the book, other than the suspense and action, were the characters. Even if Kierce was too similar to Bolitar professionally and humorously, he had something Bolitar didn’t: a wife and son. I loved the relationship between Kierce and his wife and that he never tried to hide anything from her or lie to her… well I guess other than what happened in Spain… but he came clean about that. Filling Molly in on his investigations reiterated that they were a team and very close to one another and I liked that.
His students are also great characters. They all kinda have their own thing and come from different walks of life, but they all have a passion for solving mysteries so they’re willing to work together and they become bonded by the class and Kierce.
While I’m not entirely sure if I LOVED the ending (because I’m a hardcore justice fan), I think I can understand it. Maybe not on a personal level, but based on the compounded circumstances, I guess the outcome makes sense.
This book does end on a bit of a question mark or an open door to another book. And I would definitely read it.
Recommendation
I’m a fan of Harlan Coben and recommend his books, including this one. They have good characters, lots of action and suspense, and even some twists and turns. I never really had this one figured out and I’m totally okay with it!
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
[Content Advisory: 4 f-words, 19 s-words; not really any sexual content; mentions of child-trafficking with one of the characters]
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Home. We’re all trying to find it. Sometimes it’s a place. Sometimes it’s a person. Sometimes it’s both.”
“The very real fear lay between wanting to believe in the beauty but seeing only the brokenness. Maybe that beauty was worth being brave for.”
When I realized that Check & Mate wasn’t going to be for me, I pivoted to a different rom-com— Some Like It Scot. I had not read anything by Pepper Basham but I knew this would be a clean rom-com which is more my speed.
If you prefer your romance to be spicy and graphic, you won’t find that in this book, but there were definitely sparks. And I’m not the ‘swooning’ type but I imagine many moments in this book would qualify.
The Scottish setting is a romantic one. Plus there’s just something about an accent right?
The premise is this:
Katie Campbell is in Scotland on assignment for her traveling social media page— Miss Adventure— to participate in what is called the ‘Edwardian Experience’. Two weeks in an old period mansion immersed in the Edwardian era dress, food, culture, and traditions. To really see what it was like during that time (early 1900s).
Along with several other influencers/ influential people, Katie’s job is to showcase the experience for her followers as advertisement.
Traveling has been her drug, her coping mechanism after losing a sister at a young age and dealing with an unstable family life.
“measuring up to a perfect sister was hard enough when she lived. Measuring up to a memory was impossible.”
Her grandparents (first generation Scottish Americans) were her home but have recently passed.
Being in Scotland has awakened in Katie many emotions and the potential ‘home’ that has seemed all too elusive.
Of course, the attention of a ‘hot Scot’ may have stoked that fire a little bit as well.
There were many things to like in this book, but I also have a few critiques.
I liked the setting. I haven’t been to Scotland (yet) but Basham did a good job of describing the atmosphere and cultural vibe. I did end up on a rabbit trail looking up Scottish slang words, but it was actually helpful because I was better able to read in my head the Scottish accent. It had a very cozy vibe that made me, even though I hate dreary, want to get caught in the rain and warm up by the fireplace.
I liked the found-family aspect and that as much as Katie liked Graeme (he’s the ‘hot Scot’), she was just as enamored with his mom and nephew. Stories often punctuate love within families that are at odds with one another or with the love interest, so I enjoy when the love interest fits into the family so well.
I thought it was an interesting premise to have the reason for Katie being there to have to do with a different historical period. It offered unique ways for the characters to interact as well as move the plot along. I will say, I’m not entirely sure if I grasped what the Edwardian era really was (though I looked it up and it’s the period AFTER the Victorian era because King Edward was Queen Victoria’s son and that’s why I kept picturing Victorian stuff; there was probably some overlap) and I did feel like the usage of the word ‘Edwardian’ and ‘Edwardian Experience’ felt a little overbearing (almost 100 times).
I liked the sweetness of the story. Basham showed that you don’t have to have two people ripping each other’s shirts off to have sexual tension and attraction and love. You get to see more depth in the characters and their emotional relationship. It was just a lovely story.
I liked that Katie and Graeme had both experienced the loss of a sibling and that Katie was able to see his family’s way of grieving in contrast to her own parents’ way of grieving and to recognize what is healthy and okay.
