Recent Reads {Maire}

Maire by Linda Windsor - On Sunday (St Patrick's Day), I decided I wanted to read something with a nod to Ireland, so I pulled out my copy of this historical novel. I've read this before, as well as some other novels by this author, and knew it would be an enjoyable trip to fifth century Ireland. Maire is the young warrior queen of Gleannmarra, wanting to take her rightful place as leader of her people. On a raid she takes Rowan, a Welsh nobleman, as her hostage and also as her husband. By going through a form of marriage with him, she hopes to avoid being married to the druid who has been in charge of her lands until she comes of age. Maire and Rowan learn to trust each other and work as a team as they return to find Gleannmarra has been all but ruined by the druid's greedy rule. Together they work to restore the prosperity of their people. Rowan is also a believer in the One God and his integrity, courage, and wisdom soon win the respect of the people, and especially Maire, who eventually comes to accept the One God as well.

My previous review: Maire

By the same author: Healer, Thief

©2008-2013 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Recent Reads {The Wolf of Tebron}

The Wolf of Tebron by C.S. Lakin - My introduction to C.S. Lakin's "The Gates of Heaven" series came several months ago when I read the last book in the series, The Crystal Scepter.  I enjoyed that one enough to want to read the rest of the series.  It seemed like it took a long time to read The Wolf of Tebron, which is the first in the series, but it was an enjoyable read anyway. These novels are fairy tales for adult or young adult readers, and are full of fantasy and mythical elements, magic, and adventure.

Joran is the main character, and his desire is for a simple life in his little village, but when he realizes that his wife has disappeared on her way to her home, he encounters more adventure than he ever dreamed possible. And the adventures actually start in his dreams, for he is haunted by a dream that his wife Charris is trapped in a castle by a huge sea and his efforts to rescue her continually fall short. To his surprise, a strange old woman in his village seems to make reference to the dream when she tells him that he must make a long journey to rescue Charris because he is the one that has trapped her. Soon after Joran sets out, he is joined by a wolf that becomes his trusted ally and protector. Together they journey to visit the moon, then the sun, and finally the south wind; all the while trying to solve the riddle of the three keys that Joran is told he must loose in order to find Charris.

I didn't find myself in sympathy with Joran as easily as I did the lead characters in The Crystal Scepter.  I kept picturing him as being a young teenager, when in fact he was a married man. I expected to easily identify references to myths, fairy tales, and even Biblical stories as I had in the previous book I read, but that wasn't the case. There are many Biblical references, and when I read the Author's End Notes I found that most of the wolf's philosophical thoughts that had sounded familiar to me were quoted from great Christian thinkers such as C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. The wolf, Ruyah, provides wise advice and encouragement and is a faithful friend during Joran's pilgrimage, but the parts played by the moon and sun are less easy to understand. This is a story that emphasizes hope and forgiveness, and I found it a rewarding tale with a surprisingly happy ending.

©2008-2013 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Recent Reads {Planning High School Courses}

Planning High School Courses by Lee Binz - I grabbed this first of "The HomeScholar Coffee Break Books" when it was offered free for Kindle (and even now, it is only 99 cents, so a great deal for home schoolers!). True to the impression of it being a coffee break book, it was a quick and easy read, but packed with great advice and ideas for parents wanting to home educate all the way through high school. As a homeschool mom myself, I have already managed to graduate one student, and the second one will graduate this year, but I have two more to go and am always willing to look at how we can do this better. I was glad to see that Lee's experience and advice lines up with much of my own philosophy of surviving the adventure of homeschooling through high school.  It's practical and manageable - and believable, coming from an experienced homeschool mom. This book covers the academic and traditional courses for high school and demystifies many of the fears that parents have as they realize their child will be in Grade NINE soon and worry about how they are going to manage high school courses. Lee has been there (and so have I) and this little book will reassure you that you can do this!

©2008-2013 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Recent Reads {To Whisper Her Name}

To Whisper Her Name by Tamera Alexander - I wonder why it has taken me so long to read anything by Tamera Alexander.  If her other novels are as enjoyable as this one, she will be counted among my favorite Christian authors.  This story is set immediately following the Civil War, with young widow Olivia Aberdeen going to live with family friends at Belle Meade Plantation.  Olivia's late husband was shot as a traitor to the South, so she is no longer accepted by society.  And since her marriage was an unhappy one, she is determined not to be under the thumb of any man again.  Olivia expects that she will be head housekeeper at the plantation and famous stud farm, but feels betrayed again when she finds that her host, General Harding, is planning to find her another husband.

