Fiction – Page 4

Stand by Me by Neta Jackson

August 24, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

I found it difficult to get into Stand by Me. The first chapter intrigued me, and I turned the page to chapter two, settling in for an interesting read. But I felt betrayed. The first chapter featured Kathryn Davies, “Kat,” who surprised even herself by taking a dramatic turn in her life, dropping out of med school to pursue an unknown future at a Christian liberal arts school.

But in the subsequent chapters, Kat seems to be a radically different character than is promised in the first chapter, and we are introduced to Avis, a member of the SouledOut Community Church, the church Kat has adopted in her quest to live a radical Christian life.

Avis is immediately turned off by Kat, and as a character, I found Avis equally difficult to warm up to.

Eventually, however, I came to like both characters, was moved by both Avis’s secret heartache and Kat’s quirky charm, and pulled for both of them. Although Avis was a character previously introduced in another series of books (of which this series is a spin-off), I felt the author gave enough background information for this book/series to stand on its own. The author did a beautiful job of weaving all the story threads into a touching and satisfying ending.

Note: I was provided an electronic copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

- Carey Clark

Friday Fiction Fix: The Corruptible

June 15, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

I am very particular about what I read. So much so that sometimes I spend more time figuring out what to read next than actually reading. I might be considered a reading snob, I suppose. I’m okay with that. And my tastes are very narrow. I typically don’t like romance, I don’t often read thrillers.

I’m less picky about the movies I watch. When I’m in the mood for a movie, I’m often tired or lazy and I simply want to be entertained. Don’t make me think. Just let me eat popcorn and laugh or cry or whatever emotion the movie stirs up. I love a good movie, but I’m just as happy at the end of it if I can say, “That was cute,” as “That was good.” Or “profound” or “interesting.” In fact, a “good movie” often has me thinking too much. Just ask my husband. After the screen fades, I’ll bug him for a minimum of an hour with my commentary on the movie. Just when he thinks I’ve fallen asleep (and he already has), out comes another insight into why the movie was sad or wonderful or disturbing.

And when it comes to on-screen entertainment, I’ll watch a crime drama (nothing gory–I long ago swore off CSI or Criminal Minds for their graphic and disturbing elements). I’m much less likely, however to read a story like that. I love to delight in a beautifully written story and that is what I look for above all else.

Recently, however, I began to choose books for review from various publishers, and I can’t always find the genres I’m looking for. A lot of what’s available is romance, and while I’ve enjoyed some good romances in my time, it’s not my first choice. But I thought I’d branch out a bit, so this time, I chose a book called The Corruptible by Mike Mynheir.

The story is the second in a series, which I didn’t realize when I selected it, but the story stood on its own well enough, and actually made me curious about the first book in the series. The author’s experience in law enforcement certainly made the story come alive with realism.

This novel continues the story of private investigator Ray Quinn, who is hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a man suspected of information theft. He soon finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation when he discovers the man he is looking for stabbed in the chest.

I will be honest that it took me some time to get into the story. I found Quinn annoyingly arrogant at times. One or two times felt the story might have been better written from multiple points of view so someone other than Quinn himself could tell us what a good cop he had been before the accident which forced him to forge another career as a private investigator. After a while, however, I really cared about the character and what happened to him. His inner struggle as he compared himself to the fallen cop, Logan, drew me in. (I cared less about the subplot–Quinn’s hunt for the criminal behind a fraud scheme.)

All in all, the story surprised me. I enjoyed it–not for the same reasons I have enjoyed other books that I have read–but certainly the storytelling was good and the character evolved throughout the story. The ending, though not quite “neat and tidy” was satisfying.

I might just have to pick up The Night Watchman, the first book in the series.

Note: I received a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review. No other compensation was received.

- Carey Clark

Friday Fiction Fix: Peter Pan

April 27, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Welcome back to Friday Fiction Fix. Today, I’m reviewing a book I read as a child and re-read to my own children for Emlyn Chand’s The Books that made me Love Reading Challenge.

I’m also offering something very special.

