This review is filled with spoilers in a fairly detailed summary and in my reflections upon reading the novel.
Trading Secrets, a young adult novel by Melody Carlson, is the story about Micah Knight, a seventeen year old, and Zach Miller, who have been penpals since they were both eleven. Zach is Amish, while Micah has grown up in a modern, contemporary "English" (non-Amish) community. However, the penpals have shared many things with each other over many letters, and Micah is grateful for Zach's friendship especially with the latter helping the former in matters of faith and through some dark times, especially when Micah's mother died.
However, with spring break approaching, Zach writes and asks if he could visit and stay with Micah's family. This presents a huge problem for Micah, because Zach has been completely unaware throughout their correspondence that Micah is actually a girl. The book presents a plausible reason for this; our protagonists became penpals through a letter writing exchange between an Amish class and English class; however, Zach's teacher removed the photographs that had been attached to the letters from the English class. With Micah's unusual name, it was not surprising that Zach assumed that Micah was a boy. For all these years, Micah has not corrected him from that assumption, because of her fear that he would stop corresponding with her.
Micah wins a bit of a reprieve when Zach writes again, and informs her that his father requires his help to work on the family farm. Since he cannot visit her, would she like to visit him on the farm and help him with the spring planting instead?
At this point in the novel, I could hear myself telling Micah to just not do it, but our intrepid teenage girl does! She also visits Zach's family disguised as a boy, but that subterfuge does not last for very long. On the very first day of the visit, after Zach's father conducts a devotional on the importance of honesty from the book of Proverbs, Micah reveals herself to be a girl, stating that she did so in order to meet Zach, because it was something that she had wanted to do for such a long time. Zach does not handle this revelation very well; he is furious with Micah and tells her to leave.
After revealing her secret, Micah tries to hop on the bus to return home, but due to circumstances, is not able to leave immediately, and is persuaded by one of Zach's sisters to stay with the Miller family until she can find her way home.
The rest of Micah's stay is like the reverse of watching "Amish in the City," the reality television show that depicts Amish youth experiencing rumspringa in an urban setting. In Micah's case, she is now immersed in the Amish lifestyle. Unfortunately, she does not find a friend with Mrs. Miller, Zach's mother, and is made to feel inadequate by Rachel Yoder, an Amish girl who hopes to catch Zach's eye. Since Micah does not feel welcome in the Miller's house, she goes to help Zach and his father outside with the farm work. As the days pass, she is able to mend bridges with Zach and eventually wins over Zach's father's respect for her willingness to do hard work. Micah also learns that Zach's heart is not in working on the family farm; he loves working with and caring for animals instead. Zach is also struggling with his family's expectations for him; they expect him to help with the farm and also to marry Rachel, but he doesn't have the desire to do either of these things.
Micah is finally able to leave Zach's community when her father, a pilot, comes by in his plane to take her home. However, Zach also leaves with them, but realizes after a few days in the English world, that it would be difficult for an Amish person to survive there with limited skills and education. However, during this time, he meets Micah's Uncle Brad, a veterinarian. He returns home to his family for a season, but eventually returns to the English world, with the help of Micah's uncle, so that he can pursue his dream of becoming a vet.
Here's where I confess that I read this novel from the perspective of a mother who worries a bit about her children's safety especially if they would be staying overnight for a week at some stranger's place. I probably wouldn't have allowed Micah to go alone on such a trip without having some previous personal contact with the family that she would stay with or without knowing that this family was screened in some sort of official capacity by an authority that I could trust. But of course, in this story, Micah does not have a mother, and Micah's father seems to be a lot more relaxed about the whole matter with Micah visiting Zach than I would have personally felt comfortable with, even though Micah is 17 and already in her senior year of high school.
I was also cringing at how Micah ended up stranded in Zach's community for the week, as she first missed the bus because she arrived too late for a return trip on that first day, and also when she ran out of funds later on and could not purchase the bus fare home. She needed to wait until her father could fly out to pick her up, which took several days. This is a bit foreign to my own experience of growing up. If I were Micah, at that age, my parents would have made sure that there were already contingency plans in place either to wire money or to retrieve me as quickly as possible should the need arise. They would have definitely been more accessible for emergency contact than how Mr. Knight appeared in this story.
Having said that, I did think that it was still completely plausible for the plot to unfold as it did in Trading Secrets. I could see and imagine a gutsy 17 year old acting as Micah did to fulfil her desire in meeting a boy that she had a crush on. Micah's voice and thoughts sounded youthful, immature and impulsive enough to go ahead and carry out her plans even though the decision making and execution of those plans were a bit questionable. She is mature enough to realize that she is not in love with Zach, and I would say that this novel didn't really seem like much of a romance, even though Zach is pursued by Rachel. Instead, the focus on the plot turns to the choices that Zach needs to make; will he remain with his Amish community or will he attempt to pursue his own dreams for a different future than the one his family expects for him to have?
The novel ends with Micah and Zach remaining friends, but I wonder if Ms. Carlson will write a sequel if she hasn't already. I would love to find out what happens to Micah and Zach. Micah seems to have a romantic attraction to Zach that she may not be quite ready to acknowledge, but Zach seems rather clueless to the interest of the females surrounding him.
