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Langley, BC, Canada
I love to read. I love books. I like to talk about books and recommend them. I read everything including cereal boxes and junk mail! I heard once that if you're not reading at least 3 books at a time you're not reading enough! This blog will keep track of the books I've read and whether or not I liked them. It will be a little bit of everything from Christian fiction to Science fiction and fantasy. Feel free to participate by suggesting books to review and giving your comments. Occasionally I am given free books by Publishers in exchange for a review. I am not told how to review them or compensated in any way for the review.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Body in the Gazebo by Katherine Hall Page

Faith Fairchild is a caterer/minister’s wife/amateur detective. I just realized that a lot of mysteries I’ve been reading lately have been set in church settings. I’m sure there’s a blog post in there somewhere that I will have to explore later, lol.

The Body in the Gazebo is the 19th book in this series. In this story, mysteries from the past and present are explored. Faith’s minister husband has been accused of stealing money from the church and while Faith works to clear her husband she is also involved in hearing the tale of the body in the Gazebo. Her best friend’s elderly mother is ill and needs to confide in someone. She chooses Faith and in a series of flashback stories tells about the murder of her brother. Meanwhile Faith’s best friend is encountering her own past as she attends her son’s wedding.
There are a lot of story lines in this book. It’s not confusing but it is a little bit dull sometimes as the narrative seems to drag a bit. All of the action happens in the last few chapters. An interesting twist is how social media is used in the story to help with the mysteries.

You don’t need to read the whole series to enjoy this book. Each story is a standalone story but if you want to start at the beginning you will have 19 books to read and a chance to get to know the Fairchild family and the town they live in.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Tell Me Your Secret by Deirdre Purcell

The story begins in Ireland in 1944 and spans 60 years. It’s a tale of a family with secrets, terrible secrets formed by misplaced ideas of discipline and justice.

The Shine family lived in the “Big House” in their Irish village. Violet Shine is a beautiful 16 year old who has fallen in love with a village boy who would be deemed very unsuitable by her family. So they have been meeting secretly. Naturally, her father discovers them and the story unfolds from there. The punishment meted out to her is truly unimaginable for she is imprisoned in an attic in their house for nearly 35 years!

Despite that last sentence this is not a story of revenge or even hate. It’s a beautifully told story of love and forgiveness. The story is told in many voices, starting with Violet’s. Claudine is the modern voice of the story, the real estate agent who is interested in the old house in the village now in disrepair but still worth a lot of money. She begins to investigate its ownership and discovers a startling connection to her own story about family.

The story is told in the first person by a variety of speakers and it’s easy to be completely taken in by the tale, indeed it was hard for me to put the book down. This is the first book I’ve read by Deirdre Purcell but I can tell it won’t be my last.