Review: The Arthurian Omen, G.G. Vandagriff

Title: The Arthurian Omen
Author: G.G. Vandagriff
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Publishing Date: April 2, 2008
Length: 322 pages
Summary: (from book)  Is the story of King Arthur history or myth?  A Celtic scholar is brutally murdered when she discovers a clue to a priceless fifth-century manuscript that could prove the identity of King Arthur. Determined to find the ancient relic and avenge her sister's death, Maren Southcott begins a quest that immediately puts her own life in danger.
In the tradition of Mary Higgins Clark, The Arthurian Omen weaves a tale of mystery and suspense as pursuit of the manuscript winds through the medieval castles and monasteries of Wales. 
Stalked by a psychopath with delusions of a Welsh revolution, Maren is shaken to the core when a new crisis threatens to destroy the one person s he loves most. Can she find the manuscript before the murderer strikes again? Or is the manuscript-and the legend- better left buried in the past?
My Thoughts: This book, to put it in Welsh, was bendigedig. The author's story even more so. She suffered a health problem that left her with no memories and lacking the ability to write. Due to a miraculous recovery, she gained her ability to write back, but her memories are still gone. Her husband found an old computer file that was the first few pages of this book and she finished the manuscript from there. It's nothing less than a miracle.
The writing was a bit confusing at times, due to the several character's involved, but understanding the author's background, I can let that one slide.
The story was fascinating. I have a deep love for mysteries and folklore and this one did not disappoint. The story weaved in and out with several plot twists and I honestly did not see the end of this one coming. I spent the entire novel believing the wrong character to be the culprit.  I love a story that surprises me.
This book made me want to speak Welsh, and I had to Google a sound recording of the language to hear how beautiful it is.
I enjoyed the depth of the characters and the emotional pull I felt along the storyline. The author has a love for genealogy and you can tell that in the importance laid on family ties. The book felt well researched and I am looking forward to reading more by this author.
Things To Be Cautious Of: This was a suspense novel, and there is mention of several murders, and brief, non detailed violence.

Review: Edenbrooke, Julianne Donaldson

Title: Edenbrooke
Author: Julianne Donaldson
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Publishing Date: March 27, 2012
Length: 255 pages
Summary: (From back of book) Marianne Daventry will do anything to escape the boredom of Bath and the amorous attentions of an unwanted suitor. So when an invitation arrives from her twin sister, Cecily, to join her at a sprawling country estate, she jumps at the chance. Thinking she'll be able to relax and enjoy her beloved English countryside while her sister snags the handsome heir of Edenbrooke, Marianne finds that even the best laid plans can go awry.
From a terrifying run-in with a highwayman to a seemingly harmless flirtation, Marianne finds herself embroiled in an unexpected adventure filled with enough romance and intrigue to keep her mind racing. Will Marianne be able to rein in her traitorous heart, or will a mysterious stranger sweep her off her feet? Fate had something other than a relaxing summer in mind when it sent Marianne to Edenbrooke.
My Thoughts: This book was perfect. Even the cover and the name is perfect. I picked this one up searching for a cute love story after my last book got a little too heated for my taste. I had been expecting a pleasing, albeit, cliche romance so typical to this genre, but I was delightfully disappointed. This book grabbed my attention from the start and I read the entire thing in an afternoon. (The perfect thing to help cope with a head cold.)
Philip, the hero of the story is everything a girl should want in a guy, and Marianne is an independent and lovable narrator. The banter and wit was enjoyable and I loved watching the development and waiting for the next big twist. The mystery and adventure of the story was original and the setting a delight to fall into.
This is how a love story should be. I agree wholeheartedly with the author about wanting just a sweet love story without all the lust and desire that is so rampant among fiction these days.  I admire the character Philip for his gentleman like behavior and upright standards. It is an ageless trait you do not see very often anymore and I found it refreshing.
This was a wonderful book that I will recommend happily and take off my shelf to read again and again.

Review: Hourglass, Myra McEntire

Title: Hourglass
Author: Myra McEntire
Publisher: Egmont USA
Publishing Date: June 14, 2011
Length: 390 pages
Summary: (From website) One hour to rewrite the past . . . 

 For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn't there; swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back. 

