During Our Alaska Vacation

While we were away visiting Anchorage, Vadez, Fairbanks, and Denali, three of my reviews ran on AAR with another one running today.  Here's a recap:

 Kade Boehme's Don't Trust the Cut is one of those strange stories that seems as if the author is stretching the opposites attract theme, but in the end works well thanks to a good writer.  Who would think that a former Marine (hence one of the cuts of the title in the service haircut) and an insecure young man (who resorts to self-mutilation, the other cut of the title, when his stress levels go over the top) could actually get together?  Boehme made me believe it's possible.

Carter Quinn's Out of the Blackness gives a step-by-step look at how a group of close friends can bolster and guide a young man from merely existing into a full life and happiness.  Although Quinn says he's not a psychologist and the book is fiction, his argument that love and gentle handling can make a difference in a person's life is compelling and totally believable.

SJD Peterson proves what an excellent writer she is in her latest, Beyond Duty, about a gay Marine couple about to retire at age 42 on the eve of the repeal of don't-ask-don't-tell.  Not only do they not know what they are going to do in their retirement since the military has been their lives up to this point, but they can't decide whether to come out to their families and friends.  Peterson gives a compelling look at a loving couple who must rebuild their lives.

Another loving couple, but on the other end of the sexual spectrum is the one at the core of Marta Perry's Lydia's Hope.  Happily married with two sons, Amish Lydia accidentally discovers she has two living sisters, one Amish and one not.  In the traffic accident that killed their parents, the girls were split up, but not told about one another.  Now Lydia is making it her life goal to be reunited with her siblings.





And that's what was happening with me while I was on vacation looking for moose and bears.

Before Surgery a Disappointing Inspirational

As I go into kidney surgery today, I see that my review of Naomi King's Abby Finds Her Calling is running on AAR.  This truly was one of the strangest books I've read in quite a while.  For starters the Abby of the title has found her calling from page 1.

Stranger still is that Abby loves wishy-washy James who loves Abby's younger sister Zanna who loves black sheep Jonny. Fortunately Zanna bags Jonny by the end of the book, and equally fortunate, Abby and James still aren't together.  And Abby, the Abby of the title, still has the calling she had at the beginning of the book.

So why isn't it called Zanna Finds a Husband since that's the point of the book?  Got me.  And I have to wonder which editor at NAL didn't read this book at all, but grabbed it because Amish books have made a resurgence.

I'm Not Amish But This Is a Good Read

My review of Katie's Way by Marta Perry has been published on AAR today.  I don't know what appeals to me about the Amish books.  Maybe it's the ideal of a close-knit community even though I know that such communities are rife with gossip and backbiting.  But ideal is still there.

Maybe it's that in this age of laxity, the Amish are a group whose glue is living by rules.  Or maybe it's the facade of purity and serenity.

Or possibly it's that I know myself well enough to know that I could never, ever live the life of an Amish person.

I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and almost from the moment I was born, I wanted to leave.  I guess that's why I was so surprised years ago when I met this very gentle young Amish man (mid- to late-teens at a guess) who when finding out I was from Nebraska gushed, "Oh, I've always wanted to go there!  Tell me what it's like!"  No one I've known before or since has been that enthusiastic about the state.  In our conversation, he said that Nebraska was where he ultimately wanted to live.  I sincerely hope he's living a long, healthy, happy life there.

So Disappointed

My review of The Survivor by Shelley Shepard Gray is posted on AAR today.  I really, really was looking forward to reading this book since Mattie was such a compelling character in the other books.  In one of the previous books she nearly renounces her faith and her God when her cancer grows and grows.  She gets mad at her long-suffering mother and at the love of her life, Graham, because they have to see her at what she thinks is her worst.

When I read that Graham was going to be accused of fathering a child and then abandoning the pregnant mother, I was ready to see Mattie rear up like a dragon and defend her stalwart friend.  Instead, she, like the rest of the Amish community, believed the girl and didn't listen to Graham's denial.  What?!?  This is the loyalty his undying support provoked in her.  More than anything, I was disappointed in Mattie's character since she didn't seem to be worthy of Graham's love.

Unfortunately, at some point I'll bet that Graham will realize Mattie's defection and wonder about her profession of love.  I would if I were he.

While I Was Away

While I was visiting my mother during the past week, two of my reviews ran on AAR:

Too Hot to Touch by Louisa Edwards was one of those books I thought I wouldn't like when I saw the cover.  A man naked to a while below his waste is holding a steaming fry pan of some indistinct food stuff.  Yeah, right, like he's pumped up with washboard abs standing over a kitchen stove swirling boiling hot food that could easily spill over onto his chest, arms, body!  Like I said, very off-putting for anyone who's ever been in a hot kitchen.  BUT Louisa Edwards' superior writing and the great story won me over.  I would never have picked this book up if I'd been surfing a bookstore, but I'm very happy I got to read it.  It's definitely a Desert Island Keeper, which Edwards is happy about too.

The Protector by Shelley Shepard Gray is the second book in her Families of Honor series about an Amish community.  While it was a good, gentle read, the book would be a disappointment for first-time readers of the series because it presupposes that everyone knows who each of the characters is and the relationships between the characters.  Also, the romance between the two main characters is blunted because the cast of characters and their individual problems introduced in the first book, The Caregiver, must be addressed.  In a slender book, that leaves little room for the main story.  I'm hoping the next book in the series, The Survivor, about one of my favorite characters, doesn't skimp on the details of her romance.