I enjoyed reading this novel, and would probably consider reading more of Melody Carlson's work.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of Trading Secrets from NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
Wednesday, 15 October 2014
Wednesday, 1 October 2014
Adventures in Wattpad Land
Uh...yes, I fell off the face of the planet for a month.
Where was I? I was spending time on Wattpad. I first learned about Wattpad through a newspaper article that appeared in a local paper about two years ago. It is a free fiction writing site that seems to be mainly populated by teenaged female writers who write a lot of werewolf and vampire stories. There are also other categories, such as historical, romance, fantasy, horror, fanfiction (lots of One Direction fanfic to be found here), short story, spiritual, science fiction, humor, mystery/thriller, adventure, teen fiction, poetry, and action.
Wattpad has also been fortunate to attach some major names to it. Margaret Atwood was a collaborator with Wattpad in holding a poetry contest called the "Attys," in 2012. Harlequin held a contest last year on Wattpad, titled, "So You Think You Can Write," in which several winners had their finished work published by Harlequin. When Wattpad opened up its chick lit category in 2013, they were able to get Mariam Keyes on board.
Needless to say, Wattpad is filled with a lot of amateur writing, and it shows in a lot of the work that is posted on this site. However, I have been surprised at some of the maturity in the writing of some of the youths who have posted on the site. Unfortunately, you have to do a lot of digging to find some of those gems. It also appears that many of the authors/authoresses post as they write, so depending on when they get around to writing, there could be daily/weekly/monthly/sporadic updates. There are many stories that get started, and then abandoned.
As I mentioned before, Wattpad Land seems to be populated by werewolves, vampires, and other dark creatures. However, the ones who are writing these stories are often young adults who will also read regular teen fiction. There are many crossover stories that fit under multiple categories. A story may be categorized under the headings of werewolf/vampire/teen/fanfiction because the plot may include a vampiric One Direction singer who falls in love with a teenage werewolf. (I just made that one up, but wouldn't be surprised it there really was a story on Wattpad with that exact plot.) There is also fiction there written along the lines of the television show, "Supernatural," based on the two hunters, Sam and Dean Winchester, portrayed by Jared Padelecki and Jensen Ackles respectively.
What does it say to you when there is such a huge fascination with the occult and supernatural combined with teen angst? To me, this reflects a vacuum, dare I say...a spiritual vacuum.
This leads to what I really wanted to write about in this blog entry: if you are a Christian writer/author, or an aspiring Christian writer, please consider posting something on Wattpad. You don't have to crack into the supernatural world of werewolves and vampires (although I did run across one writer who attempted to write about Christian vampires). You don't even need to label it under the "spiritual" category either if you are not led to do so.
It's just that it would be nice to have something available on Wattpad to read in which people actually make decisions based on having one's identity firmly grounded in Christ. There have been so many stories posted on Wattpad, but very few that would qualify as Christian fiction.
There are some problems with posting on Wattpad. One of these is plagiarism. I've seen some previously published print titles uploaded onto the site. When the "Powers That Be" that operate Wattpad found out, they promptly removed those books. Some users have stolen stories and posted them on other boards other than Wattpad. One of the winners of the "So You Think You Can Write," contest ended up removing most of her stories from Wattpad because of this.
There are writers who have been published in print who are offering some of their older stories to get more exposure especially for their current work. One who is currently doing so at the time of this blog post is Scott Westerfeld. His novel, "Uglies," has been posted in weekly installments in the past few weeks. I don't think that he has finished posting, "Uglies," in its entirety yet, so there may be still a few more weeks to go before it is completely up on the boards at Wattpad. However, I don't know if he will leave the story up there permanently; stories can be removed from Wattpad, as I have previously mentioned. I wonder if posting "Uglies," on Wattpad has helped his sales for "Afterworlds," his latest release. He is certainly posting, "Uglies," where his target market is.
I've seen some writers try to get published after posting their stories on Wattpad. I actually recognized some of these titles offered on NetGalley and in the Kindle Store on Amazon.
The lovely readers on Wattpad have often left comments on stories that are posted; you might consider what the value of such feedback might be to the aspiring writer.
So, Christian writer, please consider posting on Wattpad, perhaps some drabbles, or chapter samples that you could use to direct your audience to where they can find your work. I hope to read your work on Wattpad.
Where was I? I was spending time on Wattpad. I first learned about Wattpad through a newspaper article that appeared in a local paper about two years ago. It is a free fiction writing site that seems to be mainly populated by teenaged female writers who write a lot of werewolf and vampire stories. There are also other categories, such as historical, romance, fantasy, horror, fanfiction (lots of One Direction fanfic to be found here), short story, spiritual, science fiction, humor, mystery/thriller, adventure, teen fiction, poetry, and action.