I really liked that when Allison showed up at Graeme’s house, when Katie was supposed to come over, it wasn’t the scene you would usually expect to have where Katie misreads the situation, thinking Graeme is still in love with Allison and runs away believing it’s all over. Basham writes this scene in a much better way and preferable way. “This is not a Hallmark miscommunication scene.”
I liked the notion of ‘lingering’, ‘tarrying.’
I liked that Katie was a tall girl. I’m not super tall but I suspect many tall females out there would love more representation.
For the most part I enjoyed the humor aspect of the book. It has a good title, and if you love puns, this will be a right up your alley. I have mixed feelings about puns, especially in written form as in a book because it feels like you have to do it just right to have the funniest effect. Some of the humor in this book seemed cheesy or trying too hard, but other times it hit right. I’m trying to figure out if we can get the humor of Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood but in a cleaner story. This wasn’t quite there, but it was several steps in the right direction.
I didn’t particularly like that Katie’s main ‘thing’ was her clumsiness and propensity for trouble. It makes for a great social media page name, but beyond that, I just don’t like that kind of trope. It feels too obnoxious and performative to be a real trait. How does someone fall and spill so much?!
I’m also not super engaged with a character that has such a shockingly negative self-perception. I had to reflect on this several times because I was just like- how can she really think so low of herself in all these different situations? And I get that I don’t really understand what it’s like to be told you’re not enough over and over in different ways by your own parents and how that would have to shape your self-perception.
I just think I enjoy female characters with self-confidence more (not arrogance but a realistic view of themselves) and that know their strengths (and their weaknesses). It’s probably just more relatable to me. That’s not to say it was a bad choice for this book, and it’s good for me to think about the internal experience of someone different from me, but it’s just not my favorite kind of character. The constant- how could anyone love me?- seemed a bit too over the top.
I felt like the competition aspect with Mark started out good, but then Mark just kinda screwed himself over and found himself kicked out so the tension there really evaporated fast. I think if you’re going to introduce a rivalry like that that she should have finished it in a more full way. The focus shifted, as it should with this being a love story, but then the rivalry basically vanished instead of settling in a concrete way.
Another thing I didn’t like, but it’s also probably why I don’t typically love romance novels in the first place— so many comments about his shoulders and jawline! I mean I guess there could be worse body parts to name all the time, but still.
I looked at a lot of the negative reviews on Goodreads and the common thread (in almost every one) was that people were turned off that it was a Christian book or that it was too modest.
I guess they felt like the ‘religious’ aspect of the book should have been tagged more clearly in the book summary.
It is technically a Christian book. There are elements of Katie and Graeme’s faith interspersed throughout the book, but I wouldn’t say the faith aspect is the main point of the book. I think Basham’s goal was to write a clean rom-com that just didn’t try to hide faith. I didn’t find the faith references to be cheesy or too much.
However, I don’t know what it’s like to read a Christian fiction book when you weren’t wanting to so I can’t perceive how the story will come across to those who don’t typically like or want to read a ‘Christian’ book.
I think it’s tough to write romance these days when smut is so glorified. Modesty is seen as juvenile or laughable. Everyone has their own convictions on how much is too much spice but I will support and appreciate authors who are willing to hold the line on modesty because we need to normalize romance that is not illicit or graphic. Love does not need to be forbidden or steamy to be true and deep. Actually I think they are diametrically opposed.
Recommendation
There is definitely an audience who will probably not like this book, but I would say the reasons are preferential rather than qualitative. Those who want their romance to be smut, will not find that here. Those who do not want to read a book with any Christian references, might not like this book.
But if you are anyone else, I think you would enjoy this book! It’s a good, cozy, sweet rom-com with hints of humor and hints of faith. It draws on elements of finding family, finding yourself, and finding home. Plus who doesn’t love a Scottish setting for a love story?
When I’m in the mood for a rom-com, I’ll definitely keep Basham on my radar!
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
“The very real fear lay between wanting to believe in the beauty but seeing only the brokenness. Maybe that beauty was worth being brave for.”
