'Peril in the Palace' Review

“Peril in the Palace” is another exciting adventure in the Adventures in Odyssey re-creation “Imagination Station” chronicles. Featuring Beth and Patrick, two cousins who accidently discovered the power of the Imagination Station and are sent on a quest to help Whit’s friend, Albert, this story is set during the reign of Kublai Khan and also features the famous adventurer, Marco Polo, whom Beth and Patrick are friends with and which also saves their life in Kublai Khan’s palace. The cousins are searching for a golden tablet but are soon caught by Kublai Khan’s guards, and locked in a room so they can’t escape – since he wants a showdown between God and his gods. Sometimes it's a wonder how the children even escape! This book is an exciting read, and any children who enjoy reading adventures and parents who want a story with a positive message about the Lord should consider checking out this book and the others in the series. The books should be read in order, though, as each one builds on each other, and sometimes references other adventures or things found on other adventures, a little like the secular “The Magic Tree House” series. I highly recommend this  must-read book and really the whole series.

Revenge of the Red Knight

Our favorite daring, time-traveling cousins Beth and Patrick are back for another adventure, this time to face knights and soldiers during the Crusades. 

Beth and Patrick stumbled across the Imagination Station in Whit’s ice cream shoppe, and since then have experienced magnificent adventures while seeking to help Whit’s friend and ancestor, Albert, and must find several objects scattered through time that he desperately needs.

They have carried these items back to 15^th century England, during the Crusades. In the castle where they are staying, the steward of Lord Darkthorn’s castle discovers the items and accuses the cousins of being thieves. They decide to discover who the real thief is, which leads to an unexpected jostling contest. 

This is yet another wonderful, delightful adventure for Beth and Patrick, and teaches readers about the Crusades as well as imparting important wisdom about Christianity and God, as the cousins discover new lessons in each story. A must read for children, and parents will not be displeased by having their children read these time-traveling stories – since they point to the Lord.

Review of "Passages Volume 1: The Marus Manuscripts" by Paul McCusker

"Passages Volume 1: The Marus Manuscripts" by Paul McCusker combine three books into one set, Arin’s Judgment, Darien’s Rise, and Annison’s Risk. Each novel features the same setting, an alternate world, but the characters are all different and all experience different aspects of this strange new society in which they find themselves sent to, where they learn lessons about God, good, and evil. Still, the stories do flow together and are interesting reads in themselves. 

Paul McCusker has also wrote other stories for younger readers I've read, and I really enjoy his plain, simple style of writing, his colorful, clever, courageous characters, and his grasp of spiritual principles, incorporated into his stories. He always includes supernatural incidents like time travel into his stories, which is pretty popular with readers today. Overall, a great read and I highly recommend it. 

'Haunted Waters' Red Rock Mysteries

Bryce and Ashley are twins who solve mysteries! I always have been fascinated by twins, especially boy and girl twins. And I love to have a mystery to solve. This book was perfect for me. I read it before, and recently re-read it. The twins are clever and smart, and learn valuable lessons about God and teamwork. This is perfect for young teenagers or children, and parents can read it aloud to their children and enjoy the stories as well. And Jerry B. Jenkins is a crafty writer, as always, and you know he will provide solid biblical principles.

Robot Wars Book 1 'Death Trap' by Sigmund Brouwer

"Robot Wars" was an exciting book, full of action and adventure. Broken into two adventures, Tyce is learning more about God. Even though he lives on an experimental colony on Mars, it's cool to think about the fact that God is everywhere and loves humans all over the universe. The setting of the story is also interesting, albeit far-fetched. But I love science fiction stories, and it's all about fantasy anyway! Even though I'm older, I wanted to review the book for any younger readers. This book is definitely worth reading, as are the rest in the series.

Michelle Cox's 'Just 18 Summers'

After Jenny's tragic end, the rest of the characters in "Just 18 Summers" respond in various ways to the idea of death that her dying has brought up to them.

A wife, mother, and sister, Jenny left behind a distraught husband and children. Even her sister must learn to cope with the aftermath of her sister's passing.

The novel has four families at various stages of raising children. Butch is a single dad. The Buckleys give their children everything but nothing important. The O'Reillys are expecting their first child. The Andersons are near the empty nest stage of life. Each family's story is connected somehow.

This story connected to me because I'm starting my family, since I just got married in June. We want to have children, and reading this really helped me to understand what's important and what's not. I definitely recommend this book to everyone.

'The Vanishings'

"The Vanishings" is the first book in the Left Behind series that features four kids of varying spiritual knowledge before they were left behind. Judd is on the plane Ray is flying. It's really interesting how they meet Bruce as well. But most frightening of all is how they slowly realize what a disaster they're living in now that the worst evil the world has ever seen has been released, along with natural disasters. It's interesting to see the End Times from the perspective of four teenagers and not just through adults' eyes! 

This is a great, exciting read, and the rest of the series is just as fun. Kids should read these! Some cover one event over several novels, sometimes one book in the series is the entire event. I recommend these for young readers who want to read a Rapture-Left Behind perspective.