Wattpad has also been fortunate to attach some major names to it. Margaret Atwood was a collaborator with Wattpad in holding a poetry contest called the "Attys," in 2012. Harlequin held a contest last year on Wattpad, titled, "So You Think You Can Write," in which several winners had their finished work published by Harlequin. When Wattpad opened up its chick lit category in 2013, they were able to get Mariam Keyes on board.
Needless to say, Wattpad is filled with a lot of amateur writing, and it shows in a lot of the work that is posted on this site. However, I have been surprised at some of the maturity in the writing of some of the youths who have posted on the site. Unfortunately, you have to do a lot of digging to find some of those gems. It also appears that many of the authors/authoresses post as they write, so depending on when they get around to writing, there could be daily/weekly/monthly/sporadic updates. There are many stories that get started, and then abandoned.
As I mentioned before, Wattpad Land seems to be populated by werewolves, vampires, and other dark creatures. However, the ones who are writing these stories are often young adults who will also read regular teen fiction. There are many crossover stories that fit under multiple categories. A story may be categorized under the headings of werewolf/vampire/teen/fanfiction because the plot may include a vampiric One Direction singer who falls in love with a teenage werewolf. (I just made that one up, but wouldn't be surprised it there really was a story on Wattpad with that exact plot.) There is also fiction there written along the lines of the television show, "Supernatural," based on the two hunters, Sam and Dean Winchester, portrayed by Jared Padelecki and Jensen Ackles respectively.
What does it say to you when there is such a huge fascination with the occult and supernatural combined with teen angst? To me, this reflects a vacuum, dare I say...a spiritual vacuum.
This leads to what I really wanted to write about in this blog entry: if you are a Christian writer/author, or an aspiring Christian writer, please consider posting something on Wattpad. You don't have to crack into the supernatural world of werewolves and vampires (although I did run across one writer who attempted to write about Christian vampires). You don't even need to label it under the "spiritual" category either if you are not led to do so.
It's just that it would be nice to have something available on Wattpad to read in which people actually make decisions based on having one's identity firmly grounded in Christ. There have been so many stories posted on Wattpad, but very few that would qualify as Christian fiction.
There are some problems with posting on Wattpad. One of these is plagiarism. I've seen some previously published print titles uploaded onto the site. When the "Powers That Be" that operate Wattpad found out, they promptly removed those books. Some users have stolen stories and posted them on other boards other than Wattpad. One of the winners of the "So You Think You Can Write," contest ended up removing most of her stories from Wattpad because of this.
There are writers who have been published in print who are offering some of their older stories to get more exposure especially for their current work. One who is currently doing so at the time of this blog post is Scott Westerfeld. His novel, "Uglies," has been posted in weekly installments in the past few weeks. I don't think that he has finished posting, "Uglies," in its entirety yet, so there may be still a few more weeks to go before it is completely up on the boards at Wattpad. However, I don't know if he will leave the story up there permanently; stories can be removed from Wattpad, as I have previously mentioned. I wonder if posting "Uglies," on Wattpad has helped his sales for "Afterworlds," his latest release. He is certainly posting, "Uglies," where his target market is.
I've seen some writers try to get published after posting their stories on Wattpad. I actually recognized some of these titles offered on NetGalley and in the Kindle Store on Amazon.
The lovely readers on Wattpad have often left comments on stories that are posted; you might consider what the value of such feedback might be to the aspiring writer.
So, Christian writer, please consider posting on Wattpad, perhaps some drabbles, or chapter samples that you could use to direct your audience to where they can find your work. I hope to read your work on Wattpad.
Sunday, 31 August 2014
What I've been reading lately...my foray into Amazon's Kindle Store
It's been a while since I posted here, but I have been reading a lot. I'm still in my "free books from Amazon" phase and have been going through a lot of self published books. Occasionally, there will be books offered that have gone through an established publishing house and will have a print version available, in addition to a Kindle version. Generally, I feel that these books have been through a more stringent editing process than the self published ones. Because of this, I find that they are a bit easier to read, and with less grammatical and punctuation errors. Sometimes not all the errors are caught; I've found that some print books still have mistakes in them.
I've also found it a curious thing to look at the descriptive blurbs/headings/reviews that are provided on Amazon for these books. I usually look at the listings under historical and inspirational romance, but sometimes the offerings are rather bizarre, and I wonder how certain titles get listed in a particular category. For instance, for the past couple of weeks, there has been a "shifter" (werewolf) romance offered under the inspirational category. I can't explain that one, and I haven't read that particular book to discern a possible reason why it ended up in this category. However, I have learned that "inspirational" may incorporate a very broad definition of spirituality that does not necessarily limit itself to Christianity or even of any other religion.
I have also observed that what is perceived to be "clean" and "sweet" romances sometimes ends up in the inspirational section, even if there is no form of spirituality mentioned in the book. However, there also seems to be broad definitions of what "clean" and "sweet" may mean. In some books, it means that there is no mention of sex at all and at the most, only chaste kisses are present. In others, this definition may include some risque behaviour, ranging from naughty talk, all the way to heavy petting, but no actual sexual intercourse. For other books, it may mean that there is sexual intercourse, but it is not graphically described.