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past. 

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he's around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened? 

My Thoughts: First off, the cover is gorgeous. I was drawn to it immediately. I first saw this book when it came out, but didn't read it because it was filed under the paranormal genre. I stumbled across the book again on a book blog website and found out that it is a time slip book. Now, I confess, I have a soft spot for time travel books and love reading them. I figured that they were calling the time travel 'paranormal'  so I went and bought it yesterday and read it in an afternoon. 

Emerson, the female protagonist, is character with a very deep past and very independent. I admired her as a character and found her interesting.  She has a weird condition where she sees images. People think she's hallucinating, and it feels slightly paranormal as the images are people and mistaken for ghosts. I didn't like that part at all. But it turns out to be a pretty cool key to the whole time travel thing. 

Michael, the heart throb of the book, has a lot of history that I'm fascinated by and would love to learn more about. The plot line for the book was amazing, and the author (who looks just like Carrie Underwood) executed it beautifully. But there is always downside. I wish there was never a downside.

I try not to read a lot of YA; especially recently written, popular YA because of the content and I did research this book on a content review site to make sure it was clean before purchasing. I could handle the few swear words, nothing more than what you hear on TV, but the one main reason I hate YA fiction is because of the gag worthy, over the top, borderline uncomfortable, unrealistic romance. I mean, seriously.

Of course the first boy she meets is the one she falls in love with. Of course he totally loves her and has abs like Taylor Lautner. Because, heaven forbid he's built like a gawky, normal teenage guy. I have nothing wrong with romance, in fact, I am a sucker for well written love stories. But when two characters are defined as a couple not even half way though the book and kissing before the climax, I feel a lot of character development is lost.  Are all YA's this way?  And the emotion written into the scenes is way too intense. There are somethings I will never be old enough or want to read.  Granted, it wasn't too much detail, but it was like ignoring the elephant in the room. 

Michale's friend is an openly dirty person and has several remarks and scenes with Emerson that I found to be unnecessary and taking away from the beauty of the plot line. The sneak peek for the sequel in the back  of the book opens with a scene and this character and starts off dirty. Such writing has really made me lose all interest in ever reading the sequel to the book; which is a shame, considering how interesting the plotline.

Things To Be Cautious Of:  And this is the part where I wonder if the content review sight for literature is just blind or incredibly tolerant. Swearing. (several 'dang,' a few 'heck' one B_ and an unfinished Sh-)   Romance content: Feelings of physical tension between the two main characters, two kissing scenes, but without much detail. One of the characters has a shady life and hints suggestively at things to the female character. 

Review: Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

Title: Gone With the Wind
Author: Margaret Mitchell
Publisher: Macmillan
Publishing Date: 1936
Length: 959 pages
Summary: (From book) Margaret Mitchell's epic saga of love and war has long been heralded The Great American Novel. Gone With the Wind explores the depths of human passions with indelible depictions of the burning fields and cities of Civil War and Reconstruction America. 
In the two main characters, the irresistible, tenacious Scarlett O'Hara and the formidable, debonair Rhett butler, Margaret Mitchell gives us a timeless story of survival and two of the most famous lovers in the English-speaking world since Romeo and Juliet. 
Gone With the Wind is a thrilling, haunting and vivid book that readers will remember for the rest of their lives.

My Thoughts:  Wow. Well, this was not what I had expected. I always thought Gone With the Wind to be a beautiful love story that weaves through the South's perspective on the hardships on the Civil War. Instead, I got to read a book about a selfish female who was about as ditzy as they come and incredibly selfish. What do people see in her? Irresistible? Hardly. I wanted to slap her.  Granted, I almost felt bad for her at parts. She was a character who unfolded the tragic deviating of childhood ignorance and compassionate Christianity to vain, selfish and cruel loss of self.  She was incredibly mean to her own children. I don't want a book about Rhett Butler's family or what happened years later after Scarlett's vow at the end. What I want is a book written from the POV of Wade, her oldest and most neglected child. That poor boy needs therapy.
I don't feel like this book was about the South. It felt more like a depiction of humanity and the choices we make in a time of crisis and the question of if we will hold out and still be compassionate to those in need when all we really want to do is think only of ourselves.
Rhett Butler is a fascinating character. Outwardly, he appears shallow, dirty and sardonic, but when you get glimpses of him with children, he is incredibly kind.  And he has nothing but respect towards Mellie who I loved most of all. But he didn't seem like the type of hero to fawn over, or even a hero at all. Just a very broken, somewhat abusive man.
Ashley felt pathetic and the only really strong, lovable character was Mellie who was too innocent and good seeking to realize all the bad that was going on around her.
This book was about the different types of people there are in the world and how they deal with complete and utter loss. Some come through with their virtue and meekness intact, and others have thrown it under the bus and neglected all that they were taught in.
I found this to be a very interesting and thought provoking book, but was very disappointed in the main characters.
Things To Be Cautious Of:  Everything. Swearing throughout, including several harsh versions of the Lord's name, a desired affair, hints of passion, whore houses and glorifying of the KKK.