TJ and The Time Stumblers

A fun and exciting story, "New Kid Catastrophes" is the first in a series, TJ and the Time Stumblers. TJ finds two time travelers (who are invisible to everyone but her) who have gone back in time to study her as a teenager as part of a school project because supposedly she will do something great that will affect history, although they won't tell her what that is. They get her into a lot of trouble! 

This is a great book, a fun read, and exciting. I wasn't sure about reading more, but then I kind of want to. While it was different, and some kids would connect, I had trouble connecting with TJ and the guys. But, it's still a great little book for some kids. Parents should definitely read over it and then decide whether or not to allow their kids to read it! 

The Midwife by Jolina Petersheim

Beth needs funds for graduate school, and her professor and his wife want a baby. Her professor and his wife, however, don't want a baby with abnormalities. Beth has had a baby son, and still grieving over giving him up for adoption, flees to Hopen Haus to have her second baby girl, where she meets midwife Rhoda Mummau. Beth has no idea her life is about to change.

Rhoda has secrets of her own, a painful past she has tried to put behind her after she becomes part of the Old Order Mennonite Church and the head midwife of Hopen Haus. She must face her past to receive a future and find hope and love.

Lives intertwine and secrets are revealed, and wounds are healed, in "The Midwife."

'The Prayer Box'

The road to redemption is not paved smoothly, as Tandi Reese discovers in "The Prayer Box." Fleeing a dark past, Tandi Reese is struggling and a young mother. She lives in a rental cottage on Iola Ann Poole's estate. When the ninety-one-year-old dies, Tandi must clear out her house. And everything changes for Tandi when she finds 91 boxes with scraps of paper, one for each year Iola lived, with messages, prayers, and hopes written out on them.

A touching and wonderful story, Lisa Wingate shows us a touching, heart-wrenching story of one young woman's struggle to find stability and love.

Definitely I recommend this.

All For A Sister Review

Celeste Dufrane has it all: wealth, stardom, everything she thinks is happiness. Living in Hollywood in the Roaring Twenties, she is happy. Then her mother dies and she discovers her mother left half of her fortune to Dana, a woman accused of killing Celeste's baby sister, Mary. But as Celeste and Dana learn more about Celeste's mother's secrets, the truth surprises them.

An interesting story and premise, the book didn't take me long to finish. Allison Pittman crafts wonderful characters in Celeste and Dana, and kept me on the edge of my seat. I felt like I really knew the characters and definitely wanted to keep reading. I'm looking forward to reading more of Allison's books.

All for a Story review

"All for A Story" by Allison Pittman is a fun and awesome story about two journalists who meet and discover what is important in life.

Monica is a gossip columnist who struggles to make a living because she spends all of her money to keep up her extravagant lifestyle. She has a trust fund she can't access until she's thirty and parts of her mother's estate are doled out monthly, and a boyfriend who's married.

Max leaves a job as an editor for a magazine he doesn't do much to go to his uncle's funeral in New York City. He has inherited the magazine his uncle loved after he passes on. Max, now the editor, gives Monica a new assignment: infiltrating and reporting on the Anti-Flirt Society. 

Along the way, they both learn important lessons about God, trust, and most of all, love. 

This is a great read and I really enjoyed Monica and Max's relationship. Sister Aimee, though a minor character, was also quite fascinating. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it. 

The First Escape

I like to be up to date on what teens are reading nowadays, especially when you work with them. Not sure what to think about The Doppleganger Chronicles: The First Escape but intrigued nonetheless by the plot and a huge fan of anything British, I decided to check it out. At first I was annoyed by the alternating text and graphics, but then I started getting into it. I realized I actually liked it a bit and could see how kids who don't like to read long pieces of texts without pictures would actually enjoy it!

Saskia and Sadie are identical in every way, except for their eyes, one has a blue left eye and a right yellow eye, and the other has a blue right eyes and a left yellow eye. They were left by their mother, an actress, at Isambard Dunstan's School for Wayward Children, which seems to only have girls with the exception of Erik, who was abandoned on the front steps when his father left to get something and never returned. The School is actually quite a terrible place, but the twins rule the school. When a wealthy reclusive writer wants only Saskia, Sadie and Saskia are separated. Saskia stumbles into a conspiracy and Sadie and Erik are trying to find her and help. Saskia also meets a mysterious woman who gives her advice and teaches her to eat peas with a fork, who she believes is an angel and who tries to guide her to the Companion (one can only assume she means Christ, although this is never explictily said, nor even really implied other than a few vague descriptions).

It is a fine book, well-crafted. The design, pages of text and then pages of a graphic novel, are fantastic and give the book a creative feel. Definitely worth reading!

