Rescue the Prophet by Rob Ficiur

Rescue the Prophet by Rob Ficiur

This next adventure in this series includes Tom and Becky and their Uncle Daniel traveling back in time to Palmyra—only ten years later. They want to see the Grandin building, the place where the Book of Mormon was printed, as it originally was in the 1830’s. They run in to Joseph Smith once again, and he invites Uncle Daniel to go preaching with him. Uncle Daniel agrees to go with the prophet, but decides to send Becky and Tom home. As often happens with time traveling, something goes wrong and Becky and Daniel end up not returning home, but staying in the same time. Now, their Uncle is gone, and they have no money or place to stay until Martin Harris comes along and rescues them. They agree to help out at the print shop, binding originally copies of the Book of Mormon, but they didn’t bargain for the persecution that would affect them personally for their belief.

I enjoyed reading the second book in this series, and reading about the production of the Book of Mormon. Yet, the book didn’t have the magical quality that their first book did for me, probably because they didn’t get to interact with the prophet as much, and he was much older too. Though, I still loved the classy way he portrayed Marin Harris and his wife. Also, it shows a lot of the persecution that early saints faced at this time, and the ways they dealt with it. Overall, it really was a delightful book to read. I’m looking forward to the next one.

Rob Ficiur's blog

Book Blogger Appreciation Week

I received and email this past week notifying me that my blog had been nominated for the BBAW. Thanks so much! I wish all the nominee's luck, and I hope you follow the button on the top right of the page to find out more about this wonderful book blogging awards program. Below is the timeline for the awards. Go support your favorite book blogs all!

The BBAW Awards Timeline

July 15—August 15 Nominations are accepted in all categories. Anyone can nominate a blog and bloggers may nominate themselves.

August 16-17 Nominees are contacted and requested to furnish awards committee with selected information

August 21 Nominee information is due by 11:59 PM EST

August 22—September 4 Panelists review blogs and submit scores based on the following criteria: Quality of Writing, Originality and Diversity of Content, Audience Engagement, and Visual Aesthetic and Functionality.

September 7 Shortlists are announced and voting begins

September 12 —Voting closes at 11:59 PM EST

How to Take the Ex out of Ex-boyfriend by Janette Rallison

How to Take the Ex out of Ex-boyfriend by Janette Rallison

Giovanna’s brother, Dante decided to run for school president because he’s tired of the shallow way the popular kids run their campaigns. Her boyfriend Jesse is wonderful except for one thing—his friends. All of Jesse’s friends are in popular camp and Giovanna can barely stand them. When Dante announces his campaign Giovanna naturally supports him, but Jesse supports his friends and suddenly he is part of camp enemy. Annoyed by Jesse’s betrayal she breaks up with him, but as she starts to date other boys (mostly to make Jesse jealous) she realizes just how good she had it. How can she help her brother win the campaign for student body president and win her boyfriend back?

Have you ever had the experience where you really like an author, but kind of loose track of reading their books for a bit, and then you pick up one of their books again? Then remember why you fell in love with them in the first place, nay more, in fact, you’re convinced they’ve gotten a million times better. I’ve been a Janette Rallison/Sierra St. James fan forever! I love how funny her stories are, her characters have strong voices, and there is always a cute romance scene. She also likes to have embarrassing stories, and in the past a few of them have felt contrived to me just a tinsy bit. Yet, this book didn’t have that moment where I was like…that’s a bit awkward. This book didn’t have any of that, and it flowed really well. In fact Jesse was a perfect hero, and yet a realistic teenage boy. I really liked Dante too, he reminds me of my little brother in some ways.

P.S. I find it weird that I read two books with Italian characters named Dante just months apart from each other. They were both by LDS authors too. Hmmm, soon we’re going to meet children in primary named Dante. Not sure what I think about that. Either way, I’ve been to the real Dante’s tomb—both of them. (No, there are not two Dante’s but two tombs for the same Dante) I really like Dante. I did tell you of my obsession with the underworld did I not? Who wrote the coolest underworld narrative ever? Dante!

Janette Rallison's Website

Janette Rallison's Blog

Spires of Stone by Annette Lyon

Spires of Stone by Annette Lyon

When the Adam brothers, Ben, Claude, and Philip returned home from their mission the first thing the do is visit their old bishop and his two daughters. Ben is painfully reminded of his catastrophic relationship with the oldest, Bethany. Years apart have not softened the bitterness that they feel towards ones another, nor their verbal sparring. Philip hopes to build his new photography business fast enough to court the younger Hansen sister, Hannah. Yet, he watches as his older brother Claude takes a liking her, and feels that he doesn’t have much of a chance to win her over.

This book is the third in Annette Lyon’s Historical stories based on temples. Spires of Stone focus on the building of the Salt Lake temple and is also loosely based on Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado about Nothing. I liked this one much better than At Journey’s End, and I couldn’t put it down. Seriously, my husband kept giving me the look, the one that said I should stop reading and start working on school stuff, but I couldn’t. I got so caught up in the story and characters that I just read the whole afternoon away. I really liked Philip and found his goals to set up a photography studio very interesting. I really like that Claude, though he plays the role of villain, gets the chance to redeem himself. Not only once, but several times. In fact, sometimes you just want to hit him upside the head.

