Stress Test by Richard L. Mabry

Dr. Matt Newman is suddenly kidnapped on his way home from the hospital. The kidnappers intend to kill him but Matt manages to escape- or so he thinks. He awakens in the ICU with injuries only to find he is being charged with murder. His carefully planned life may be erased all by a single incident. His only hope may be in a woman who swore she would not deal with doctors again.

Stress Test pulls you straight into the action, wasting no time. While this approach can sometimes cause an air of confusion and disconnection from the characters, this proved not to be the case for this novel. Despite starting off with characters already in the middle of their own crises, it was quite easy to connect with them and I loved how realistic they were in their actions and emotions.

 Being sort of a medical suspense book and with the protagonist being a doctor, the story also included quite a few "mini stories" of individual medical emergencies. I found this to be quite a fascinating break from the main plot, almost serving the same purpose that poems or quotes do in some other novels. And yet they still pulled into the main theme and even the non-medical based happenings had their own twist with the meticulous yet rhythmic attention to detail. An excellent suspense novel featuring its own unique voice.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn
Le Cirque des Rêves is circus unlike any other. Open only during the night this circus insinuates to be more than festive entertainment. Saturated with unbelievable acts and sights the colourless circus is to many, so much more

But the circus carries a secret. Two magicians are battling each other to the death behind the scenes and every patron who walks in is at risk.

I can honestly say with all sincerity, The Night Circus is unlike any book I have ever read. While I have read a great many stories, I've read of many fantasy worlds that can draw you right in, mysteries that can make your heart pound as if the story is truly real, and dystopian realities that can force you into survival mode, this book seems to be in a genre of its own. While dubbed a romance novel, I found this to be only partially true. It is really more of a dream put to ink.

When I describe it as a dream, I do not mean fanciful daydreams or haunting nightmares. I mean the type of dream a reader might actually have. It is a strange tale, full of magic, duels, food, the circus, and surreal beauty. The novel felt so oddly familiar, though I knew it was from vague memories of my own dreams.

To be fair, I am not sure I ever would have read this book on my own. It didn't seem to be the type of novel I tend to go for. Even while reading, it still felt slightly alien. Yet because of the insistence of several friends I took the plunge. I am thrilled I did. The pages draw you in deep until you feel at home. But the part I found the most satisfying of this tale was the ending. For such a fanciful sort of tale the conclusion bestowed solid meaning and purpose.

Soul's Gate by James Rubart

It's been thirty years since the tragedy- the tragedy that was his fault. And yet God calls Reece to visit the battle again. To battle inside of a person's soul. The pieces of an old prophecy begin falling into place, and Reece knows he cannot hold on to fear any longer, he must face it.

That is one cool cover, don't you think? Well perhaps it is a little too cool, because it pulled me right in. Yes, that's right, on some degree I do judge books by their covers and that's just how it is. And maybe it is also my fault for not reading the back of the book, but I wanted to be completely surprised by the story for once, not knowing what to expect. Maybe these things added to my experience, but overall, I have to say I was very disappointed in this book. So much so that I wasn't even able to finish it, which is pretty rare for me since I usually try to give a book as many chances as I can to redeem itself.

One of my biggest issues with this book is that it is nothing I haven't read before on some plane. It was quite monotonous with the other books I've read by James Rubart, with the story essentially consisting of a character or characters that had a painful past, and they must face it and become healed by supernatural means. Which, don't get me wrong, can be an interesting story, but not over and over with no break.

Even with the reasons stated above, I may have been able to pull through, but two more things kept nagging me. This first, I felt this book was saturated with the artificial "let's all pray together before we breath, talk, worship, or pray" mentality. And while I am all for prayer, I believe you have to be a little more realistic than that. You are never going to reach out to people if you freak them out too much to have a conversation. This book also, albeit partially fictitiously, seemed to extract select scriptures and morph them to prove such things as the Bible says you can turn invisible, transport yourself, and also travel inside other people souls. Uh...

Partials by Dan Wells

Humanity hangs by its final thread. Genetically engineered beings called Partials brutally demolished much of the human population. And then the virus RM was unleashed, reducing the humans down to about 25,000 who were immune. And while peace withe the Partials seems to ultimately have been achieved, a much larger issue is slapped on the plate of a race facing extinction. Every one of their offspring is dieing of the same virus to which they are immune.

Kira, in training to become a medic, can no longer stand to watch baby after baby die without a chance. In a desperate tumble to find the cure for the malicious disease, Kira discovers the slightest hope of a chance for a cure. But to even tread down this path will mean betraying everything she stands for.

Partials is a book I stumbled upon by accident. When a bookstore did not cary the books I was looking for, I searched the shelves for anything seeming interesting, and ultimately decided upon this book. I am so glad I did. Partials achieves what most books strive for, but few attain. While distopian to the core, this novel instantly draws you in to a world completely alien yet oddly attractive and bestows a sense of awe. I instantly connected with the characters' distinctive personalities, and cheered for them from the beginning. I felt this book held a great balance of suspense. The plot twisted often, and I always wanted to read just one more chapter. This book does have a sense of creepyness. It is not particularly scary, but it may get the adrenaline going a little. Absolutely 5 stars; I look forward to reading the next novel in the Partials Sequence.

