Review: Guest House by Barbara K. Richardson

Let me thank Barbara Richardson for sending me a review copy.



About the Book:

This debut novel follows the unusual road two loners take toward home. Can real love close the distance?

Driving home from work on a summer afternoon, Melba Burns witnesses a nightmare collision. The wreck ends her pursuit of success at any cost—Melba parks her car, quits her job and stops driving. She retreats into her beloved old farmhouse, yearning for a simpler peace.

But peace and Melba’s new roommate, JoLee Garry, have never met. A shallow, self-absorbed stunner, JoLee magnetizes messes and trouble. She brings boyfriends, booze and a tag-along son with her—a series of unexpected guests who transform Melba’s solo life into something different, daring and richer.

This fast-paced, contemporary novel moves between Portland, Oregon and Atomic City, Idaho, the absolute center of nowhere. GUEST HOUSE explores the grace that comes from daring to intervene in a stranger’s suffering. It will appeal to those who have forgotten the power that comes from living simply, and to anyone in their middle years whose life has been hijacked by love.

"This being human is a guest house,” Rumi says, “Every morning a new arrival…” Arrivals come and go in Melba Burn’s life: JoLee Gary who can’t shake her addictions, her husband Gene Garry, who won’t give up on love, and Matt Garry, their unwanted son who will stop at nothing until he has found his own way home.

My Review:

WOW! This was a great book. I truly didn't want it to end.

The writing was so easy to read, it just flowed beautifully. The characters were all so well developed. The story was quite a journey of highs and lows. This story touches on almost all human emotions; love, hate, betrayal, fear, jealousy, loneliness, power, and everything else.

When I say I didn't want the story to end I truly mean it. I could have just kept right on reading about Melba, JoLee, Gene, Matt, Bill, and everyone else. I became so attached to all of them. Even though they weren't all the best of people they were all so real. I could relate to all of what they were thinking, feeling, and experiencing.

I just got so lost in this book. It was so real, I felt as if I was becoming a part of the story.

I don't want to give up my copy, but per author's request I will be passing it along. Even more than I want to keep it, I want to share it with others.

Great book!

To find out more about Guest House please visit Barbara Richardson's website.

As I stated I will be passing this one along. First I want my mother to read it. Once I get it back from her I will pass it along to one of my readers. So please keep your eyes open for a future post with more details.

Guest Blog: Author Robert Parry

Hello, I have another guest blogger today. Author Robert Parry has been kind enough to share with us some information on his book ‘Virgin and the Crab’.



Here's what Robert has to say:

I would like to thank Jennifer for asking me to post a few words about my novel ‘Virgin and the Crab’ here today. ‘Strange title, great novel’ somebody described it recently – which I think is fair comment (I particularly like the ‘great novel’ bit of that statement). For those who agree with the ‘strange’ bit, however, a look at the sub-title might shed a little more light on things: ‘Sketches, Fables and Mysteries from the Early Life of John Dee and Elizabeth Tudor.’

England’s Elizabeth is a person who needs little introduction to history enthusiasts. But what about John Dee? Well, he is the principle character of the story – which takes us through one of the most turbulent, cruel and unsettling decades of English history, from around 1547 to 1558 when the nation had no less than five different monarchs – from Henry VIII, Edward VI and Jane Grey to Mary I and finally Elizabeth I. Turbulent times, to say the least.

John Dee was one of the most remarkable men of his age, a brilliant mathematician, astronomer and geographer and almost certainly a spy. He advised on just about every great voyage of discovery undertaken during the Elizabethan age. He boasted one of the most extensive libraries in Europe at the time, far greater in volume than that of Oxford university, for instance. And he might even have had a hand in the invention of the telescope many years before it first appeared in Holland and Italy and was subsequently adopted for use by Galileo in 1607. He was an alchemist and a devoutly spiritual and religious man who believed in the existence of angels. Perhaps most importantly, as a prominent Cambridge scholar, he became tutor to many of the royal children at Court – including at various times, Edward VI, Jane Grey, Robert Dudley and most likely Elizabeth herself. He was friends with Roger Ascham and John Cheke, two more of the royal tutors, and also with William Cecil, Elizabeth’s closest governmental and legal adviser for almost all of her life. Dee was at the very hub of Elizabethan society.

I hope my story might help raise the profile of this most interesting and talented man who may have played a pivotal role in helping Elizabeth through one of the darkest and most dangerous periods of her life.

Let’s conclude this brief article with another look at that title ‘Virgin and the Crab.’ An explanation! The ‘Virgin’ is Elizabeth, who had the star sign of Virgo, while the Crab is Dee who had the star sign of Cancer, the crab. Their shared interest in the stars and in all things astrological is an important sub-plot to the story. Together, the Virgin and the Crab made a formidable combination and the effects of their friendship remain with us still to this day, reflected in so many of the glorious achievements of England’s golden age.


Thank you again to Robert. I think this sounds like a very interesting read. I've never heard of John Dee, but it's usually the people in history that we know nothing about who have the most interesting stories. And strange is a good thing, keeps us on our toes.

If you would like more information about Virgin and the Crab please visit the Virgin and the Crab website.

Review: Raven's Ladder by Jeffrey Overstreet

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.