Ben and Bethany have the classic Pride and Prejudice sort of romance. They hate one another and get in bitter verbal sparring matches. Then you slowly learn about their past and how things fell out between them, and realize that if they could both put aside their past hurts and pride that they could love one another again.

I really enjoyed this one! I think I’d recommend this one the highest out of the three novels that I’ve read of the series. There is another about the Manti temple called Tower of Strength. You don’t have to read them in any order to understand the plots. The books have characters in common but each novel is stand alone.

Annette Lyon’s Author Website

Visit her blog the Lyon’s Tale

Recovering Charles by Jason F. Wright

Recovering Charles by Jason F. Wright

Luke hasn’t heard from his father in several years and for that he is glad. He has a successful photography career, and new life. His childhood was tainted by his mother’s addiction to sleeping pills. His father kept waiting for his mom to conquer this addiction, but she took too many pills one day and didn’t wake up. This leads Luke’s father into a downward spiral with alcohol, which lead to a father and son estrangement that had lasted several years.

That was until Luke receives a call from a man in New Orleans, the city that has been recently devastated by hurricane Katrina. His father settled in the city, playing and writing music, and his friends are looking for his missing father in the wreckage. Though, Luke hesitates to become involved with his father, he heads down to New Orleans not expecting much of a reunion, but while there he might just find that his father found a second chance.

Recovering Charles takes place in New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. I was really impressed with the amount of detail the author used when describing the city and how it was affected in this disaster. Specific streets and sections of the city and all the logistics involved in recovering from such a massive wave of destruction seem to be portrayed accurately. Though, since I’ve never been to New Orleans I can’t say for sure. I found the beginning of the book to be a little slow since it recaps all of the news reports on television. It was my curiosity about a picture on the wall of his office that intrigued me. I wanted to know the story behind it so I kept reading, and I got a total surprise when I learned what the picture meant to Luke! The beginning of the book also has a lot of flashbacks to the past, while the back story and the characters portrayed were interesting, I still got annoyed because the story didn't move forward very quickly.

The book really is an inspiring look at how people help one another to survive in desperate circumstances. I ended up enjoying the story, and I love how it has the lyrics of the song that his dad wrote at the end. They fit so perfectly with the theme of the story, and apparently the song was recorded so you can listen to it on the book's website.

To listen to the mustic visit recoveringcharles.com

For other books visit Jason F. Wright's Author website

The Ravenmaster's Secret by Elvira Woodruff

The Ravenmaster’s Secret by Elvira Woodruff

Forrest Harper’s father is Ravenmaster in the tower of London, and each day Forrest helps him to feed the birds, and guard the prisoners in the tower. Forrest often dreams of leaving the small confines of the tower grounds to go on adventures, to show the boys around him that he is brave, yet he remains stuck attending to his duties in the tower. Then news comes that Scottish rebels are going to be kept in the tower. Forrest is sure that guarding a huge Scottish warrior will show that he is brave, but it turns out that he guards a young girl his own age named Maddy. As he learns more about Maddy and her beautiful homeland they become fast friends. Then Forrest learns that Maddy is going to be executed. She claims that she is innocent of any wrong doing, and Forrest has to decide what is the right thing to do. Should he commit treason against the crown and help her escape, or let an innocent girl go to her death?

I picked this book up because I thought the setting really sounded cool, and besides that I really like Ravens. And what Ravens are more intriguing than those kept at the Tower of London? Though the Ravens in the Tower are more background characters than anything. Though Forrest does have a pet Raven that is sort of crucial to the plot in a few places. I sort of felt Forrest came to trust Maddy too easily, and didn’t relate to her as much. Forrest has a friend Rat that got sold to be a chimney sweep to a bad master, and I rooted for him more than I did Maddy, and I thought he was a cool character. So while I enjoyed this book it really wasn’t my favorite even though it was set in an interesting historical setting.

Author Elvira Woodruff's Website

At Journey's End by Annette Lyon

At the Journey’s End by Annette Lyon

Abe Franklin has never felt comfortable among Mormons, being an adopted Indian has made life hard for him, and he always feels like an outsider. After a mob of saints hangs a black man before he can go to trial for shooting a bishop, Abe decides he has had enough of the hypocrisy and longs to get out of Utah. He convinces his mother to come with him when he finds them a new home, but she gives him one condition. He must find them a place where the saints are strong. So, Abe sets out to California, and finds himself, through an unlikely series of events, settling in Snowflake, Arizona.

