Monday 30 June 2014

Review: Remember Love by Jessica Nelson

A few weeks ago, I inherited someone's cast off Android and he kindly installed a Kindle app on it.  Since then, I've gone a bit gung-ho in seeking free novels on Amazon to read.  Today, on the freebie list, I found, Remember Love, by Jessica Nelson which is part of the series, The Women of Manatee Bay.

The key verse that this novel revolves around is Isaiah 42:3, which says, "A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench:  He shall bring forth judgment to truth."

Katrina (Kitty) Ross and Alec Monroe have a long history together.  They had been childhood sweethearts, but Kitty stood Alec up at the altar on their wedding day, and Alec left town.  They are reunited ten years later when he roars back to Manatee Bay on his motorcycle.  The former wild boy is now a successful businessman and has returned to open a new business in his hometown, but is also hoping to sniff out information about Kitty.  When he finds out that she is one of the lessees in the building that he is buying, his interest in her picks up again, until he finds out that she had withheld knowledge of the existence of their now deceased son from him.  This has wounded him greatly because Kitty knew that if he had known about their son, he would not have abandoned them.  He had been abandoned by his own father as a child and would not have subjected his own child to the same fate.

Alec vacillates from wanting revenge against Kitty for hurting him in this way, to wanting her to be his wife.  He is also wanting to show the townspeople who had rejected him in the past that he has made something success out of himself.  Kitty, on the other hand, is the obvious bruised reed in this story. She has faced rejection and abandonment all of her life, from a father who walked out on her and her mother, from her mother who was not very loving towards Kitty, and from the deaths of her mother and her son, Joe, in a car accident. Kitty, who had become a Christian shortly after Joe was born, has been struggling with her faith since the deaths of Joe and her mother. Alec has become a believer during the past year, but he's still grappling with desires for vengeance.

Both of them can see that the other has changed greatly since they were youths, and are attracted to what each other has now become.   However, Kitty still has difficulty in trusting Alec, because he won't say aloud whether he loves her or forgives her of what she had done.  Alec is more of a man of action than of words; he doesn't know how to scale the walls around Kitty's heart. There comes a point in the story when the tables are turned; Kitty needs to forgive Alec for withholding information from her if there is any hope of reconciliation between the two of them. 

Much of this novel touches on the issue of forgiveness and the healing that can come when it is given.  There were a lot of people that needed to give forgiveness and a lot of people who needed to receive it in this story.  There was one point in the story that felt a little abrupt, and it was the revelation of the details surrounding the car accident that led to the deaths of Kitty's mother and Joe.  There was a little bit of foreshadowing of this, but I think that I would have liked a couple more hints because it did feel abrupt and sudden to me. However, once that portion of the plot was revealed, it led to quite an important development in the life of a minor character who had been kept hidden until this point, and also to Kitty, because it caused her to realize that it was possible for her to believe that Alec might be able to forgive her. I thought that this part was nicely done.  

I loved the line in which Alec thought that the Lord said to him, "I've made all things new, Son." Just reading that is like breathing in hope.  Alec really needed it at that point too. 

This was a good story. I hope to read more of the Women of Manatee Bay. 
      


Sunday 29 June 2014

Review: Bad Kitty Meets the Baby by Nick Bruel

Today, I was at a relative's home and was ambushed by a small child who said that I had to read, "Bad Kitty Meets the Baby," by Nick Bruel. It is a children's book and is classified as a easy chapter book but it includes illustrations on practically every page.  The book is published by Roaring Brook Press and the edition that I happened to lay my hands on was a Square Fish edition.  My little relative was correct; the book is hilarious.

The story begins with, "In the beginning, there was Kitty."  Yes, I noticed the similarity to the Genesis narrative, but it set quite a funny tone for the book, because the next event to happen to Kitty is the appearance of Puppy into her life.  This leads to traumatic times for our dear little Kitty until she gets used to him.  Then one day, the pet owners go away for a few days, leaving Kitty and Puppy in the care of Uncle Murray.  By the time the owners return, Uncle Murray is a frazzled mess, and the pets are now confronted with what Kitty thinks is the new dog because it drools and reminds her too much of Puppy.  The neighbourhood kitties think that the newcomer is just another kitty. However, what the owners have actually done is that they have adopted a baby into the family.