I have wondered how authors who write Christian romances tackle the issue of sex, and sometimes, on author's websites, they may blog about their writing processes on how they tackle the subject. I think that some publishing companies may provide guidelines on what is acceptable for them. I recall looking at Harlequin's Love Inspired guidelines for submissions a few years ago, and they set parameters of what they considered appropriate for that line.
Anyways, a couple of weeks ago, I found two free stories in the Kindle store in the historical category. When I read the first one (a prequel to the second story), I admired the hero because he pulled a Joseph; the heroine was tempting him and he took off because he didn't want to cross that line. The hero also prayed, not a lot, but he did about his feelings for the heroine and asked for guidance as to what he should do about them. There was a little bit of risque activity...I think that at one point, they were a little bit too close physically to each other, and once, the hero got caught in his birthday suit because he was trying to bathe. At the end of the story, he makes a heartfelt declaration to his bride about wanting to enter into marriage with her, but also with the Lord as a partner in their relationship. He made this speech while presenting her with an object that represented this union of the three of them. When I considered the theology, I thought that this book could be classified under the edgy Christian romance category.
Then I read the sequel. It was funny. I liked the characters. The author also wove together quite a complicated story that had several threads with the primary one being resolved by the end of the book, and the other to be resolved in a future sequel. It drew me in. But, in the story, the heroine found herself in an impossible situation, and in spite of her faith in God, threw herself at a rake and slept with him. True, she didn't have a lot of descriptive prayers mentioned in the book, and she didn't seem to really turn to Him for help, so maybe her faith was actually borderline nominal, or at best, not very deep. The sex scene was also descriptive. Usually, I skip these parts if I run across them, but because I had actually considered writing a full review for this book, I went back and read it in full. I'm not going to compare it or rank it on a hot/purple prose scale; I'm just mentioning that it's there, for about 2-3 pages.
So I found myself a little shocked when the conclusion of the romance ended with the hero (the rake) giving the heroine that same object that his ancestor had given to his bride, and he also ran through a similar speech about what that object represented. What surprised me was that this is probably the first time that I've read something that seemed to have appropriate Christian theology (albeit at the very end of the book), but with a gratuitous descriptive sex scene stuck in the middle. I don't think that it really needed to be there. What also felt weird about it was that in the aftermath of the physical intimacy, there was not much conflict in the heroine's conscience between herself and God. The book was a typical regency; it was light, funny, rompy, etc.. When the hero and heroine finally got around to discussing the appropriateness of their actions, it got glossed over very quickly; they admitted that what they did was inappropriate for about two sentences, and that was that. There wasn't any confession to make things right between them and the Lord. So, it was sort of weird to think about. The book was not openly a Christian romance, but it seemed to have appropriate theological undertones; however, the descriptive sex scene would likely make it uncomfortable for a certain audience to read.
I've read another free Kindle book in which a vicar's daughter gets into a raging affair with the male protagonist, but when you consider the rest of the book as a whole, being a vicar's daughter was a convenient plot device to present the female protagonist as a principled caring person, but in reality, her religious beliefs really didn't define who she was. However, the novel that I described in the previous paragraph felt different. It felt like it could have been something more. Francine Rivers or Julie Lessman are authors who I think have been able to balance romance and passion effectively, although some might still consider their material a bit racy.
Anyways, I couldn't make up my mind for the past two weeks about whether I would write a complete formal review for those two books, but I wanted to write about what I felt was bizarre about it. Maybe now I can move on and actually write about something with an actual title attached to it.
I've also found it a curious thing to look at the descriptive blurbs/headings/reviews that are provided on Amazon for these books. I usually look at the listings under historical and inspirational romance, but sometimes the offerings are rather bizarre, and I wonder how certain titles get listed in a particular category. For instance, for the past couple of weeks, there has been a "shifter" (werewolf) romance offered under the inspirational category. I can't explain that one, and I haven't read that particular book to discern a possible reason why it ended up in this category. However, I have learned that "inspirational" may incorporate a very broad definition of spirituality that does not necessarily limit itself to Christianity or even of any other religion.
I have also observed that what is perceived to be "clean" and "sweet" romances sometimes ends up in the inspirational section, even if there is no form of spirituality mentioned in the book. However, there also seems to be broad definitions of what "clean" and "sweet" may mean. In some books, it means that there is no mention of sex at all and at the most, only chaste kisses are present. In others, this definition may include some risque behaviour, ranging from naughty talk, all the way to heavy petting, but no actual sexual intercourse. For other books, it may mean that there is sexual intercourse, but it is not graphically described.
I have wondered how authors who write Christian romances tackle the issue of sex, and sometimes, on author's websites, they may blog about their writing processes on how they tackle the subject. I think that some publishing companies may provide guidelines on what is acceptable for them. I recall looking at Harlequin's Love Inspired guidelines for submissions a few years ago, and they set parameters of what they considered appropriate for that line.
