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Category Archives: Book Reviews – Fiction


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When “Always Love You” Needs a Warning Label

I Will Always Love You

By Ashley Lee London

Kimber here. I’m on the job. Talking Her Crankiness down from The Cliffs of Insanity. (You’ll get that if you get “As you wish.”)

Why is Mom up there? Well. It all started with a book blog tour. And, oh Lassie! Did those guys ever step in it! Here’s what happened:

1. The back cover blurb on this book is off base by about a mile and a half. Talk about misleading. Not a good start, folks.

2. The print quality of this book is atrocious. Hard to believe anyone would send out a book with so many pages in this condition. Great day in the ouchie! (See photo.)

3. Then, tour organizers only wanted positive reviews. Read: Not honest ones.

Nope

Mom and I? We don’t roll that way. So we bowed out of the tour. Here’s our honest review instead:

 

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Set Sail for ‘Hope’ With Rousing Historical Ficiton

Acts of Hope (2020)

BookLife

By Martin Elsant

Historical Fiction

Perditus qui haesitat.

Acts of Hope is a prodigious tome of epic proportions. Set in the 16th century, the story adeptly navigates the serpentine coils of political, cultural and ecclesiastical clashes in multiple countries from England to the Holy Land. Also pirates. Forgeries. Narrow escapes. Double-crosses and desperate battles. Revenge and forgiveness. Steadfast courage and stalwart faith in the face of overwhelming odds. True love. And hope.

An enjoyable historical novel, this book features study characters, exotic settings, and a solid, engaging plot.

The story opens off the Portuguese coast as Diego Lopes and his daughter Maria flee the Inquisition. Their ship is bound for Diego’s estate in Bristol, England. When Maria’s father dies later as a result of wounds suffered during his arrest per the Inquisition, Maria takes over his substantial shipping business, becoming one of the wealthiest women in the world.

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‘Blood Countess’ Poses Strange Dichotomy

Blood Countess

Blood Countess (Lady Slayers)

Barnes & Noble

(Amulet Books, 2020)

By Lana Popovic

Historical Fiction/YA

“Sick puppy,” says I, Kimber the Magnificent.

“No kidding,” Mom rejoins. “Seriously off her rocker.”

I’m not sure what a “rocker” is. But the antagonist in this book, Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary, is off it by about a mile and a half.

This is a weird book to peg or review. Mom started it the other night. She kept me up until one in the morning finishing it. Ugh!

It’s a gripping read. For sure.

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Finding Treasure in ‘The Lost Jewels’

The Lost Jewels

The Lost Jewels: A Novel

Barnes & Noble

(Harper Collins, 2020)

By Kristy Manning

Historical fiction

 

How can a heart be full of both sorrow and joy?

 

That’s the salient question at the core of this finely crafted historical novel by Kristy Manning. An ambitious undertaking, The Lost Jewels spans some four hundred years between 17th century London and modern day Boston. It features two strong female characters, Essie Murphy in the early 19th century, and Kate Kirby, present day jewelry historian.

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‘Thirteen Miracles’ & My New Best Bud!

 

Thirteen Miracles

By D.L. Kennedy

Christian Fiction, 2020

 

Kimber the Magnificent here. Introducing my new best bud, Bebo. He’s a blue-eyed albino boxer dog. Super smart. Loyal. Dependable. Totally fearless. Solid as the Rock of Gibraltar. All-around awesome. You know. Like me.

Anyway, Bebo my new best bud is the hero of this cool book Mom and I recently read. It’s called Thirteen Miracles. Humans probably think this book is about a lady named Abby Welles. She kinda has a crisis of faith after her twin sister dies in a car wreck.

Depressed, confused, and running on faith fumes, Abby travels to Mexico to find Jose Luis Hernandez, aka: Destiny Man. He supposedly knows about miracles. Abby wants to research and write a book on the subject. She heads into the Sierra Madres and the Devil’s Backbone to try to make some sense of her life’s loose ends. What she finds is more than she bargained for as something dark and evil stalks her every step.

But Bebo steals the show.

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Between The “Light” We Cannot See

See the source imageAll the Light We Cannot See (Scribner – Simon & Schuster, 2014)

By Anthony Doerr

10 Best Books by The New York Times, 2014

National Book Award Finalist

Pulitzer Prize Winner – Fiction

True-ism: We’re not big fans of “Winner” books. Mom and me, we’ve been around long enough to realize that politics and too much other non-bookish stuff goes into handing out those kinds of awards. We don’t do auto-impress just cuz something has “prize winner” attached to it.

As in, Big Wow. Not.

This “Light” book, we’re not sure about yet. Finished it the other day. Didn’t exactly love it. But we didn’t hate it, either. We’re somewhere in between. Like….

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‘Euphrates Yield’ & Buying a Piglet

By David H. Hanks

Mystery/Thriller

 

The third and final installment in the Carson Griffin series, Euphrates Yield tries hard to be a Tom Clancy-esque mystery thriller and spy/espionage story with a high octane kick.

 

It falls short for several reasons.

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Dark Secrets & Mysterious Menace Revealed in ‘A Savage Kultur’

A Savage Kultur

A Savage Kultur

By Monique Roy

Historical Fiction

The art world is filled with secrets and a dark past.

Mystery abounds as Oxford art student Ava Goldman tries to unravel the truth about her family’s past with the help of her ailing grandmother, Gisela. It begins with a “chance” encounter with a uniformed Nazi on the banks of the Thames River in 2013, followed by a posthumous letter from Ava’s art loving grandfather, Karl. Vowing to find a priceless van Gogh painting plundered by the Nazis from her grandparents, Ava steps into a world of shadow, mystery, and menace.

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BKLBITS Awards! 6 Vastly Over-Rated Books That Fall Flat

 

Ever finish a book and thought:

 “Well. That’s (fill in the blank) hours or days out of my life I’ll never be able to get back”?

Kimber here.

Mom and I have run across some of those lately. They’re the kind of books that epitomize the phrase, “All that glitters is not gold.” Cuz they’re just lousy. Boring. Insipid. Pointless slogs to the Middle of Nowhere. Littered with unsympathetic, cardboard characters we don’t know, don’t want to know, and could care less about.

BKLBITS Awards

Mom and I, we nominate these losers for what we call BKLBITS “awards.” That’s Big Kitty Litter Box In The Sky.

We’re telling you this to save you some time. As in, don’t waste yours on these colossal duds.

Heading this summer’s BKLBITS nominations, all of which earned a one star rating or less, are:

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Is This Historical Novel Destined to Become a Classic?

The Librarian of Boone’s Hollow (Waterbrook/Multnomah, September 2020)

By Kim Vogel Sawyer

Christian/Historical Fiction

 

Triumphant and transcendent, this delicious historical novel is easily one of the season’s best. Here’s why:

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