Because the cats think that the baby is actually a kitty herself, they invite New Kitty to participate in the Pussycat Olympics which consists of events such as the STARE-AT-YOURSELF-IN-A-MIRROR-UNTIL-YOU-GET-BORED and WHO-CAN-CREATE-THE-BIGGEST-STINK competitions. Who will win the Pussycat Olympics?  Will Kitty and New Kitty get over their adversarial roles and become friends?    

As I mentioned before, the book is quite funny.  I laughed at how Uncle Murray's pet sitting week turned out.  Here's a hint: it involves the pets, a tree, a fridge and several calls to the fire department.  Interspersed throughout the book, we can also read Uncle Murray's Fun Facts about how to deal with a cat stuck in a tree.  Near the end of the book is a short appendix of some cat tricks (how to get a cat to come/sit/shake paws/sit up/beg).  An interview with the author and a brief preview of another book in the series, "Bad Kitty for President," are also included. 

This book could probably be placed in the humour section of a bookstore, but that's just my opinion.  I finished this in less than an hour, with interruptions from the little book critic who pointed out some parts of the story that she found funny.  I appreciated the wit that I found in the writing style and must say that I'm now interested in reading the rest of the books in this series even though I'm no longer six or seven years old. 

Saturday 21 June 2014

Review: Never Like This (Revealing Book 2) by Rena Manse

Strong, wealthy, handsome, alpha male with a bad boy past?  Check.

Smart, intelligent, good humoured heroine who has several dark secrets of her own?  Check.

Christian romance?  Check.

Some hot kisses that left me fanning myself?  (Looks around furtively.)  Check.

Never Like This, by Rena Manse is an interracial Christian romance. It is the second book in the Revealing Series, but can be read as a stand alone book. 

Kavin Reigns is the 34 year old Chief Operations Officer of his family's cosmetic and fashion corporation, Revealing, which is primarily situated in America.  He's near the end of negotiations for a takeover of a smaller company in France when the representatives of the other company wish to renegotiate the terms. Kavin meets Sherri Harbor when he asks for her to join the team that arranged the takeover deal because she previously worked as a lawyer in France for five years before joining Revealing to work in its Foreign Relations Department.

They are instantly attracted to each other, but try to mask their interest from each other and from the rest of the world because of the differences in their positions in the company. Unaware of what the other is thinking, they both know that a romantic relationship between a boss and subordinate could potentially be disastrous for their work environment.  Kavin also wants to avoid being accused of sexual harassment.  Sherri views herself as damaged goods because of her past relationships.  However, the takeover deal requires that they work closely with each other, and they eventually reveal their interest to each other.  

There was an incident that happened earlier on in the novel in which Sherri was trapped in an elevator in Kavin's apartment building while she was on her way to deliver paper work to him.  It was used to build the romantic tension between the two of them, but I did get a moment of thinking that it was a bit too contrived and convenient for Kavin to be the shirtless knight in armour that rescues Sherri at that point (he had been exercising in his private gym).  However, if such a thing could happen in real life, one might think and consider that in the background, God could be orchestrating their meetings, contrived as it may appear in the novel. 

As for the interracial aspect of the story, I liked that it seemed to be more important to Kavin that Sherri was a believer. Besides worrying about being accused of sexual harassment, at some point in the story, he wonders if Sherri would ever consider dating a white man and he fears that she would reject him because he's not black.  As for Sherri, it appears that she has always pictured a black man as her Prince Charming, until she meets Kavin. As soon as they learn that their attraction is mutual, they are both open to exploring the possibility of a relationship.  However, as it grows, it seems to be that Kavin is the one who does more of the pursuing and is more open to revealing his secrets in order to win Sherri, than she is to him.  Her reluctance to be transparent with Kavin has less to do with race, and more to do with her woundedness in other areas of her life.

The novel is clean; however, the characters do share a few fervent kisses. Well, maybe they were quite passionate than just simply fervent. 

