Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Prodigal Nights - Fun Read Friday

Prodigal Nights
by Lisa Buffaloe
Genres: Romance, Christian

     This is another story where the main character is ticked off at God, but then sees the light and forgives Him for all the garbage that they have had to endure in life. I'm almost starting to wonder if these books find their way into my hands through fate or divine intervention in an attempt to get me back on speaking terms with God. But I digress ...

     Bethany has a wild past but is trying to mend her evil ways. Jason has also sown his share of wild oats and is attempting to plow under this crop and follow a good Christian path. When they meet, they both felt shame about their pasts and feared that the other would find fault.

     There really isn't much "He loves me, he loves me not" in this book, which is a relief. However there is an almost annoying amount of "can I trust him/her" and fear of getting hurt and/or whether or not they deserve someone so seemingly perfect in spite of their lurid past.

     That said, the story had many light hearted humorous bits that had me laughing out loud and the end was amazingly gripping. Regardless of my responsibilities and schedules, I did not manage to set this down until the end.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

No Words Alone - Review

No Words Alone
by Autumn Dawn
First book in series
Genres: Science Fiction, Romance,
  Fantasy

     This novel is the perfect example of why I avoid reading the first book of a series. I loved it and I want to read more. Science fiction is predominently a man's genre, written by men for men, full of geeky high tech text that can make my eyes glaze over when I don't understand it. I have always enjoyed the concept of space travel though and marveled at the main stream egocentric idea that the earth is the only planet in the entire universe capable of sustaining any form of life.

     Xera is stranded on a planet that contains hungry hostile native creatures. She is in the company of her shipmates and the crew of an enemy alien race that also crash landed on the planet. As the only woman, she doesn't trust either group of men further than she can throw them.

     Author Autumn Dawn has taken two genres which are not my normal first choice to read and combined them to make this very original romantic story within a science fiction setting. The alien nation that resides within the Scorpio constellation is seen as savages by the human population but on closer inspection have some very gentle and caring customs within their society. Outsiders, however, are another story.

     Autumn Dawn also succeeds in avoiding a couple of pitfalls that many authors fall into that annoys the heck out of me: The "he loves me, he loves me not" scenario, and the cliffhanger. In spite of some editing issues, it is a great read that I highly recommend and that I moved into the folder on my kindle reserved for series books that I want to read more books of.