Book Review

BOOK REVIEW.
The Bakers Wife - Erin Healy

Book description:
If what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, why is Audrey growing weaker by the day?

When her husband Geoff, a pastor, lost his job after a scandal rocked their congregation, Audrey never lost faith.

They decide to resurrect a failing bakery as a way to heal family wounds and restore their place in the community.

Running late to the bakery one foggy morning, Audrey strikes a vehicle. Emerging from her car into the fog, she discovers she hit a motor scooter. But there’s no rider in sight. Just blood.

The absence of the driver is a mystery, especially to Sergeant Jack Mansfield, the detective and church member responsible for firing Geoff from his pulpit. The scooter belongs to Jack’s wife, Julie, a teacher at the local high school, who has vanished…like morning fog.

Though there is no evidence to support Jack’s growing suspicion that Audrey and Geoff were involved in Julie’s disappearance, the detective is convinced of their guilt. When he takes the tiny bakery and its patron’s hostage, Audrey must unravel the secret of Julie’s disappearance and her own mysterious suffering before Jack hits his breaking point.

Review:
I had high hopes for this book and in parts it didn't disappoint, however there were far too many slow and disjointed parts for my liking especially the ending which seemed rather rushed and out of context with the rest of the book. In fact it almost felt like the author either got bored and wanted to end it quick or just had no idea what else to do.
The character Audrey has a 'gift' that some readers may feel uncomfortable trying to understand, a gift of empathy toward sick people that enables her to 'feel' their pain (is this even a 'gift'?).
For me this 'gift' was the most interesting part of the story and is what really had me hooked from the start.
The main theme of this book is each characters belief / faith in God / religion and showed how the same religious belief can become distorted by grief, ignorance and self importance for some and yet can remain steadfast and a source of strength for others.
While I appreciate religious belief is a personal thing I feel uncomfortable reading a book where a characters entire life and every conversation is a quote from the bible. To me it's an excuse to not have think for yourself.
Would I recommend this book? Yes. The concept of the story is pretty sound and the writing is mostly sound also. The downsides to this book do not outweigh the creativity and aside from the ending and a few boring parts in the middle it's a pretty decent read.

BookSneeze gave me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book review: The Skin Map

The Skin Map by Stephen R Lawhead.

Oh dear! I am so thankful that I have finally finished this book. I found it amazingly difficult to get engrossed in and am dissappointed that it didn't live up to the promise of the cover.

The story started quite promisingly with other wordly forces (seemingly) plotting to ensure that Kit is at a particular point at a particular time on a particular day to meet his great grandfather who claims to have zipped through alternate realties by discovering ley lines.
Kit finds himself discovering these ley lines also and when he attempts to show these alternate worlds to his girlfriend Mina she gets lost in transit...

With the help of the 'skin map'(a map that shows how the different worlds connect) the characters travel through and discover these other dimensions, persued all the way by a group of men hell bent on getting their own hands on the map.

Some may say that this book is filled with plots and twists and turns, for me however the plot was disjointed at best and I found the ending simply annoying as it left too much unfinished, though I assume this means that there'll be another installment.
Not for me there won't be!

3/10 for this book, not for me I'm afraid.

Nick of Time - Tim Downs. Book review

"now listen," Alena said, "I've seen you pick maggots off a two week old corpse without even turning up your nose"
With a statement like that in the first sentence I couldn't help but be hooked on this book.
A chuckle a minute from the first page, Tims Downs novel draws you in from the off and keeps you there, engrossed and second duessing what's unfolding before your eyes.

This was my first novel by Tim Downs and based on this read I would definitely be interested in reading more of his work.

Nick of time is a pretty fast paced piece of fiction based on the rather far fetched lives of Nick & Alena.
Days before they are due to marry Nick, the 'bug man' -a forensic entomologist- is called away for a meeting with fellow experts in the bug and / or death field. Whilst away a situation arises that means Nick cannot return home and risks missing his own wedding.
On Nicks dissappearence Alena takes her best tracking dogs and sets off to locate him but what she finds is not exactly what she bargained for and is in no way predictable to the reader.
Overall I found this an enjoyable read however I do have a few caveats about certain aspects of the storyline - Nicks sense of humour,for one,(or lack of it) is funny to begin with but rapidly becomes unrealistic and a tad annoying.
Also alena's seemingly ninja trained canines had me rolling my eyes and thinking "oh come on!" more than once.
Get past those foibles though and the story is great and once I had got over the shock of the ending as it unravelled I thought it was a genius idea. It was unpredictable (so don't even try) and a change from most other novels.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

The Final Summit: A Quest to Find the One Principle That Will Save Humanity

Book Title: The Final Summit.
Author:  Andy Andrews.

Join David Ponder and a cast of historically important figures as they race against the clock to discover the secret to restoring civilization to the correct path. To fail the quest will mean a 'start over' for the Earth and it's inhabitants and with the 'last start over' being 'The Flood' David Ponder, Erik Erikson, Winston Churchill, Joan of Arc and Anne Frank (to name a few) have the fate of mankind on their shoulders.

The Final Summit is the sequel to 'The Time Traveler's gift' but don't let that put you off this book, it is very easy to pick up the life of David Ponder from page one and this book had me hooked from the off.
David Ponder is a time traveler of the otherworldly kind, as opposed the scientific kind. He is escorted on his most important meeting with other past travelers by the Archangel Gabriel, a meeting in  an otherworldly realm where the fate of mankind is determined by the aforementioned historical figures for which they have 5 chances to discover the right path. Will they manage it?

A great read that is captivating from the start. The historical figures are a genius idea and the story behind each historical figure will have you googling them to find out if the information really could be true - it is!
A book that will certainly make you question certain aspects of your own life and that of the world collectively.

Go get it, you'll love it.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”