Review: The Outsiders, By S.E. Hinton

Title: The Outsiders
Author: S.E. Hinton
Publisher: Viking Press
Publishing Date: 1965
Length: 188 pages
Summary: (from book)  In Ponyboy's world there were two types of people. You could be a soc, one of the rich society kids, and get away with anything. Or if you weren't lucky you could be a greaser, like he was. Living on the outside, Ponyboy knew where his loyalties lay: with his brothers Darry and Soda, and with Johnny and their gang. 
Hanging out at Darry's house, where they made their own rules, or rumbling with the socs, it was the best of times. Until Johnny went too far. Defending Ponyboy's life, Johnny pulled a knife...and a soc was dead. Johnny and Ponyboy were on the run, but they couldn't escape the violence they left behind.


My Thoughts: This is a YA classic that I've never read before. I can see why it's been so popular. I especially loved the character, Soda. I thought this was a good book, but not one of my favorites. I love the fact that the author began writing this at fifteen.
Things To Be Cautious Of: Mild fighting, some death, violence and occasional swear words.

Review: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Title:  Unbroken
Author: Laura Hillenbrand
Publisher: Random House
Publishing Date: November 16, 2010
Length: 473 pages
Summary: (From Barnes & Noble.com) On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

My Thoughts:  This. Book. Wow.  I couldn't put it down. I feel like Louis Zamperini is a close friend of mine. I cried, laughed and was left with a strong feeling of patriotism. I am so proud to be American. I wish the school system would change their education style to include more books like this. This book made history come alive. I will never forget it.
Things To Be Careful Of: This book does not take the war lightly and speaks openly about what happened in POW camps and air raids. Including torture, beating and starvation.

Review: The Evolution of Thomas Hall By Kieth Merrill

Title: The Evolution of Thomas Hall
Author: Kieth Merrill
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Publishing Date: May 9, 2011
Length: 454 Pages
Summary: (From book) Thomas Hall is an artist with astonishing talent-and a vainglorious sense of self. Since his days as a child prodigy he has reveled in recognition and believed in his inevitable destiny. Chosen. Entitled. He presumes his artistic brilliance deserves a lavish life of independence, fast cars and drop-dead gorgeous women. 
Thomas Hall wants it all and more.
Destiny has other plans. When "Cass," the woman from the Healing Place, walks into his life, nothing can ever be the same again. 
Thomas finds himself faced with a challenge he never could have imagined, suspended between the snarling beasts of his fanciful imagination that belie the existence of God and the undaunted faith of a little girl named Christina. What he discovers about the child's harrowing escape from death-and the impossibility of what happened at the bottom of the cliff-brings him face -to-face with the most frightening question of his life.
My Thoughts: This book was brilliant. It reaffirmed my testimony in the Savior and strengthened my resolve to use my talents for good. The author has such a way with words and I found myself swept up in his stunning descriptions as he portrayed the several different points of view. I loved every second of the book and enjoyed all the minor characters that influenced and helped create such a wonderful world. I cried in the middle of the book and then sobbed at the end. (It's been an emotion week. MASH reruns put me in tears) The Spirit was very much present in this story and this is a book I am going to cherish for a long time.
Things To Be Cautious Of: There were a few swear words. Never the Lord's name in vain, but the words, 'heck' 'dang' and 'jack__' were used infrequently.