Anyways, a couple of weeks ago, I found two free stories in the Kindle store in the historical category. When I read the first one (a prequel to the second story), I admired the hero because he pulled a Joseph; the heroine was tempting him and he took off because he didn't want to cross that line. The hero also prayed, not a lot, but he did about his feelings for the heroine and asked for guidance as to what he should do about them. There was a little bit of risque activity...I think that at one point, they were a little bit too close physically to each other, and once, the hero got caught in his birthday suit because he was trying to bathe. At the end of the story, he makes a heartfelt declaration to his bride about wanting to enter into marriage with her, but also with the Lord as a partner in their relationship. He made this speech while presenting her with an object that represented this union of the three of them. When I considered the theology, I thought that this book could be classified under the edgy Christian romance category.
Then I read the sequel. It was funny. I liked the characters. The author also wove together quite a complicated story that had several threads with the primary one being resolved by the end of the book, and the other to be resolved in a future sequel. It drew me in. But, in the story, the heroine found herself in an impossible situation, and in spite of her faith in God, threw herself at a rake and slept with him. True, she didn't have a lot of descriptive prayers mentioned in the book, and she didn't seem to really turn to Him for help, so maybe her faith was actually borderline nominal, or at best, not very deep. The sex scene was also descriptive. Usually, I skip these parts if I run across them, but because I had actually considered writing a full review for this book, I went back and read it in full. I'm not going to compare it or rank it on a hot/purple prose scale; I'm just mentioning that it's there, for about 2-3 pages.
So I found myself a little shocked when the conclusion of the romance ended with the hero (the rake) giving the heroine that same object that his ancestor had given to his bride, and he also ran through a similar speech about what that object represented. What surprised me was that this is probably the first time that I've read something that seemed to have appropriate Christian theology (albeit at the very end of the book), but with a gratuitous descriptive sex scene stuck in the middle. I don't think that it really needed to be there. What also felt weird about it was that in the aftermath of the physical intimacy, there was not much conflict in the heroine's conscience between herself and God. The book was a typical regency; it was light, funny, rompy, etc.. When the hero and heroine finally got around to discussing the appropriateness of their actions, it got glossed over very quickly; they admitted that what they did was inappropriate for about two sentences, and that was that. There wasn't any confession to make things right between them and the Lord. So, it was sort of weird to think about. The book was not openly a Christian romance, but it seemed to have appropriate theological undertones; however, the descriptive sex scene would likely make it uncomfortable for a certain audience to read.
I've read another free Kindle book in which a vicar's daughter gets into a raging affair with the male protagonist, but when you consider the rest of the book as a whole, being a vicar's daughter was a convenient plot device to present the female protagonist as a principled caring person, but in reality, her religious beliefs really didn't define who she was. However, the novel that I described in the previous paragraph felt different. It felt like it could have been something more. Francine Rivers or Julie Lessman are authors who I think have been able to balance romance and passion effectively, although some might still consider their material a bit racy.
Anyways, I couldn't make up my mind for the past two weeks about whether I would write a complete formal review for those two books, but I wanted to write about what I felt was bizarre about it. Maybe now I can move on and actually write about something with an actual title attached to it.
Monday, 4 August 2014
Review: Crochet Workshop by James Walters
Crochet Workshop by James Walters is a technique reference book that has been republished by Dover. The original edition was published in 1979 by Sidgwick and Jackson Ltd. The Dover edition is essentially the same book. The photographs are likely the same ones that appeared in the original edition, and are therefore dated. However, the information provided in this book can still be handy for today's crocheter.
From the introduction alone, one gets the sense that the author is a bit of a free spirit. Indeed, one of the first photographs shown in the book has him modeling what appears to be crocheted long underwear. The photograph that I saw was in black and white, but I would guess that the real item was probably quite a colourful outfit.
The book includes the following: basic techniques and stitches, understanding how to read patterns, additional crochet techniques that touch on variation of the basic stitches, shaping, adding decorations, introductions to woven crochet, Tunisian crochet, and hairpin crochet, choosing yarns, making up, finishing and after care. The appendices include a list of terminology (British and American), list of equipment, tables describing hook sizes, terms, abbreviations, and symbols, and metric/Imperial conversions. The main text in the book uses British terminology, but as I mentioned above, American equivalents are listed in a chart in one of the appendices.
There are no formal patterns provided to create any particular item, but there are quite descriptive instructions with accompanying diagrams and photographs on how to make various stitches and stitch patterns. The text is useful in helping a beginner to learn and master the basics of crochet, but it also seems to encourage users to go beyond following patterns in an exact manner, and start to delve into learning how to modify and adapt patterns, and perhaps eventually improvise and create spontaneous designs. The book is also written in such a folksy, down to earth style that it seems as if the author is conversing informally with the reader.
In my opinion, this book would make a good addition as a technique reference book in a crocheter's library.
Disclaimer: I was given an e-copy of the Crochet Workshop by NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are my own.
From the introduction alone, one gets the sense that the author is a bit of a free spirit. Indeed, one of the first photographs shown in the book has him modeling what appears to be crocheted long underwear. The photograph that I saw was in black and white, but I would guess that the real item was probably quite a colourful outfit.