There he finds a young school teacher named Maddie, who catches his eye when she recites a poem. She struggles to let go of the love she had for her fiancé, who was murdered, and love the man she is currently engaged to. She must decide if she will settle for a good marriage of convenience or take another chance at romantic love. Abe and Maddie form a bond, but Abe cannot make the mistake of falling for a good Mormon girl twice. He knows that his feelings about the church will lead to their eventual misery. So, unless Maddie can help Abe realize, despite the harshness of his upbringing and bitterness toward the saints, that he believes in God they will both lose love for a second time.

I had a hard time getting into this book at the beginning. I suppose I didn’t relate to Abe and Maddie as well as I did to Lizzy in Lyon’s previous book House on a Hill. Abe seemed to be too modern minded for the historical time period and that threw me off. His first point of view chapter felt too preachy for me to really get sucked into the story at the start, but I ended up enjoying his character later on. I also felt for Maddie as she tried to heal from the death of her fiancee. While on the surface this seems like the typical LDS romance plot—girl converts boy to gospel and they marry—Lyon’s characters have layers that made it feel unique and fresh. I liked the fact that Abe wasn’t converted the “traditional” way, as in reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. He had a unique history and set of challenges to overcome in order to accept the gospel and the conflict was interesting. The author spent of lot of time building an honest emotional bond between Maddie and Abe that really makes their love story special to the reader.

In contrast to House on the Hill, this book in not about the construction of the St. George temple, but about those who sacrificed to travel to the first completed temple to make sacred covenants there. Some humorous anecdotes about the building and history of the temple are shared, but they dance in the background of the story. This ended up being an enjoyable read for me, and I’m glad I finally sat down and read it since I read House on a Hill ages ago. In would recommend both books to readers interested a good, clean historical romance.

Visit Annette's Lyon's website to find out more about her books.

She also has a fabulous blog at Lyon's Tale.

Pendragon 8: The Pilgrims of Rayne by D.J. MacHale

Pendragon 8: The Pilgrims of Rayne by D.J. MacHale

If you aren’t already familiar with the Pendragon series then this post my contains spoilers because The Pilgrims of Rayne is the eighth book in the series. Go find out more info at D. J. MacHale’s official website.

In this latest installment of Pendragon Bobby finds himself on the Island Paradise of Ibara. He looks for the signs of chaos and violence that usually indicate St. Dane’s presence. He comes to find that the people of Ibara are sheltered from their true identity by the village elders. Bobby joins up with a local gang to find out the truth of the situation. They steal a boat from the harbor and head off towards the mainland to find that Ibara is in grave danger because St. Dane has organized an army headed strait for the island. In order to win a battle with against such enormous odds Pendragon has to break the number one rule: don’t mix items between territories.

So, this book wasn’t one of my most favorite Pendragon books. I did like it better than the fourth book though, and that one is my least favorite. Mostly I didn’t like it because Pendragon broke the rules and that just irks me. I know it really shouldn’t cause that author shows the consequences of not following the rules, but it did. The usual action packed adventure ensued, and I really liked all the twists and turns this novel brought. Especially, the twists and turns with Mark and Courtney plotlines. I never expected when the series started that Mark and Courtney would become such well developed characters, but I really think they have an interesting part in the story. As usual I loved meeting the new characters on Ibara and exploring a whole new world.

So, if you haven’t picked up this series you should, it is great for both boys and girls. Probably leans more towards the boy audience, but there are plenty of strong female characters for girls to cheer on also. This series has a little bit of something for everyone.

Life in the Pit by Kristen Landon

Life in the Pit by Kristen Landon

Brittany watches from behind her cello in the orchestra pit as her friend Amanda charms the crowd, star of the high school musical. Just like she charms the boys around her with her flirtatious and confident personality. Amanda seems to have a new boyfriend every week, while Brittany finds boys hardly ever pay attention to her. Instead when boys find out that Brittany is Amanda’s best friend they often try to use her to get a date with Amanda. So, when she finds out someone actually likes her, and only her. She is suspicious. Especially, since the boy is the co-star in the musical with Amanda. Then Brittany starts receiving anonymous notes threatening her friend. Amanda starts receiving the notes too, and Brittany starts to worry that her friend might be in serious danger.

I like the fact that the main character plays in the orchestra pit, because it gave Brittany something she was really good at, and gave the book an interesting angle. I think it is unique to have a character playing the cello, removed from the main action, but close enough to watch it. This situation made for a few very suspenseful scenes on stage, while Brittany tries to keep an eye out for who is making threats against Amanda. I enjoyed reading this novel, and got caught up in the story and the characters. There wasn’t really anything in the book that pulled me out of the story or bugged me. That’s high praise right there! If the story sounds interesting be sure to try it out.

Author's website: http://www.kristenlandon.com/

Shameless Contest Post

So Anne Bradshaw at Not Entirely British is giving away a copy of Persued by Lynn Gardner. So, I'm posting about the contest on this blog to enter. Because I really like Lynn Gardner's books! I've been waiting forever for this book to come out! I wondered if she had abandoned the series it has been so long! But no there is a new precious book to be had. When I was in high school I probably read Emeralds and Espinoge a million times. It is hands down my favorite of her gem series.