Reviewing The Canonical Order by T.R. Kurtz

I've been reading books, although, not at the rate I was in past years. Life is extremely busy for me, and I've been devoting my morning coffee time to writing rather than reading. I haven't been posting much about the books I've read, including the books that I've gotten from Booktasters or any of the ARCs I've gotten from publishers. I haven't even been blogging about books that I truly loved that we read in my book club. It's time to catch up! I'll start with the book I most recently received from Booktasters in exchange for an honest review: The Canonical Order by T.R. Kurtz.

For me, this book took a while to get through - the pacing just felt off and bogged down and/or the main character would annoy me and I would put the book down and go read something else for a while. The overall plot of the book is good. It's the writing style that killed me. See my full review below.


The Canonical Order by T.R. Kurtz
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In this novel, a group of radical Islamic terrorists are determined to fulfill an ancient prophecy to draw the West into an apocalyptic holy war. In the process, the Pope becomes a target, and after a bullet leaves him incapacitated, Chad Stryker, sets out on a solo counteroffensive to stop the terrorists and preserve the Catholic Church.

The overall plot of the book was good, but the pacing-particularly the inudation of details-bogged the story line down. The twists and turns were predictable which didn't make for a very thrilling read. I also had an issue with the main character, Chad Stryker.

Chad Stryker is an ex-CIA agent that joined The Canonical Order. He is supposed to be a likeable character, but he is a flat character who is all too appealing to the ladies. I think the author tried too hard to make him suave like Bond in a way that came across as rather irritating. I didn't notice any real development of the character arc either. He is a rather flat protaganist.

The idea is there, but the writing misses the mark for me.

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Review of Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

My book club (the virtual one I run) reads a variety of books. Someone had suggested Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald because they had heard about it via Oprah's Book Club. I was extremely excited to read this book, because I love books with diverse backgrounds. The book did not disappoint. I'm so happy we read it. I'm even happier I got to discuss the book with friends. I would have given this book 5 stars if it weren't for the heavy plot. This is a brilliant novel. It's extremely well written. See my full review below:

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fall on Your Knees is a heavy drama that explores friendship, racial tension, varying religious views, isolation, domestic abuse, and forbidden love in a brilliantly crafted complex plot that includes incest, death and murder.

The plot follows the Piper family; a father, James Piper, and four children, Kathleen, Frances, Lily and Mercedes, from before World War I, through the roaring 20s, and the great depression. The four sisters gradually grow from children into fully developed characters with different personalities and their own individual stories. Each sister's story is filled with intrigue and dark secrets which are gradually revealed. Their stories all weave together in an extremely unsettling way. Ann-Marie MacDonald combines rapid mixing of tenses and points-of-view using combinations of journal, memory, dialogue and narrative. This can sometimes lead to confusion, but it ultimately allows the offer to tell the story from multiple vantage points, gradually revealing more clues as the same scene takes place from a subsequent view-point. The depth of the characters draws you into their lives and the cleverly written and sublime metaphorical words put you straight in their heads.

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Reviewing Looking for Will by Jane Collins-Phillippe

I love a good thriller. I love simple and even complicated plots. I especially love well-developed characters. Sometimes though, plots can be overly complicated and understanding everything about a character and their family can be too much. I recently read Looking for Will by Jane Collins-Philippe and felt that it was a book with a great, albeit overly complicated, plot and overly developed (words I never thought I would say) characters. To me, this left me feeling like this book just missed the mark. It's a story with great potential, but to me it's a book that needs to be edited and polished before it will be something great. See my full review below.

Looking for Will by Jane Collins-Philippe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book is a thriller set in and around Ontario about a family on their way home from vacation in Calgary when their little boy goes missing from the back seat of the vehicle. The plot, all too real, centers around the boy, Will, that was supposed to be asleep in the car and the two parents fighting so much that they didn't notice the little boy was missing until they were to their motel.

The plot, writing and pacing is great through and especially including Chapter 2. After that...