Born of Persuasion

*May Contain What You Consider Spoilers*

Julia Elliston has recently lost her mother and father. She has a guardian who wants to send her to Scotland to be a servant, which she views as beneath her station. The daughter of a famed atheist, she hates the church and everything part of it, which contributes to her inability to pick Edward, who seems to be her true love. She instead develops a crush on Macy. However, Julia seems to suffer from a lack of self-esteem, and in my opinion, she seems to fall for any guy who gives her attention. Unfortunately, due to her upbringing, I'm not surprised.

Although it had a few flaws, this novel definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. While I would have preferred Julia's story to be complete by the end of the novel and the next novel be about Elizabeth and Henry - who definitely deserve a novel of their own - it does make me want to read the next in the series.

Another con is that I know her mother hid things from her, but Julia struck me almost a weak figure, consumed by money and a desire for a place in society. She constantly needed Edward to save her, or needed Macy's protection (or so he said). However, for a woman of the time, she's a fantastic example of the upper crust of society in that time period. Also, she struck me as a character who would dig a little deeper and snoop around Macy's belongings, but she really didn't. She had to be told all the information, she didn't go find any herself. I was a little disappointed about that character portrayal, which I didn't think fit her.

Left Behind

Left Behind Review

Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkin's innovative series Left Behind sparked interest in Revelation, the Apocalypse and the End Times. A fan of the last book of the Bible, Left Behind is a beautiful book even though sometimes people wonder just how many pilots couldn't believe in God before and why they suddenly were all changing their minds.

Left Behind is a challenging and fascinating perspective on the least-talked about book in the Bible, Revelation, although Revelation is by far one of the most important books in the Bible. These two authors create a universe in which God is judging the Earth and has taken away His Church; all that are left are those who refused Christ. Now they all must band together to survive the Tribulation and all the other events foretold thousands of years ago. It also has great imagery and talks about one of the four possibilities of Revelation. 

Firewall an excellent book

People are still crazy about marriages and weddings, as evidenced by Taryn in “Firewall.” She’s heading off for a honeymoon with her new husband when a bomb goes off. She and her husband are prime suspects – and her husband’s missing. But perhaps Taryn did something else – like creating software for her employers. It’s a race against time for Taryn to prove her innocence. She is offered help by handsome Agent Grayson Hall, who fights terror. Really, the name Grayson Hall sounds like the name of a manor or castle in the Highlands of Scotland. However, steady and strong is Grayson. He’s also smart and dedicated to justice, and Taryn is naïve. Can they find out the truth? That’s the core of this novel.

G.P. Taylor's The Secret of Indigo Moon

The second book in the fantastic Dopple-Ganger Chronicles meets the clever Dopple twins, Sadie and Saskia. Muzz Elliott has sent the twins back to Isambard Dunstan's School for Wayward Children (which has all girls and only one boy, who is treated as a servant). The twins and Erik get into a mystery, which backs that awful magician from the first novel stealing treasures from a neighbor through a series of underground tunnels. And we also learn that the beloved Miss Olivia was - or should I say is as she is still alive - no angel...

Dorcas Potts also comes into the picture as a detective whose uncle is being robbed. 

Combining comic-book graphics with text and color, G.P. Taylor creates a fantastic new series of books that appeals to teenagers of all ages. I like to keep myself up to date on all novels and series, fiction, non-fiction, teen, children and adult, and this one has allowed me to see where the next generation is going: graphics as well as text.

While seeming to lack a little with direct spiritual references, with only mentions of someone who may or may not be an angel, and the Companion (with a capital letter) who we sort of figure is probably a reference to Christ, the Holy Spirit or God, it is still rather fun and informative, and has excellent themes for one to think about.

Taylor raises important issues, such as abandonment (experienced by the twins, whose mother left them), guilt (experienced by Erik for his past life of stealing, although he was a child manipulated by his father), revenge (the magician who hates the twins and Erik), loneliness (experienced by all the characters) and adoption (experienced by the twins) and family, both broken and put together.

All in all, a must read.

The Imagination Station: Attack in the Arena

Adventures in Odyssey continues their series with The Imagination Station series. Attack in the Arena is the second book chronicling the adventures of the fantastic time-traveling duo Beth and Patrick, cousins who are recruited by Mr. Whittaker to travel through time on various quests so that he can save his ancestor, Albert. Aided occasionally by a mysterious knight from England who travels through the Imagination Station, the cousins find themselves on all kinds of adventures.

And this time they are in ancient Rome at the very last gladitorial game seeking a silver cup that will somehow help Albert (we are not told how). Beth is hauled off by a soldier, believed to be a bird slave to the young Emperor Honorius.

Patrick is taken in by a kind monk, Telemachus. They help a "barbarian" to run away although he is recaptured. They end up in Rome and Patrick is taken away to the arena. Beth is trying to find the Emperor's humanity while learning she really hates birds now.






Both are learning valuable lessons, as will their young fans as they read this story.

And meanwhile they seek the silver cup...

Easy to read, very simply sentences, just right for that age range. I really liked it (I like anything about ancient Rome). I definitely want to read the rest of the series.

Definitely an 9 on a 10 point scale.