Although I’ve stated in author interviews I couldn’t possibly think of spoiling the ending by reading it first, I read an interesting article recently that said that readers who do just that often get more out of the story as a result.

While I still can’t relate, even with empirical evidence staring me in the face (I will continue to think it a personal travesty to do so), I recognize that there are readers out there who may fall into this category of last-chapter readers.

If you are such a reader–someone who ~~spoils the story and~~ reads the ending first–today is your lucky day. My first chapter is already available online as a teaser to convince you to read the whole thing, but for this weekend only, if you email me at carey [at] careyjaneclark [dot] com, I’ll send you the last chapter also. Just send an email with Last Chapter in the subject line.

And now on to today’s review:

Just prior to our return to Canada, we had inherited a number of books from other expat families and we have accumulated quite the library. The books are for all ages, and will mean our kids will have no end of good reading material. It’s lovely to see that our kids can walk into the room and find something interesting to read right away. I’ll often walk in the homeschool room ready to begin the day to find each child quietly flipping through the pages of a book. I sincerely promise to have pictures of the room once all the books have found a shelf. We are still waiting on some furniture for the homeschool room, and so one end of the room is a bit cluttered with bins waiting to be emptied.

One of the books that surfaced was one I had owned as a child and had completely forgotten about. But as soon as I saw it in the stacks of books, I snatched it up.

The funny thing is, it’s the illustrations that are most memorable to me. The book was a “flip book,” which meant you could read one story on one side of the book, then turn the book over and upside down and read the other story on the other side. This book was Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.

The illustrations are stunning. You can see how they draw the reader in:

Peterpancover

This month, I read the Peter Pan side to my children. I was thrilled to rediscover this edition, which preserves the spirit of the original story, but is a little more accessible. I still want to read the original to them (and I know they’ll let me because they love the story), but it does meander a little, and I figured this edition, with its stunning illustrations was an excellent introduction. It doesn’t dumb down the language or lose the essence or magic of the story, but is a bit more straightforward than the original:

Chapter One, Peter Pan (the original)

All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, “Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!” This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

Of course they lived at 14 [their house number on their street], and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there is was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.

The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I can picture him trying, and then going off in a passion, slamming the door.

I’m so gratified that my children enjoy the book version of almost everything better than the movie. They’ve watched a number of versions of Peter Pan, and were surprised to learn that the most recent version was more true to the story than the Disney one. Imagine! One thing they pointed out as we read was that the book version is more violent, but they liked it better.

This was such a delightful rendition, and a wonderful memory recalled for me. I’m not sure what to do next: read the original Peter Pan or the Alice in Wonderland on the flip side of this book!

Friday Fiction Fix: Special Delivery by Kathi Macias

March 30, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Well, if you’ve missed Friday Fiction Fix while I’ve taken a bit of a break from reading to move and get settled in, you’re in for a treat, because here’s the second instalment in a single day!

I had the pleasure of meeting award-winning author Kathi Macias when I attended the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer’s Conference last year. I have a great deal of admiration for her and her work. Having ghostwritten for a number of years, and now publishing titles under her own name, Kathi is beyond prolific!

Kathi writes about real issues in a real and compelling way that show the reader the issues aren’t as overwhelming as we might be tempted to think they are by bringing them up close and personal, and something we can do something about.

She has done it again with Special Delivery. The book is the second in the Freedom series, following up on the lives of Jonathan and Leah Flannery, all-American siblings, just finishing high school and Mara and Lawan, girls trapped in the seedy world of sex trafficking that the reader meets in Deliver Me From Evil.

I’m delighted to present this interview with her as part of the Christian Speaker Services blog tour:

Special Delivery is book two in the Freedom (human trafficking) series. For anyone who may not have read book one, Deliver Me From Evil, can you fill us in on the focus of the series in general, and Special Delivery in particular?

