Tag: Fiction

Camino Island by John Grisham

Posted 06/21/2018 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

While I kind of panned the last John Grisham novel I’d read, it was more because while it involved law and lawyers, it wasn’t what I was expecting. This novel was a departure from what I recall John Grisham doing previously, but this novel worked. It really did work. The character development wasn’t completely there, but it also didn’t really need to be. Most of the characters, even though they appeared multiple times, didn’t need the development as they weren’t the main focus of the novel. The characters who did need development had it – Mercer and Bruce Cable. The rest of the characters were more or less window dressing, regardless of how much time you spent reading their words and actions. The only characters that truly mattered in the plot were Mercer and Bruce. And it was a great book. It was hard for me to put it down […]

A Blink of the Screen: Collect..

Posted 06/20/2018 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

This was my first foray into reading Terry Pratchett and I have to say, although the stories were good, they weren’t GREAT. Part of this is due to some of the stories having been written a long time ago, when he’d first started writing. Part of this is also due to my not being particularly knowledgeable about Discworld, and so the Discworld stories didn’t really make any sense to me. Terry Pratchett’s writing style is very good. He knows how to tell a story. I’m not denying that. He knows how to develop characters in just a few short sentences so that a short story can get on with it. But some of the earlier works – I’m just not sure why the editors and publisher were willing to have them in there… and Terry himself was rather embarrassed by some of the stories. All in all, it was a […]

The Rooster Bar by John Grisha..

Posted 06/20/2018 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ll be honest, I haven’t read a John Grisham novel in years. I was really into his novels when I was in high school, but to be honest, after high school I kind of lost interest. I think the last time I’d read one of his novels was back in the early 2000s when I still lived in Texas. The book was all right, but it wasn’t the type of story I’m used to from John Grisham. I’m used to his books being more like The Pelican Brief and A Time to Kill. This one wasn’t so much like that and I guess I was just expecting another lawyer making a name for him/herself because he/she took on a case that was making big headlines. The book was well written, although you might have to get a notepad to keep track of changing names and what’s going on with each […]

Unlimited by Davis Bunn

Posted 01/20/2016 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

At first glance you’d never know this was a Christian fiction story. The way the book starts out, you’d think you had started your ordinary, run of the mill action/adventure/mystery novel. But as you go on, you see sprinklings of why this is a Christian fiction story. The story was a very good one–and I admit that the mark of Christianity is not over done so the reader isn’t feeling left bombarded by calls to become a Christian as often happens with books that contain members who aren’t yet a Christian. In fact, while the Christianity in the book is obvious, it shouldn’t make anyone uncomfortable if they simply wanted to read a good book. This book moves fairly quickly, which is nice. There isn’t a lot of superfluous writing here–no lengthy descriptions of inconsequential things, just good solid storytelling. I kept wondering who was the mysterious “Jefe” and honestly […]

City of Blades by Robert Jacks..

Posted 01/15/2016 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

City of Blades started out as a book I didn’t think I’d be able to get into. At first it just didn’t seem to be that interesting. I’m glad I stuck it out because if I hadn’t, I’d have missed one of the best books I’ve read in the last year! The second book in a series that began with City of Stairs, City of Blades can easily stand on its own. I had no issues with understanding what was going on. There is enough of the backstory to allow the reader to know what is going on and what happened in the past to make the story clear. This book is kind of like a fantasy version of a mystery thriller. There is a bit of a whodunit in City of Blades as well as a fair bit of action. The world woven here is much like our own […]