About the Book:

A DEADLY MENACE IS BREAKING THROUGH THE GROUND. THE PEOPLE OF ABASCAR MUST ABANDON THEIR STONE REFUGE AND FLEE INTO VULNERABILITY IN THE FOREST. BUT THEIR KING HAS HAD A VISION…

Following the beacon of Auralia’s colors and the footsteps of a mysterious dream-creature, King Cal-raven has discovered a destination for his weary crowd of refugees. It’s a city only imagined in legendary tales. And it gives him hope to establish New Abascar.

But when Cal-raven is waylaid by fortune hunters, his people become vulnerable to a danger more powerful than the prowling beastmen––House Bel Amica. In this oceanside kingdom of wealth, enchantment, and beauty, deceitful Seers are all too eager to ensnare House Abascar’s wandering throng.

Even worse, the Bel Amicans have discovered Auralia’s colors, and are twisting a language of faith into a lie of corruption and control.

If there is any hope for the people of Abascar, it lies in the courage of Cyndere, daughter of Bel Amica’s queen; the strength of Jordam the beastman; and the fiery gifts of the ale boy, who is devising a rescue for prisoners of the savage Cent Regus beastmen.

As his faith suffers one devastating blow after another, Cal-raven’s journey is a perilous climb from despair to a faint gleam of hope––the vision he sees in Auralia’s colors.

My Review:

This one took me a little while to get into it. In the beginning of the story I was lost as to who the characters were and what exactly was going on. (Little did I know when I started this that it was the third in a series, I think I should have read the other two first.) There is a "glossary" of characters in the back, and through the first few chapters I referred to that quite a bit.

The story began to get pretty interesting around chapter 9. Before that there were a few good moments, but I think the meat of the story began around that chapter.

The writing was pretty good. The imagination of Overstreet is great. The descriptions of some of the creatures is good enough to give you a image of them even though they are imaginary.

The story deals greatly with faith, and a struggle between two different faiths. I think the subject of faith is difficult to write about as a story of mystical fiction, I've read a few books of the same type that were way off the mark, but Overstreet did a pretty good job with it.

I didn't love the book, but it was intriguing enough (after the first few chapters) to keep me reading. I would liked to have read the first two in the series before hand, maybe I wouldn't have been so lost in the beginning, but I think that even without the previous books there was still something to be gained from this one.

To learn more about Raven's Ladder or to find where to purchase a copy please visit Random House's website.

Review: Faithful Heart by Al Lacy

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.



About the Book:

Dottie Harper fears for her children's safety. Her husband, Jerrod, is struggling with dementia brought on by shell shock during the Civil War. It's as though there are two Jerrods locked inside him: the tender and loving Christian man she married, and a harsh man given to unpredictable fits of violent rage. Dottie loves her husband with all her heart, and with God's help, she'd determined to remain steadfast.

Dottie's sister, Breanna Baylor, is a certified medical nurse. She's headed west with a wagon train, planning to visit Dottie in California and meet her family for the first time. Along the way, Breanna meets up with wounded soldiers, contagious townspeople, and injured outlaws. Compassionate and highly skilled, she tends to their physical hurts and shares the gospel whenever she can. Litlle does she know that a life-or-death meeting awaits with her own brother-in-law.

Come alongside these two remarkable sisters, and rejoice in how God takes care of those with faithful hearts.

My Review:

This was a good story. There were times that it was predictable but I think that every story has those points. I liked Breanna very much. She was very independent and strong willed. The things that Jerrod was dealing with were very interesting. I liked how Lacy put us into his head to show us the two sides of Jerrod.

The story was pretty fast paced. I got caught up in the story a few times and didn't realize how long I had been sitting reading. I didn't finish it in one setting, but it didn't take me very long at all.

The story was unique. It dealt with a few tough subjects but that didn't make it hard to read. Everything was tastefully written and the outcomes were plausible.

Overall I liked this one. It was enjoyable and I wanted to find out what was going to happen next.

To get more information on Faithful Heart please visit Random House's website.

Review: Yesterday's Promise by Linda Lee Chaikin

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group



About the Book:

He fought to seek his fortune.
Would he lose a greater treasure: the love he left behind?

As the son of the squire of Grimston Way, aristocrat Rogan Chantry has fought hard to win his independence from Sir Julien Bley and the British South Africa Company. Now, his pursuit of a mysterious deposit of gold, marked on a map willed to him by his murdered uncle, Henry Chantry, is challenged by a new complication: the impending British colonization of South Africa. Can Sir Rogan find the gold in the midst of escalating tensions among the native tribesmen, the missionaries sent to win them, and the new colonists?

Meanwhile, Evy Varley, the woman Rogan loves back in England, is headed for a brave yet dangerous confrontation with Henry’s killer–but at what price? With so much against Rogan and Evy, a reunion seems improbable, if not impossible. Can yesterday’s promise hold them faithful to the hope of future freedom and a victorious love?

My Review:

I couldn't get into this one. The story starts out great, but after that I kept getting lost. I don't know why I didn't like this one, I really can't pinpoint it, but it just didn't work for me.

I got about half way through this one and had forgotten the intricacies and relationships between the characters. There weren't a ton of characters, but for some reason I just couldn't keep them straight.

The biggest reason why I didn't like this one is that I just felt so confused through it. The basic story line stayed with me, but other than a few characters I couldn't really keep everything straight.

To learn more about Yesterday's Promise please visit Random House's website.