The Prophet by R.J. Larson

Ela Roeh of Parne is just a regular seventeen-year-old girl. Without warning, she is chosen by the Infinite, her creator, to become his prophet.While she certainly feels unqualified for such a role, the bigger problem is that the prophet of Prophet of Parne has never been a goal. But the even bigger problem is that every previous prophet has died young.

Ela, the Infinite, and Ela's crippled sister, Tzana, embark on a journey save a foreign nation- both on the physical level, and the supernatural realm. Ela learns to embrace her role, but as with almost all things worth doing, it is not easy. To make things complicated above her difficult role, it seems as if the Infinite is leading her to break her duties as prophet.

Prophet starts out as a nice, poetic book. In fact, the whole book is quite poetic, really. I was able to picture every scene beautifully and down to details. Mentally, this book started out with a quiet, cinematic scene. My anticipation was instantly heightened. A little further in, and the story began to trail a predictable path, but still a pleasant one with promise. A little further, I loved the wondrously descriptive scenes, and then, smack. It sort of hit me at once. "Oh!", I thought, "This is supposed to be in the setting of the Middle East!" That thought really gnawed at me as I searched to confirm my theory, until it was dis-proven? Or was it? For the rest of the time I read the novel I was stuck trying to figure out the true setting. The setting was simply too vague and seemingly unsure of itself. I feel a map and definitive border lines would have helped. As is, the story had an almost eerie, timeless-and-lost sort of feel to it that didn't seem to blend with the story.

Another frustrating element was the predictability of the characters. I don't think a single one surprised me. I did care for them a little for a while, but their monotonous and perfect paths eventually bored me. There wasn't really much true conflict, curiosity, courage, or creativity; leaving them to be composed of naught but words. By the end, I had lost interest, and any plan of following the remainder of the story. If anything, this story seemed more like a collection of feel-good short stories and poems.
 I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House, in exchange for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Garden of Madness by Tracy L. Highley

Tia was forced into marriage at a young age, in the way many princesses are. Even being the daughter of the powerful king Nebuchadnezzar didn't change that. But when her husband dies, she finds a new freedom. Freedom is never free, however, and Tia soon learns the price. When she discovers a brutally murdered body on the palace grounds, she seeks to discover the killer. The problem lies within her lingering suspicion that she earnestly hopes is not true.

Meanwhile, other forces seek to crumble the powers set in the palace. With the king in his wild, animal-like state, the women who rule the throne are especially vulnerable. With Tia's husband recently deceased, her mother seek to quickly unite with another kingdom. While she seeks to avoid this and all costs, and to unveil the mysteries of the palace, she begins to wonder if she herself is not slipping in the footsteps of her father into the garden of madness.

I found that I really liked aspects of this book, but I didn't really care much for the story as a whole. First, for a historical fiction novel, I don't feel like the book really captured the setting. There wasn't much culture going on, and despite the fact that Tia worshiped the Babylonian gods, the book made to attempt to explain the religion at any length, but rather vaguely brushed the topic.

While I liked most of the characters, I was not a huge fan of the main character herself. This really disappoints me in books. Tia seemed too weak and full of pride. As Tia started to feel insane, the book just gave me a headache as well. I actually appreciated this in how well the character's emotions came through, but with no "wow" ending, it didn't seem worth it.

I received a free copy of this book from Booksneeze, in exchange for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Eternity's Edge by Bryan Davis

Depending on the perspective, Interfinity clashes faster with every hour, minute, or day. Nathan and Kelly have been bestowed with the duty of reversing such an unsavory ending. But when the choices fade to vague gray mosaics, the teens have trouble deciding which way is up. Every minute they waste could end the lives of billions- and yet they remain unsure if they are on the right path.

The stalkers prove to be an increasingly deadly force to be addressed. The worlds begin to sheathe one another in chaos, dreams being one of the deadliest weapons wielded. Nathan and his friends are running out of time to save the the worlds- and the ground is falling out from beneath their feet.

If I were to graph my intrigue towards the story of this book as a line graph, it would look like a hill. I started off somewhat unsure where it was going. My interest eventually got going, and I thought I saw this story going somewhere. It was still a bit quirky, but interesting nevertheless. Then I started to get confused again. And then the whole sci-fi universe became so abstract that the pages seemed to swim in gooey cheese.

Note that I am not against science fiction, but it has to prove itself believable on some scale. I also partake in the thought that every piece of literature I read should hold something for me to gain from reading it. Often, that may turn out as some morals or lessons, a piece of deep and nurtured wisdom that can only be learned through an indirect discovery, or simply a beautiful fictional world that I love to escape to and let my imagination run free. Yet Eternity's Edge held none of that for me. I enjoyed some of the concepts, but I felt like most of the scenes in this book were meant to be paintings- a detailed snapshot of imagination to ponder on. When these many scenes were formed into books, they became something I would expect as a nightmare after listening to classical music and watching old science fiction flicks all day.

 I received a free copy of this book from Zondervan, in exchange for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.