Ridley Cooper is from South Carolina, but during the Civil War, he fought for the Union.  An encounter during wartime with Belle Meade's head hostler affected him deeply and after the war, he returns to Belle Meade, hoping to learn from this 'horse whisperer'.  Of course, in order to get - and keep - a position working in Belle Meade's stables means keeping his Union Army past a secret. Olivia and Ridley are surprised by their growing feelings for each other, and each must deal with their own secrets and find ways to honor their loyalties and deal with the past.

Although the developing love story is what drives the novel, the changing attitudes and tensions following the Civil War are handled well, and I loved that some of the characters were members of the Harding family and plantation.  The horse whisperer, Bob Green, was a former slave at Belle Meade, and was largely responsible for the success of the stud farm.  In fact, the story told in the Prologue of To Whisper Her Name is based in history.

Recent Reads {Love's Reckoning}

Love's Reckoning by Laura Frantz - This first novel in a family saga is set in York County, Pennsylvania, in the late 1700s.  Silas Ballantyne arrives to finish his blacksmith apprenticeship with Liege Lee, but what he doesn't realize is that the Lees expect him to marry one of their two daughters.  The characters of the daughters are a huge contrast - Elspeth is selfish and scheming, and apparently rather free with her favours.  Eden, the younger daughter, is quiet and shy, and acts as girl of all work for the family.  Silas determines to finish out his few months of apprenticeship per the contract and then continue west to Fort Pitt, but he is drawn by Eden's gentle nature and her thirst for spiritual things.  Even as Elspeth pulls out all the stops to try and win Silas for herself, and their father insists that Eden play matchmaker for them, Silas and Eden find themselves drawn together.  They make plans to marry and to go together to Fort Pitt.  But there are still obstacles in their way - a suspicious fire that destroys the blacksmith shop means that Silas agrees to stay longer to help rebuild the business; and then another crisis that sends Eden reeling and puts her in a dangerous situation.  

While I enjoyed this novel a great deal, it took me quite awhile to decide that I wanted to like Eden.  I felt some sympathy for her, because from the beginning it was clear that she was very much the victim in her family. Mr Lee and Elspeth seemed to have no redeeming qualities at all, so at times I was invested in the story in hoping they would get their come-uppance more than wanting to see Eden find happiness.  The second book in this series will be available later this year and if I remember, I will probably continue reading as it will follow the Ballantyne family through the next generation.

Recent Reads {Lady Catherine's Necklace}

Lady Catherine's Necklace by Joan Aiken - What is it about Lady Catherine's necklace, that it is so often stolen or misplaced in Pride and Prejudice sequels?  This has to be at least the fourth of fifth I've read in which this is the case. Anyway, Joan Aiken is widely regarded as a superb storyteller and one of the best at providing sequels to Jane Austen's work.  For myself, though, I am not impressed.  For whatever reason, her style does not resonate with me, and this particular story seemed to be flying in too many different directions and with a very unsatisfactory conclusion.

The premise of this "Jane Austen Entertainment" is that a brother and sister, the Delavals, find themselves stranded at Rosings after Miss Delaval is injured in a carriage accident.  Lady Catherine reluctantly invites them to stay until the injury is healed, which takes a remarkably long time.  Mr Delaval ingratiates himself with Lady Catherine to the point that she takes his advice on improving her gardens.  The improvement calls for a certain cottage to be demolished, thus leaving the two painters that have lived there for many years homeless.  Lady Anne de Bourgh is upset about this, but feels she can do little about it.  Then Lady Catherine decides to pay a visit to a sister-in-law, and Anne makes the most of some new-found freedom in her mother's absence, by visiting the friends in the cottage frequently, and building a friendship with the garden-boy.  On her journey, Lady Catherine's carriage meets with disaster and she is stranded at a remote farm with a farmer of dubious character.  As a background to all of this, Maria Lucas is visiting her sister Charlotte and keeping her company while Mr Collins is called away. Since Colonel FitzWilliam is in the area, we find that he and Maria have a bit of a past together and there is a hint that they may find happiness together.

Even in my brief and simplified description, it seems like there are at least three plots for the story, along with several sub-plots.  At less than 200 pages, it's quite an undertaking to develop all these storylines sufficiently, and the narrative jumps from one to another willy-nilly.  There is far too much going on and at the expense of character development.  In addition, several of the events and circumstances are far-fetched and ridiculous.  At some points I felt that the characters had little in common with those invented by Austen other than their name. 