When I realized that Check & Mate wasn’t going to be for me, I pivoted to a different rom-com— Some Like It Scot. I had not read anything by Pepper Basham but I knew this would be a clean rom-com which is more my speed.
If you prefer your romance to be spicy and graphic, you won’t find that in this book, but there were definitely sparks. And I’m not the ‘swooning’ type but I imagine many moments in this book would qualify.
The Scottish setting is a romantic one. Plus there’s just something about an accent right?
The premise is this:
Katie Campbell is in Scotland on assignment for her traveling social media page— Miss Adventure— to participate in what is called the ‘Edwardian Experience’. Two weeks in an old period mansion immersed in the Edwardian era dress, food, culture, and traditions. To really see what it was like during that time (early 1900s).
Along with several other influencers/ influential people, Katie’s job is to showcase the experience for her followers as advertisement.
Traveling has been her drug, her coping mechanism after losing a sister at a young age and dealing with an unstable family life.
“measuring up to a perfect sister was hard enough when she lived. Measuring up to a memory was impossible.”
Her grandparents (first generation Scottish Americans) were her home but have recently passed.
Being in Scotland has awakened in Katie many emotions and the potential ‘home’ that has seemed all too elusive.
Of course, the attention of a ‘hot Scot’ may have stoked that fire a little bit as well.
There were many things to like in this book, but I also have a few critiques.
I liked the setting. I haven’t been to Scotland (yet) but Basham did a good job of describing the atmosphere and cultural vibe. I did end up on a rabbit trail looking up Scottish slang words, but it was actually helpful because I was better able to read in my head the Scottish accent. It had a very cozy vibe that made me, even though I hate dreary, want to get caught in the rain and warm up by the fireplace.
I liked the found-family aspect and that as much as Katie liked Graeme (he’s the ‘hot Scot’), she was just as enamored with his mom and nephew. Stories often punctuate love within families that are at odds with one another or with the love interest, so I enjoy when the love interest fits into the family so well.
I thought it was an interesting premise to have the reason for Katie being there to have to do with a different historical period. It offered unique ways for the characters to interact as well as move the plot along. I will say, I’m not entirely sure if I grasped what the Edwardian era really was (though I looked it up and it’s the period AFTER the Victorian era because King Edward was Queen Victoria’s son and that’s why I kept picturing Victorian stuff; there was probably some overlap) and I did feel like the usage of the word ‘Edwardian’ and ‘Edwardian Experience’ felt a little overbearing (almost 100 times).
I liked the sweetness of the story. Basham showed that you don’t have to have two people ripping each other’s shirts off to have sexual tension and attraction and love. You get to see more depth in the characters and their emotional relationship. It was just a lovely story.
I liked that Katie and Graeme had both experienced the loss of a sibling and that Katie was able to see his family’s way of grieving in contrast to her own parents’ way of grieving and to recognize what is healthy and okay.
I really liked that when Allison showed up at Graeme’s house, when Katie was supposed to come over, it wasn’t the scene you would usually expect to have where Katie misreads the situation, thinking Graeme is still in love with Allison and runs away believing it’s all over. Basham writes this scene in a much better way and preferable way. “This is not a Hallmark miscommunication scene.”
I liked the notion of ‘lingering’, ‘tarrying.’
I liked that Katie was a tall girl. I’m not super tall but I suspect many tall females out there would love more representation.
For the most part I enjoyed the humor aspect of the book. It has a good title, and if you love puns, this will be a right up your alley. I have mixed feelings about puns, especially in written form as in a book because it feels like you have to do it just right to have the funniest effect. Some of the humor in this book seemed cheesy or trying too hard, but other times it hit right. I’m trying to figure out if we can get the humor of Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood but in a cleaner story. This wasn’t quite there, but it was several steps in the right direction.
I didn’t particularly like that Katie’s main ‘thing’ was her clumsiness and propensity for trouble. It makes for a great social media page name, but beyond that, I just don’t like that kind of trope. It feels too obnoxious and performative to be a real trait. How does someone fall and spill so much?!
I’m also not super engaged with a character that has such a shockingly negative self-perception. I had to reflect on this several times because I was just like- how can she really think so low of herself in all these different situations? And I get that I don’t really understand what it’s like to be told you’re not enough over and over in different ways by your own parents and how that would have to shape your self-perception.
