A charming and thoroughly engaging religious tale.
In this second installment of a Christian series, Colorado residents fight to cleanse their community of such atrocities as prostitution and human trafficking.
John Mark Cannikin visits Rock Creek Valley with a message from God for a specific individual. But he inspires many of the locals by sharing the gospel. It’s a tumultuous time for the area, shaken by a recent murder and unusual bear attacks (for instance, the animal, with no apparent need for sustenance, killing calves). The community collaborates to restore the Blair House, the source of a struggle to obtain coveted water and mineral rights. The house becomes a place for business (a Christian bookstore) and for others to live, like teacher Karen Gustafson. Unfortunately, wickedness persists: the missing suspect in the murder turns up dead while a rave—a thinly masked pagan ritual—ends with a girl’s death. It seems the dubious types behind the raves, linked to a prostitution ring and human trafficking, are recruiting girls. As deacon/interim pastor Adam Claymore and wrangler Pilgrim Wayne risk a mauling to stop the vicious bear, people of the community soon realize that their unified work on the Blair House is both a physical restoration and a spiritual one. As in Lippincott’s (Freedom’s Tree, 2014) preceding novel, characters advocate Christian ideals without sanctimony. People like Adam, for example, are generally amiable while the villains’ deeds are indisputably immoral. This sequel and the earlier series entry are strongly connected. The new book often references events from the prior story (for example, a murder and someone assaulting Karen). Readers, in fact, can enjoy this as a standalone, although the author does recap Book One so extensively that significant plot details are spoiled for series newbies who might be interested in perusing the first work. Nevertheless, the unassuming prose meshes well with characters who may be spurred by the Bible but whose message—genuine compassion for others—is universal. Mystery, meanwhile, unfolds in the background and, considering the planned third volume, boasts a surprising amount of resolution.
A charming and thoroughly engaging religious tale.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5456-1523-2
Page Count: 472
Publisher: Xulon
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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