The Freedom series is a three-book fiction series built around the horrifying topic of human trafficking. People often ask me why I decided to write about such a dark topic. First, I explain that I’m not writing about a dark topic; I’m writing about the Light that shines in that darkness. And second, I believe the Church should be at the forefront of the modern-day abolition movement to set the captives (modern-day slaves) free. The three books in this series specifically follows the life of a young woman named Mara, who was sold into sexual slavery by her own parents in Mexico, and then smuggled across the border into San Diego by her uncle who then served as her pimp. A strong sub-plot throughout the series tells of two sisters in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, Chanthra and Lawan, who are also trapped in a brothel. Finally, a teenage girl named Francesca, kidnapped in Juarez, Mexico, and forced into prostitution, is introduced in book two. Special Delivery picks up two years after book one, Deliver Me From Evil, ends, and continues with the stories of Mara and Lawan, as well as others carried over from book one. Mara hopes she is finally free to pursue her own life because she was rescued from the brothel and her testimony helped lock up her uncle for life. But the man has underground connections and is driven by revenge to reach out from behind bars and deliver the ultimate punishment to his niece.

This isn’t the first fiction series you’ve written on nationwide and even worldwide social issues, the one previous to this being the persecuted Church. What draws you to these difficult topics?

As a Christian, I believe I am compelled to use my God-given gifts to honor God in all I do—and that includes exposing the deeds of darkness, calling sinners to repentance, and taking a stand for righteousness by doing all I can to help rescue those who are suffering. I dare not turn my back on “the least of these.” I also believe that God placed this sort of burden on my heart even before I became a Christian at the age of 26. I’ve always been a champion of the underdog, a “soap-box” preacher, if you will. When I met Jesus, I simply redirected that passion toward His people, realizing I couldn’t effect real change in my own strength anyway.

With your obvious passion to right social and moral wrongs through the power of the Gospel, how did writing and speaking enter into that?

I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was a child—never wanted to do anything else. When I was a teenager I told my then boyfriend (now husband) that I was going to be a writer one day. What a blessing that God allowed me to fulfill that dream! After becoming a believer and growing in my faith, it was natural to take my passion to fight for others and incorporate it into my writing. Speaking, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. I was terrified of public speaking when I was young, and the day I received Christ I made a “bargain” with God, promising to do anything He asked of me—so long as it didn’t include public speaking. (Does God have a sense of humor or what???) Now, when I stand in front of audiences where I believe God has called me to speak (and actually find myself enjoying it!), I tell my listeners that if God has called them to do something and they feel it’s impossible, they can consider me their “visual aid” that NOTHING is impossible with God IF we will simply take that first step of obedience and let Him fulfill His purpose in and through us.

With the topics of the worldwide persecuted Church and human trafficking under your belt, what other issues are you dealing with in your writing?

My Christmas 2011 book, A Christmas Journey Home, dealt with the immigration/border problem, and my Christmas 2012 novel,Unexpected Christmas Hero, will be about homelessness in America. The next issues-related fiction series I have on tap—which I am just starting to write, by the way—is called the “Patches of Courage” series and will begin releasing in late January 2013. Book one is The Moses Quilt, based on the life of Harriet Tubman, and will be followed by The Christmas Quilt and The Impossible Quilt. This series of books will highlight historical American women whose Christian faith enabled them to walk in great courage and make a difference in the lives of countless people.

Kathi Macias

Where can people find out about you and your books/speaking/appearances?

They can go directly to my website (www.kathimacias.com or www.boldfiction.com) or my Easy Writer blog. I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google, and various other social sites. Would love to hear from all of you!

Where can people find out about free book giveaways on this blog tour?

The blog tour host is giving away a set of two books from the Freedom Series – Book 1 (Deliver Me From Evil) and Book 2 (Special Delivery). Also, readers can follow @ChristianSpkrs on Twitter or follow on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/CSSVBT.TheFreedomSeries for more book giveaway locations on the tour.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book from the author in exchange for posting the author’s interview on my blog. This blog tour is managed by Christian Speakers Services.

I’m willing to give away my copy of Special Delivery as well, if readers can be patient enough to wait until I can figure out how to mail something from our new home in China. If you’re interested in my copy, leave a comment on this post. The winner will be chosen by Random.org. And don’t miss the trailer for Special Delivery below:

- Carey Clark

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