The book is told from a lot of different perspectives. Too many if you ask me. There is Davide and Jan Dewhurst, the parents of a boy who goes missing from the car, Sergeant Patricia Hayes, an old couple Gracie and Gabe Fortune living in the middle of nowhere and the weird guy with a dark secret, Matthew Pepperal. All of the voices/perspectives made for a really complex plot but at the cost of sometimes being confusing and losing the readers overall interest.

When it came to learning all about the Fortune family, which is significant to the overall plot, there was too much talking about the characters and not enough showing us about the characters. I'm not entirely sure I needed to know the back stories into each of the kids.

It is clear that the book, characters and plot are very well developed. I just don't feel the book itself is well polished and there were lots of areas where it could have been improved to make me, or any reader, like it more.

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**Disclaimer - I was provided a free copy of this book by Booktasters in exchange for an honest review.**

Reviewing "Happiness is All We Want" by Ashutosh Mishra

A few years ago I attended a seminar that constantly referenced a book The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt (a great read by the way). Haidt's book tried to get to the root of what makes people happy and touches on philosophy, psychology, economics, evolution, and cognitive science. What Haidt does is explain what makes people happy, but it's not a self-help book. It's a book that says that what we want and need is happiness. Since then I've read several self-help books about happiness. One of which, thanks to Booktasters Nonfiction, was Happiness is All We Want by Ashutosh Mishra. Find out what I thought about this book below.


Happiness Is All We Want by Ashutosh Mishra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Happiness Is All We Want" is a practical approach to seeking happiness and improving your life. The book is written in a conversational tone and is divided into three sections: mind, body and soul. Each section discusses every day type problems/obstacles a person may face and how to overcome them to achieve happiness.

I found the book to be engaging, well articulated and not pedantic like some self-help books can be. I highly recommend this book.

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Reviewing I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

A few months ago I read I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh. I'm finally getting around to reviewing the book. No worries though, it's still fresh in my mind. I really enjoyed this thriller. I reached a certain point in the book that I had to pick it up and check the cover to make sure I hadn't inadvertently picked up a different book. It's just that good and the plot was just that unexpected to me. See my full review below.

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The novel begins with the story of an inexcusable, unforgiveable crime, a hit and run involving a young (very young) boy. Right then and there I almost put the book down. As a mother and ever since reading Jodi Piccoult's Nineteen Minutes it's hard for me to trust what might come next in a book that dares to take on such unspeakable atrocities. However, it was the raving reviews of the book that kept me reading. I felt like I needed to see and know what everyone else knew, and I was very thankful I kept reading. This book was nothing I expected after its opening. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh is a book worth reading. Maybe even reading twice, because I know I had to have missed a clue or two at first.

As I mentioned already, the book begins with a hit and run accident involving a very young boy. The main character, Jenna Gray's only hope of getting over the incident is to move to another town. The character driven novel is told from the perspectives of Jenna Gray, detective Ray and then Ian.

At first, the alternating perspectives between Jenna and Ray lead the reader to believe and feel that this is very much a normal police procedural novel. However, the introduction of the voice of Ian made me wonder if I was reading the same book. It was no longer a police procedural but rather a psychological thriller that I couldn't put down.

I started to pick up on some of the clues in the book, but I couldn't imagine the way everything would unwind. This book is brilliantly written and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a police procedurals and/or thrillers.

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Why am I Creating this Blog?

               

I am a bibliophile. I collect and devour books. I pride myself in my library. 668 books and counting! 

I am also a writer. I LOVE to write. 

I wanted to create a place where I could share my love for all things fiction. I find myself spewing words as fast as I can as if I haven't had a conversation in years at the mention of a great book or film or at the request for a recommendation. After I moved, I was unpacking my library, cataloging all the books I own on goodreads, marking the ones I have read and the ones I have yet to read, I decided that I really needed to begin to write my thoughts/reviews about these book and share them with more people. Sure, I can just review them on goodreads, but I have so much more to share. So, here I am, ready to share: ready to blog book reviews and share my writing muses! I hope you will follow me and share with me as we go along too! I will post my book reviews on this main page. I will post my writing on my Writing Muses Page.