I just think I enjoy female characters with self-confidence more (not arrogance but a realistic view of themselves) and that know their strengths (and their weaknesses). It’s probably just more relatable to me. That’s not to say it was a bad choice for this book, and it’s good for me to think about the internal experience of someone different from me, but it’s just not my favorite kind of character. The constant- how could anyone love me?- seemed a bit too over the top.
I felt like the competition aspect with Mark started out good, but then Mark just kinda screwed himself over and found himself kicked out so the tension there really evaporated fast. I think if you’re going to introduce a rivalry like that that she should have finished it in a more full way. The focus shifted, as it should with this being a love story, but then the rivalry basically vanished instead of settling in a concrete way.
Another thing I didn’t like, but it’s also probably why I don’t typically love romance novels in the first place— so many comments about his shoulders and jawline! I mean I guess there could be worse body parts to name all the time, but still.
I looked at a lot of the negative reviews on Goodreads and the common thread (in almost every one) was that people were turned off that it was a Christian book or that it was too modest.
I guess they felt like the ‘religious’ aspect of the book should have been tagged more clearly in the book summary.
It is technically a Christian book. There are elements of Katie and Graeme’s faith interspersed throughout the book, but I wouldn’t say the faith aspect is the main point of the book. I think Basham’s goal was to write a clean rom-com that just didn’t try to hide faith. I didn’t find the faith references to be cheesy or too much.
However, I don’t know what it’s like to read a Christian fiction book when you weren’t wanting to so I can’t perceive how the story will come across to those who don’t typically like or want to read a ‘Christian’ book.
I think it’s tough to write romance these days when smut is so glorified. Modesty is seen as juvenile or laughable. Everyone has their own convictions on how much is too much spice but I will support and appreciate authors who are willing to hold the line on modesty because we need to normalize romance that is not illicit or graphic. Love does not need to be forbidden or steamy to be true and deep. Actually I think they are diametrically opposed.
Recommendation
There is definitely an audience who will probably not like this book, but I would say the reasons are preferential rather than qualitative. Those who want their romance to be smut, will not find that here. Those who do not want to read a book with any Christian references, might not like this book.
But if you are anyone else, I think you would enjoy this book! It’s a good, cozy, sweet rom-com with hints of humor and hints of faith. It draws on elements of finding family, finding yourself, and finding home. Plus who doesn’t love a Scottish setting for a love story?
When I’m in the mood for a rom-com, I’ll definitely keep Basham on my radar!
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Well this was another Did Not Finish for me. After reading only one chapter and looking at other reviews I knew this was not the book for me.
For one, the main character is bisexual which was unexpected considering it is supposed to be a love story between a girl and boy (which I think it still is) but in the first chapter there was already a reference to girls she had previously dated and based on other reviews, it sounds like there are a lot of bisexual-type comments.
For two, half the reviews I read I did not even understand what they were talking about. I had to look up slang terms and abbreviations and they were critiquing generational references within the book that meant nothing, positive or negative, to me. This was a YA book and I often enjoy those, but sounds like this was possibly more niche than others in terms of references and relatability.
For three, the other half of the reviews I read that I DID understand mention that even though there is no spice or smut there is talk about sex a lot, even between the main character’s younger sisters and a man they don’t know as if to normalize it and I am not about that. I would still like to normalize teenagers not having sex at all.
For four, a lot of the people that really liked the book talked about relating to and loving the aspect of the main character’s taking care of and providing for her family at a young age and that’s not really a character trope that I’m super interested in, especially at the teen level. I felt like it worked for Hunger Games, but I’m struggling to think of another book where I enjoyed that trope and can’t think of one at the moment.
I’m already hesitant about reading any book that has romance in it because I prefer to avoid sex stuff so all of these things combined— and the fact that no other review compelled me to continue—made it hard to justify pushing on when I already have so many other books on my TBR list.
So, I have read one Ali Hazelwood book, Love Theoretically, which I review at length HERE. In my review I said I would LOVE if Hazelwood would put out some PG-13 version of her writing because there were aspects about it that were really good, including the humor but I didn’t want all the sexual content or swearing.