The characters take their time getting to know each other.  I've read some other reviews in which there were complaints about the length of time it took for the characters to get together, and perhaps the author could have trimmed a bit from the story to tighten it up, but I thought that it was okay.  Also, there are quite a few spelling errors, but I found the couple featured in this story to be extremely likeable.  I enjoyed this book.

Tuesday 10 June 2014

Review: Persy and the Prince by Jane Myers Perrine

Persy and the Prince, by Jane Myers Perrine is being republished by Beyond the Page Publishing.  This novel was originally published by Avalon in 2003. I became interested in reading this because I enjoyed Ms. Perrine's regency, The Mad Herringtons, which was a delightful read. 

When Persy Marsh first meets Jordan Prince, a manager of a chain of upscale hotels, she is acting as a hotel's dog walker at their workplace, trying to prevent a dog from piddling onto Jordan's shoes.  He requests to see her in his office, officially to give her a piece of his mind, but he is so physically attracted to her that he asks her out on a date with dishonourable intentions.  Jordan starts moving too fast, and Persy puts the brakes on.  She admits to Jordan that she is also deeply attracted to him and that she also behaved a bit inappropriately, but didn't mean to carry on as far as she did.

They agree that they shouldn't see each other again, however, in the following days, they can't seem to keep away from each other at the hotel.  Persy seems to wear a few different hats at the hotel and assumes several different jobs there, so they frequently run into each other while she is acting as the housekeeping maid, waitress/server, lifeguard, and casino dealer.  For people who have decided to stay away from each other, they end up kissing each other a fair bit too.

Persy's name comes up in a letter requesting a meeting with the hotel administration about improving safety conditions for hotel employees between the building and the neighbourhood where they live.  This prompts Jordan to discover who and what Persy is: a caring neighbourhood organizer/reformer, educated at Stanford, who has a background in law, and who left the privileged society that Jordan is also a part of.  Persy intrigues and infuriates Jordan at the same time because of the attraction between them, and because she won't defer to his position in society or at the hotel.

As for Persy, she finds her attraction to Jordan to be problematic; she is afraid that he will tempt her to leave the life that she has built for herself since she left her privileged background.  However, her previous life had been a source of unhappiness for her and she loathes the idea of returning to it.

When Persy is attacked on the pathway between the hotel and the section of town where many of the employees live, Jordan begins to spend quality time with her and starts to change, becoming less of a pompous jerk and becoming more conscious of the welfare of his employees.  Eventually, he realizes that he has fallen in love with Persy and desires a life with her, but she is not convinced that he can really love the person that she is now and not want to change her back into the type of person that she was before she got involved with the community that she lives with now.    

Parts of this novel were quite funny.  Persy is a bit of a smart mouth who ends up talking circles around Jordan.  I loved the bit where she was frustrated at her cleaning supply cart which she had christened, "Jordan."  Guess who was standing nearby when she cursed it by name? 

As for sex, there isn't any.  For a believing reader, that may come as a relief, but this is a secular type of novel.  Jordan enters into a relationship with Persy hoping that once he has her body, that he will get her out of his system.  He mentions to her several times that he wants to spend the night with her.  One thing that I had appreciated about him was that he let Persy go in that first date when she refused to go all the way with him.  Although he grows more marriage minded as the plot unfolds, he lets her know repeatedly that he's interested in her sexually, and she has to say no to him a few times.  It isn't mentioned overtly that Persy is a Christian, other than a mention of her Calvinist background.  In the story, as Persy realizes that she needs to make a decision about where she is going to go in her relationship with Jordan, it is implied that this decision will also involve a choice for her to become physically intimate with Jordan.

The book ends quite abruptly.  When I reached the end, I asked myself, "That's it?"  I would like to have known a little more about what happens to Persy and Jordan after the final scene.  They confess their love for each other, but we are left hanging about what will actually happen.  Will they get engaged and married?  We don't actually find out for certain.

I found Persy and the Prince to be just okay.  It's fairly clean, and there were a couple of thought provoking ideas through the challenges that Persy had to face, about waiting to have sex, and about needing to stop trying to please everyone else, and learning to do what is best for one's self.  It was a fairly light read that can be finished in a couple of hours. 


Disclaimer:  I received an e-copy of Persy and the Prince from NetGalley in exchange for a review.  All opinions stated in this review are mine.