Submerged, by Dani Pettrey

I'm not normally one for 'romantic suspense,' but this one kept me up late at night so I could finish it. It was so thrilling, in fact, that I finished the book around 24 hours after I received it. What was going to happen?

Bailey Craig must return to Yancey, Alaska, a town she had vowed she'd never set foot in again, in order to be at the funeral of a beloved relative who just died in a place accident. But was it an accident? Evidence emerges that the crash was no accident, but was caused by sabotage. Why was the plane sabotaged? And by whom?

Bailey's education as a specialist in Russian History comes into play in surprising ways, as does her skill as a diver. But to complicate matters, Cole McKenna's skill as a diver must be called upon, too. This complicates matters, you see, because when Bailey lived in Yancey a decade earlier, she and Cole had had a romantic relationship, which ended sourly because of her wild partying ways.

So, if you like 'romantic suspense' and Christian fiction, you'll undoubtedly like this book. This is the first book in a new series, and Ms. Pettrey clearly left loose ends to be tied up in subsequent books. I'll be on the lookout for the subsequent books.

I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my freely-rendered opinion both here on my blog, and on a retailer's site.

Wings and the Child, or the Building of Magic Cities, by E. Nesbit

A blog I occasionally read recently touted this as a free-for-Kindle book, the title intrigued me, and I know I like Nesbit (at least as an author for children's books). I enjoyed reading this book, but then I often enjoy reading about how to raise and educate children. Nesbit's prose, however, was a delight in itself, and would render reading her work a pleasant task, no matter the subject of which she wrote. Mrs. Nesbit wrote this book because first she built magic cities with her son, then wrote a book for children in which the children build a magic city and then become small enough to enter the city (called, surprisingly enough, The Magic City), then received letters from her young readers asking if they could build magic cities, then built a magic city which was put on display, at which teachers and parents asked her to write a book to guide them in allowing their children to build magic cities. A magic city is a city made of various materials at hand. The magic is in the imagination. Mrs. Nesbit, happily, ranged far from that topic. Her descriptions of what it is like to be a child alone are worth the reading of the book, but the whole book is worthwhile. I would only edit somewhat the length of her discussion of specific, practical ideas for building a city. The philosophical section of the book is by far the best (though, of course, I do not agree with everything she asserts; she seems to dismiss teaching children to read by phonics, and she favors redistributing wealth, for two instances). I would recommend this book to parents, teachers, and anyone generally interested in reading about the best way to raise and educate children. The book is short. By the way, I do not know why, but when I write a blog post on my iPad, it shows up in separate paragraphs in the rough draft, but publishes as one paragraph. I shall have to consult my IT dept (AKA DH).

A Jumble

Wednesday of this week marked the first anniversary of my first blog post. I had wanted to write a celebratory post about it, but I also wanted to announce some Big News, which I was hourly waiting to hear. As it turns out, I did not receive the news until Thursday, and did not have permission to share the news publicly until Friday, and then had a lot to do in connection with that news. So here I am, commenting on the first anniversary of my first blog post a few days after the fact, and preparing to share our Big News with you. I'm so happy I've blogged for a whole year now! I'm so happy to tell you that my husband has been offered, and has accepted, a job in Washington (state). We moved from there to Phoenix nearly two years ago, and have longed to return to the evergreen state and, yes, even to the rain. Now we expect to be returning to WA in July. But, that leads to a good and necessary consequence: I will almost certainly have very little, if any, time for blogging these next two months. So, do not expect to hear from me until August. Have a delightful summer!

Moonblood, by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Moonblood is a fantasy novel, in which Prince Lionheart betrays his best friend, Rose Red. Rose Red then gets captured by her wicked goblin father, King Vahe, and held for his evil purposes: to use her to awaken the sleeping children of the Dragon, to raise them up as an army he can use to conquer the world. Will Prince Lionheart acknowledge his mistake? Will he seek to remedy the mischief he has caused? Will he succeed?

I found Moonblood a fun read. I was impressed with both the depth and the breadth of the secondary world created by Ms. Stengl. Moonblood is the third book in the Tales of Goldstone Wood series, with a fourth book due out this fall. I certainly thought that there was room for more stories in Goldstone Wood, and am excited to know that Ms. Stengl has written some of those stories already. I will be keeping my eye out for the other books in the series.

If you like to read fantasy, if you like to wander in Faerie, then give Moonblood a try. If you don't already care for fantasy, there's no hope for you.