The book includes the following: basic techniques and stitches, understanding how to read patterns, additional crochet techniques that touch on variation of the basic stitches, shaping, adding decorations, introductions to woven crochet, Tunisian crochet, and hairpin crochet, choosing yarns, making up, finishing and after care. The appendices include a list of terminology (British and American), list of equipment, tables describing hook sizes, terms, abbreviations, and symbols, and metric/Imperial conversions. The main text in the book uses British terminology, but as I mentioned above, American equivalents are listed in a chart in one of the appendices.
There are no formal patterns provided to create any particular item, but there are quite descriptive instructions with accompanying diagrams and photographs on how to make various stitches and stitch patterns. The text is useful in helping a beginner to learn and master the basics of crochet, but it also seems to encourage users to go beyond following patterns in an exact manner, and start to delve into learning how to modify and adapt patterns, and perhaps eventually improvise and create spontaneous designs. The book is also written in such a folksy, down to earth style that it seems as if the author is conversing informally with the reader.
In my opinion, this book would make a good addition as a technique reference book in a crocheter's library.
Disclaimer: I was given an e-copy of the Crochet Workshop by NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are my own.
Sunday, 27 July 2014
Review: Sealed With a Kiss: Inspy Kisses Collection #2 by various authors (Tronstad, Daley, Tang, Williams)
Sealed With a Kiss: Inspy Kisses Collection #2 is an anthology which has an author line up of Janet Tronstad, Margaret Daley, Camy Tang, and Lacy Williams. This collection of romantic novellas is released by Aspendawn Books, with one historical western, two contemporary suspense stories, and one contemporary story.
1) Mail Order Sunshine Bride by Janet Tronstad
This historical western is set in Miles City, Montana Territory, in 1886. Eleanor (Nellie) O'Reilly has come by rail with her four year old son, Danny, in tow. Widowed at the age of 24, she seeks a fresh start as a mail order bride. Instead of meeting her future husband at the station, she is welcomed to Miles City by the local sheriff, Patrick MacDonald. Because Patrick doesn't immediately reveal why he's there to meet her at the station, Nellie guesses that Elias, her intended has died, but Patrick reassures her that Elias is very much alive, however, the sheriff needs to escort her and her son to the jail. By the end of the first chapter, we find out that Patrick didn't really want to take up this duty, but did so to handle the quarrel between Elias and a mountain man, Sawtooth Jim. Elias gambled away Nellie to Sawtooth Jim in a poker game.
Nellie no longer wishes to marry Elias, but wants to repay the train fare which is an astronomical sum to reimburse. Patrick, upon meeting Nellie and spending time with her, feels protective towards his two new charges, and would be willing to give up money for his own dream of owning cattle for his ranch so that she would be free of her debt. However, Nellie will not take any charity, not even from Mrs. Lilly, a former soiled dove who gives Nellie an idea on how to repay Elias through respectable means. Even if Nellie frees herself from Elias, would Patrick be able to win Nellie's heart? She's dead set against a man who uses a gun, but Patrick is the sheriff and a gun is vital and necessary equipment for his line of work.
I enjoyed the dry humour in this novella and I liked Nellie and Patrick. You get an inkling that Nellie is attracted to Patrick from the first time she sees him; she perceives him to be dangerous and forceful, and is quite unsettled by him. Elias is sufficiently weasel-like, and Sawtooth Jim, from what little we see of him, is quite a character. I haven't always been able to get into Janet Tronstad's work in the past, but I found Mail Order Sunshine Bride to be an enjoyable story to read.
2) Deadly Intent by Margaret Daley
This contemporary romantic suspense novella reunites Sarah Osborn, a Texas Ranger, and Ian O'Leary, a former FBI agent who has returned home to continue running the family ranch after his father had passed on. Sarah is investigating a series of cattle rustling and is assigned to check out the theft of Ian's prize stallion to see if this has any connection to her case. Interacting with Ian is awkward for Sarah because of their past; they had been sweethearts while in their teens, but Ian broke up with Sarah rather suddenly. Fifteen years previously, Ian left Sarah to avenge a friend who had died in a terrorist attack, and threw away a future with Sarah in order to pursue terrorists through his work with the FBI.
As Sarah's investigation progresses, more threats against Ian and his ranch occur. These seem to indicate that the culprit(s) may not necessarily be the cattle rustlers that Sarah is trying to arrest. As danger and threats increase against Ian and Sarah, it becomes apparent that they need to investigate all the possible enemies that Ian has made as an FBI agent. They begin to fall in love with each other again as they face the challenges that unfold in the mystery of who is threatening Ian.
I thought that Margaret Daley had the story plotted out well. There was a flashback that was described in Chapter 1 that gave a hint of foreshadowing where the story was going to go. Things are revealed quite logically and I thought that all the facets and threads of the story were tied together quite nicely by the time the novella reached its conclusion.