I think that’s why I had Check & Mate on my TBR. I thought this was what I was waiting for. Turns out, it wasn’t quite the PG-13 version I was hoping for. Maybe we should try again for PG-13 version with adult characters. I don’t know. It may just be that Hazelwood and I have too many core belief differences that would keep putting me at odds with her writing. I might just have to come to terms with that.
Recommendation
I’m not sure how to recommend this book. It was the Goodreads winner in 2023 for YA Fiction so there’s obviously a lot of people who disagree with me.
Some of the reasons for not finishing may not be problems for teenagers since it’s written for their age group, but other reasons make me think it shouldn’t be read by teenagers either.
If you like to be careful about what kind of romance books you read, then I would say look elsewhere.
If you are a teenager and you already enjoy Hazelwood’s adult books, then I suppose this one would probably be in line with what you like.
If you are an adult and you already enjoy Hazelwood’s adult books, I can’t promise you’ll like the ‘youth’ version because I’m not qualified to evaluate the references and lingo to determine what is cool (is that what I’m even evaluating??) or not…
Basically… I’m probably not much help in the recommendation department.
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
This was an action-packed thriller!
It has some Bourne Identity type vibes because Matthew is an ex-Marine who is being hunted by a government agency because of information he has but because of his particular set of skills he can be significantly outnumbered and still single-handedly take them all down.
It’s definitely a ‘hero’ story.
I hadn’t realized this was book three when I read it. They give some context to where they’ve been before and what has led Redd to be in the current situation. I was able to enjoy the book and understand everything without having read the first two, but considering how good this one was, I think I would recommend reading from the beginning. I think there was definitely some character development for Matthew and his wife and Matthew’s relationship with his dad that I didn’t fully get with just starting here.
If you like thrillers with lots of tactical maneuvering, danger, and seemingly-impossible-to-survive-lone-man scenarios, this is definitely the book for you!
The setting of this book adds a lot to the story. It takes place largely in Montana near Matthew’s ranch. He’s been living there with his wife and their infant son, trying to get away from it all. But ‘it all’ finds him when a federal prison transport is attacked and the prisoner is killed. A prisoner who had confessed a lot of secrets to Matthew. He knows they need to silence him next.
So using the woods and the ensuing winter storm to his advantage, Matthew lures the enemy team into his territory where he can set up a better defense. He knows the terrain and can handle the weather. Of course he also has the help from his stealthy steed, Remington, and loyal Rottweiler, Rubble. (Don’t worry, they don’t die.)
If you were to have read the previous books I think this ‘enemy’ would have been set up more. It’s a cabal of sorts, called the Twelve. So if you want more backstory on the bad guys, I think they are what is ‘discovered’ prior to this book. The next book looks to introduce a new ‘bad guy’ so I’m thinking the Twelve’s story is wrapped up in Out for Blood.
My main criticism is something pretty minor but maybe if Steck reads this, he will take note. I am a big fan of nicknames, at least in real life. I don’t see them used very effectively in a lot of books I read. I’m still pondering if nicknames in books makes sense or if it feels too contrived. But the way Steck uses names/nicknames in this book was a bit too much.
Matthew is the main character. He sometimes goes by Matt. That’s fine. Only a few people are allowed to call him Matty, but those few characters are also pretty much the only other characters in the book. Also his son’s name is Matthew but they call him Matty. You don’t call a man and the junior the same name. My husband is Michael, his dad is Mike. They don’t both go by Mikey, that would be weird.
So we have Matty and Matty. Then Matthew’s friend is Mikey. Then we have Martin who goes by Marty. And then we have Stephanie who he knew by the name Sammy. Do you see where I’m going with this? We need some different creativity or just less creativity. Not everyone needs a nickname.
Also, one more note on little Matty. If he still has regular hearing in the next book I’m going to be amazed because what he just went through in this book probably should have destroyed his ear drums. But I’m guessing we’re going to need to sidestep this reality (which is totally fine).
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend this book, for sure if you like authors like Jack Carr, Brad Thor, or C.J. Box. I have not read any of these other authors yet, but they’ve all endorsed Ryan Steck and I think his writing must be similar in themes and content— i.e. guns and military and tactics, etc.