I questioned a number of aspects of the story, and will mention a few here, as examples of the inconsistency of the writing.  1) At the outset of the story, Anne is said to be about seventeen years old.  Only a few pages later, the friendship between Anne and the two painters is said to have begun about three years earlier, when Anne was about sixteen years of age.  Which is it?  2) Are we really expected to believe that Lady Catherine placidly accepts how ill she has been used when she finds that her own relatives plotted to have her detained while on her visit to her sister-in-law?  And that Lady Catherine's brother really needed to resort to such subterfuge in order to hunt about for his belongings in Lady's C's attics?  3) What happened to change the characters of Mr Collins and FitzWilliam? Mr Collins appears only briefly and has remarkably little to say.  Had FitzWilliam not been identified by name, he would not have been recognizable as the cheerful, witty, but self-deprecating gentleman Austen told us about.  4) Are we so lacking in choices of names that Charlotte's midwife had to be named Mrs Hurst? Or maybe we are not supposed to remember that Charles Bingley's sister was a Mrs Hurst.

In the end, I felt the story was inept in resolving any of the conflicts that it presented, and the conclusion was abrupt and disappointing.  Half the cast simply disappears as we turn the page to the last chapter, and we get brief descriptions of where they've gone and why only as Lady Catherine's brother tells her where they've all run off to. And apparently, she has little reaction to any of it, as shocking as the news is.  In other words, nothing is really resolved, the reader simply comes to the last page in the book with most of the characters having disappeared. I didn't love the other book by Joan Aiken that I read (Jane Fairfax) and considered this one rather a waste of my time, so I will not be likely to read her work again.

By the same author:  Jane Fairfax

Recent Reads {Pemberley Ranch}

Pemberley Ranch by Jack Caldwell - Let me start out by saying that this ranks fairly high on my personal list of Pride and Prejudice spin-offs.  I was expecting a simple retelling of P&P in a post-Civil War setting, but this is definitely an American Western with a nod to P&P. Caldwell's characters are clearly intended to be based on Austen's, and the general outline of the story is very similar.  But he hasn't just dropped Darcy and Elizabeth and their retinue into the American south, he has given the entire story a uniquely American and western feel.  Beth Bennet and her family are Ohio Yankees who move to Texas after the Civil War for a fresh start.  Beth is particularly devastated by the loss of her brother, who died as a Union soldier, and while she makes new friends in her new home, she is still unwilling to forgive Confederate soldiers.  Will Darcy is the wealthiest rancher in the community, and also a returning Confederate officer.  Eventually their paths cross, and the familiar love story follows its course.  Causing trouble along the way is carpetbagger George Whitehead, who makes his inspiration, George Wickham, look like a pretty decent guy.  And Will's haughty and conniving cousin, Cate Burroughs, makes Lady Catherine seem charming.

Austen fans will also find some other familiar names among the town's inhabitants, including the parson, Rev. Tilney, and most of the characters from P&P. Some of the characterizations are different, so that only the names are similar.  Caldwell treats us to some background to the loyal friendship between Will and Charles Bingley. Some readers may be happy to find out that Charlotte Lucas makes a much more fulfilling relationship; and that cousin Anne and little sister Gaby (Georgiana) have more personality of their own.  Gaby even takes a hand in trying to help her brother win Beth's affection.  Since Whitehead and other 'bad guys' in this story are thoroughly reprehensible villains, they meet a suitable Western justice.  In the final shoot-out scene, the dialogue between the villains is laced with profanity, but <shrug> it was in keeping with their characters.

I did have a couple of disappointments, however.  Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley become a married couple without the reader knowing anything about how they met.  I was left a little confused at the beginning, because it seemed that the Bennets had been in Texas for long enough for Charles to court and marry Jane, and yet they hadn't met Will until the wedding.  We also didn't get a lot of reason to understand why the youngest Bennet daughter even considers running off with Whitehead, but it does provide the plot device for Will to do everything in his power to restore Lily to her family.  More troubling than those minor complaints was the episode near the beginning where Will accidentally happens upon Beth skinny-dipping.  He can't resist taking a good look, and a chapter or so later the reader is given a glimpse into the fantasies he's indulged in as a result.  Those two descriptions worried me, as I thought the story might wind up getting trashy, but thankfully there was no more of that sort of thing.  It seemed out of place, frankly, and I wondered at the necessity of including it.  Will does behave as a gentleman throughout, however.

Overall, an enjoyable read for Austen fans who are willing to see some of their beloved characters portrayed differently in this very new setting.