3) Unshakable Pursuit by Camy Tang
The title really matches up with the story. There was definitely a lot of pursuing in this novella. The protagonists are Dr. Geoffrey Whelan, whose faith in God has been shaken from his time serving in medical missions aid in Japan after the tsunami, and Nurse Maylin Kinley, who has been hurt emotionally by her family and her ex-boyfriend. They are warned to run for their lives by a mysterious woman who promptly disappears after she visits them at the medical clinic they both work at. Shortly after, Geoff and Maylin are threatened by two Asian hitmen who try to abduct them. Our intrepid twosome have no idea who is pursuing them or the reason why they are being hunted down. Their only clue is video footage from the clinic's cameras that reveal some hints about the woman's identity.
There is a rather frantic pace to the story. While Geoff and Maylin need to take precautions to keep the hitmen from pursuing them, they themselves are also in pursuit of their mysterious angel of mercy who has also gone into hiding because she also fears being hunted down by the same people looking for Geoff and Maylin. The reader finds out information at the same time our hero and heroine do, and there are a lot of suspenseful moments and situations thrown their way in such a small window of time. The relationship between our protagonists develop quite quickly too under such intense pressure. Geoff is forced to examine where his relationship with God has gone and is challenged to simply trust Him to keep him and Maylin safe. Maylin realizes that she had been disappointed in the past by people who claimed to be Christians, but finds herself drawn to the love for God that Geoff and his family demonstrate in their lives.
There were moments when the pace and situations of this story had my head spinning over what was happening to our protagonists. However, I liked that this story touched on the struggles that these characters were having in their faith and how they overcome these challenges in this story. I liked Necessary Proof better, another novella written by Camy Tang that appears in First Kisses: Inspy Kisses Collection #1 (reviewed previously on February 27th, 2014), but Unshakable Pursuit was still pretty good.
4) With Love, Cowboy by Lacy Williams
Ryan Michaels has loved Ashley Reynolds since they were teens. She has returned home to Redbud Trails, Oklahoma, after being discharged from serving as a marine because of injuries which resulted in her arm being amputated. She has struggled with her identity for years; after graduating from high school, she discovered that she had been adopted and questioned who she was. Now with the loss of her arm, she is no longer military and needs to find herself again and figure out what to do with her future. She's just not certain that she wants to find out those things with Ryan.
Ryan has his work cut out for him. Ashley has no idea of all the things that he has done to help her parents while she was serving in the military. He had assumed the position of store manager in order to help keep her parents' business afloat since Ashley's dad developed Alzheimer's. He cooks meals for her parents' twice a week using the excuse that he needs someone to test his recipes. He helps her mother in her recovery from a heart attack by transporting her to medical appointments, etc.. He had been writing letters to her since she started with the marines, informing her of all that he had done, but she did not read any of his letters. As a result, she is under the impression that he is an irresponsible flake and college drop out who is still in a dead end job that he had started when he was in high school.
In spite of all the good that Ryan has done, Ashley is still suspicious of him, especially when she finds out that he had been the lessee of her parents' farmland and notices that he had been altering information on timecards. Has Ryan been taking advantage of her parents? Will she ever read his letters to find out what kind of man he is? Will she ever accept his love for her and love him in return?
With Love, Cowboy was a nice story. Ryan is a sweetheart. How could Ashley not accept Ryan? On the other hand, Ryan might be trying a little bit too hard to win Ashley's affection and Ashley is a gal who is still a bit mixed up. I almost wanted to throttle her for not seeing what a great guy Ryan is. I still enjoyed reading it, though.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a free e-copy of Sealed With a Kiss from NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
1) Mail Order Sunshine Bride by Janet Tronstad
This historical western is set in Miles City, Montana Territory, in 1886. Eleanor (Nellie) O'Reilly has come by rail with her four year old son, Danny, in tow. Widowed at the age of 24, she seeks a fresh start as a mail order bride. Instead of meeting her future husband at the station, she is welcomed to Miles City by the local sheriff, Patrick MacDonald. Because Patrick doesn't immediately reveal why he's there to meet her at the station, Nellie guesses that Elias, her intended has died, but Patrick reassures her that Elias is very much alive, however, the sheriff needs to escort her and her son to the jail. By the end of the first chapter, we find out that Patrick didn't really want to take up this duty, but did so to handle the quarrel between Elias and a mountain man, Sawtooth Jim. Elias gambled away Nellie to Sawtooth Jim in a poker game.
Nellie no longer wishes to marry Elias, but wants to repay the train fare which is an astronomical sum to reimburse. Patrick, upon meeting Nellie and spending time with her, feels protective towards his two new charges, and would be willing to give up money for his own dream of owning cattle for his ranch so that she would be free of her debt. However, Nellie will not take any charity, not even from Mrs. Lilly, a former soiled dove who gives Nellie an idea on how to repay Elias through respectable means. Even if Nellie frees herself from Elias, would Patrick be able to win Nellie's heart? She's dead set against a man who uses a gun, but Patrick is the sheriff and a gun is vital and necessary equipment for his line of work.
I enjoyed the dry humour in this novella and I liked Nellie and Patrick. You get an inkling that Nellie is attracted to Patrick from the first time she sees him; she perceives him to be dangerous and forceful, and is quite unsettled by him. Elias is sufficiently weasel-like, and Sawtooth Jim, from what little we see of him, is quite a character. I haven't always been able to get into Janet Tronstad's work in the past, but I found Mail Order Sunshine Bride to be an enjoyable story to read.