I read a wide variety of books so these kind of books are ones I do enjoy, but aren’t necessarily my bread and butter. So even if you don’t typically read special-ops mission books, I think you would still enjoy this one. There is some technical gun stuff, but everything is very easy to follow and it’s a clean book, especially considering the military/violence aspect which I appreciate.
If you like this kind of book, I would also recommend Steven James’ Travis Brock or Patrick Bowers series.
If you hate books with guns and show-downs, you might want to pass on this one.
[Content Advisory: no swearing or sexual content; a lot of violence, a little gore]
**Received an ARC via Tyndale in exchange for an honest review**
It has some Bourne Identity type vibes because Matthew is an ex-Marine who is being hunted by a government agency because of information he has but because of his particular set of skills he can be significantly outnumbered and still single-handedly take them all down.
It’s definitely a ‘hero’ story.
I hadn’t realized this was book three when I read it. They give some context to where they’ve been before and what has led Redd to be in the current situation. I was able to enjoy the book and understand everything without having read the first two, but considering how good this one was, I think I would recommend reading from the beginning. I think there was definitely some character development for Matthew and his wife and Matthew’s relationship with his dad that I didn’t fully get with just starting here.
If you like thrillers with lots of tactical maneuvering, danger, and seemingly-impossible-to-survive-lone-man scenarios, this is definitely the book for you!
The setting of this book adds a lot to the story. It takes place largely in Montana near Matthew’s ranch. He’s been living there with his wife and their infant son, trying to get away from it all. But ‘it all’ finds him when a federal prison transport is attacked and the prisoner is killed. A prisoner who had confessed a lot of secrets to Matthew. He knows they need to silence him next.
So using the woods and the ensuing winter storm to his advantage, Matthew lures the enemy team into his territory where he can set up a better defense. He knows the terrain and can handle the weather. Of course he also has the help from his stealthy steed, Remington, and loyal Rottweiler, Rubble. (Don’t worry, they don’t die.)
If you were to have read the previous books I think this ‘enemy’ would have been set up more. It’s a cabal of sorts, called the Twelve. So if you want more backstory on the bad guys, I think they are what is ‘discovered’ prior to this book. The next book looks to introduce a new ‘bad guy’ so I’m thinking the Twelve’s story is wrapped up in Out for Blood.
My main criticism is something pretty minor but maybe if Steck reads this, he will take note. I am a big fan of nicknames, at least in real life. I don’t see them used very effectively in a lot of books I read. I’m still pondering if nicknames in books makes sense or if it feels too contrived. But the way Steck uses names/nicknames in this book was a bit too much.
Matthew is the main character. He sometimes goes by Matt. That’s fine. Only a few people are allowed to call him Matty, but those few characters are also pretty much the only other characters in the book. Also his son’s name is Matthew but they call him Matty. You don’t call a man and the junior the same name. My husband is Michael, his dad is Mike. They don’t both go by Mikey, that would be weird.
So we have Matty and Matty. Then Matthew’s friend is Mikey. Then we have Martin who goes by Marty. And then we have Stephanie who he knew by the name Sammy. Do you see where I’m going with this? We need some different creativity or just less creativity. Not everyone needs a nickname.
Also, one more note on little Matty. If he still has regular hearing in the next book I’m going to be amazed because what he just went through in this book probably should have destroyed his ear drums. But I’m guessing we’re going to need to sidestep this reality (which is totally fine).
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend this book, for sure if you like authors like Jack Carr, Brad Thor, or C.J. Box. I have not read any of these other authors yet, but they’ve all endorsed Ryan Steck and I think his writing must be similar in themes and content— i.e. guns and military and tactics, etc.
I read a wide variety of books so these kind of books are ones I do enjoy, but aren’t necessarily my bread and butter. So even if you don’t typically read special-ops mission books, I think you would still enjoy this one. There is some technical gun stuff, but everything is very easy to follow and it’s a clean book, especially considering the military/violence aspect which I appreciate.
If you like this kind of book, I would also recommend Steven James’ Travis Brock or Patrick Bowers series.
If you hate books with guns and show-downs, you might want to pass on this one.
[Content Advisory: no swearing or sexual content; a lot of violence, a little gore]
**Received an ARC via Tyndale in exchange for an honest review**