2) Deadly Intent by Margaret Daley
This contemporary romantic suspense novella reunites Sarah Osborn, a Texas Ranger, and Ian O'Leary, a former FBI agent who has returned home to continue running the family ranch after his father had passed on. Sarah is investigating a series of cattle rustling and is assigned to check out the theft of Ian's prize stallion to see if this has any connection to her case. Interacting with Ian is awkward for Sarah because of their past; they had been sweethearts while in their teens, but Ian broke up with Sarah rather suddenly. Fifteen years previously, Ian left Sarah to avenge a friend who had died in a terrorist attack, and threw away a future with Sarah in order to pursue terrorists through his work with the FBI.
As Sarah's investigation progresses, more threats against Ian and his ranch occur. These seem to indicate that the culprit(s) may not necessarily be the cattle rustlers that Sarah is trying to arrest. As danger and threats increase against Ian and Sarah, it becomes apparent that they need to investigate all the possible enemies that Ian has made as an FBI agent. They begin to fall in love with each other again as they face the challenges that unfold in the mystery of who is threatening Ian.
I thought that Margaret Daley had the story plotted out well. There was a flashback that was described in Chapter 1 that gave a hint of foreshadowing where the story was going to go. Things are revealed quite logically and I thought that all the facets and threads of the story were tied together quite nicely by the time the novella reached its conclusion.
3) Unshakable Pursuit by Camy Tang
The title really matches up with the story. There was definitely a lot of pursuing in this novella. The protagonists are Dr. Geoffrey Whelan, whose faith in God has been shaken from his time serving in medical missions aid in Japan after the tsunami, and Nurse Maylin Kinley, who has been hurt emotionally by her family and her ex-boyfriend. They are warned to run for their lives by a mysterious woman who promptly disappears after she visits them at the medical clinic they both work at. Shortly after, Geoff and Maylin are threatened by two Asian hitmen who try to abduct them. Our intrepid twosome have no idea who is pursuing them or the reason why they are being hunted down. Their only clue is video footage from the clinic's cameras that reveal some hints about the woman's identity.
There is a rather frantic pace to the story. While Geoff and Maylin need to take precautions to keep the hitmen from pursuing them, they themselves are also in pursuit of their mysterious angel of mercy who has also gone into hiding because she also fears being hunted down by the same people looking for Geoff and Maylin. The reader finds out information at the same time our hero and heroine do, and there are a lot of suspenseful moments and situations thrown their way in such a small window of time. The relationship between our protagonists develop quite quickly too under such intense pressure. Geoff is forced to examine where his relationship with God has gone and is challenged to simply trust Him to keep him and Maylin safe. Maylin realizes that she had been disappointed in the past by people who claimed to be Christians, but finds herself drawn to the love for God that Geoff and his family demonstrate in their lives.
There were moments when the pace and situations of this story had my head spinning over what was happening to our protagonists. However, I liked that this story touched on the struggles that these characters were having in their faith and how they overcome these challenges in this story. I liked Necessary Proof better, another novella written by Camy Tang that appears in First Kisses: Inspy Kisses Collection #1 (reviewed previously on February 27th, 2014), but Unshakable Pursuit was still pretty good.
4) With Love, Cowboy by Lacy Williams
Ryan Michaels has loved Ashley Reynolds since they were teens. She has returned home to Redbud Trails, Oklahoma, after being discharged from serving as a marine because of injuries which resulted in her arm being amputated. She has struggled with her identity for years; after graduating from high school, she discovered that she had been adopted and questioned who she was. Now with the loss of her arm, she is no longer military and needs to find herself again and figure out what to do with her future. She's just not certain that she wants to find out those things with Ryan.
Ryan has his work cut out for him. Ashley has no idea of all the things that he has done to help her parents while she was serving in the military. He had assumed the position of store manager in order to help keep her parents' business afloat since Ashley's dad developed Alzheimer's. He cooks meals for her parents' twice a week using the excuse that he needs someone to test his recipes. He helps her mother in her recovery from a heart attack by transporting her to medical appointments, etc.. He had been writing letters to her since she started with the marines, informing her of all that he had done, but she did not read any of his letters. As a result, she is under the impression that he is an irresponsible flake and college drop out who is still in a dead end job that he had started when he was in high school.
In spite of all the good that Ryan has done, Ashley is still suspicious of him, especially when she finds out that he had been the lessee of her parents' farmland and notices that he had been altering information on timecards. Has Ryan been taking advantage of her parents? Will she ever read his letters to find out what kind of man he is? Will she ever accept his love for her and love him in return?
With Love, Cowboy was a nice story. Ryan is a sweetheart. How could Ashley not accept Ryan? On the other hand, Ryan might be trying a little bit too hard to win Ashley's affection and Ashley is a gal who is still a bit mixed up. I almost wanted to throttle her for not seeing what a great guy Ryan is. I still enjoyed reading it, though.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a free e-copy of Sealed With a Kiss from NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
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.
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.
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.
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