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Review of Reflection in the Music, by LeTara Moore

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I won a copy of Reflection in the Music, by LeTara Moore, through Goodreads.

Description:
Melissa is lost and hasn’t the first clue of where to find herself. Pea can’t let go of her past mistakes, which is suffering her present and future. Sherri thrives on her vanity, but even the most vain finds herself falling short. Jane just wants to start over and make amends, but how does one mend a broken heart? Life has a funny way of connecting the lost and confused. Some mistakes are meant to be made and some wounds aren’t meant to be healed. Some wounds don’t want to heal. Despite the shortcomings and differences, these ladies find themselves all singing the same tune. Beauty, passion, art, fear and love all had their hands in the composition of the ladies’ song—a song that reveals the deepest layer of each one’s being.

Review:
This was….well, honestly I don’t know what this was. True to it’s title it contained a lot of music references and the characters used songs to illicit memories. But rather than a story, it’s almost more a series of interconnected vignettes. The problem is that it reads as if this was not what the author intended, but what resulted from poor development and storytelling. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s what it felt like to me. Further, the book could do with another round of editing. Especially to look at consistency in tense and page numbering.

There are those who will likely enjoy this more than me, especially readers who gravitate toward innocent, slightly religious characterization. But this was bust for me.

Review of The Gifted Storyteller: The Power Is in the Story You Tell, by Gregg Korrol

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I won a copy of Gregg Korrol‘s The Gifted Storyteller through Goodreads:

Description:
What if a Genie popped out of a bottle and gave you the power to create your life as it happened?

Michael followed “the plan” and did everything he was supposed to for life to be successful; great job, money, dates, yet despite it all, everything wasn’t the dream he expected. One night after work, he meets a beautiful and mysterious woman named Jeannie, who introduces him to the Gifted Storyteller, and changes his life forever.

Review:
This isn’t so much a review as documenting I’ve read this book, because I just don’t like this sort of book. I knew that I didn’t like a certain sort of book, but didn’t know this would be a book of the sort I don’t like. By this sort of book, I mean the sort where someone meets a stranger who opts to impart sacred knowledge to some random sap and this is presented to the reader as ultimately enlightening. There’s a quote on page 91 that states, “What she is saying is mind blowing.” and that’s how the reader is meant to feel about the book and it’s lessons. Here’s the thing, I almost never feel that they are. I didn’t here either.

I could take that fact to mean this is a pointless self-help book, but maybe it’s just imparting lessons I don’t need—to be mindful of the reality you build yourself and be careful of the fictions you build in your head (very Deepak Chopra).

Some will likely call this a sexist generalization, but I think men are especially in danger of this. After all, how many women have died because they didn’t live up to the fantasy of some strange man? (Certainly Korrol uses his character’s relationship to the opposite sex to make this point.) So, maybe these are lessons some people actually need, while some of us had to learn them growing up or risk never making it to adulthood.

Book Review of The Chronicle of the Three: Bloodline, by Tabitha Caplinger

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I won a copy of Tabitha Caplinger‘s The Chronicle of the Three: Bloodline through Goodreads.

Description:
Zoe thought the loss of her parents would be the most difficult thing she’d ever have to endure. When she began seeing things she couldn’t explain in her new home of Torchcreek, Virginia, she was sure the grief was driving her mad. Instead Zoe discovers she is part of an ancient bloodline, one destined to defeat the powers of darkness from condemning the world. But Zoe, the daughter of the three, isn’t just another descendant–she’s the key to humanity’s salvation.

In this first installment of the Christian fantasy trilogy The Chronicle of the Three, Zoe Andrews learns that not all shadows are harmless interceptions of light. Some are a more sinister darkness that wants to torment the soul.

Review:
Mechanically, this was fine except for a couple repetitions (I swear a dozen single tears rolled down cheeks and you’d think people who woke up with the sun in their eyes EVERY MORNING would buy some curtains). But the story was rushed and didn’t progress smoothly. Plus, it was full of cliches—the chosen one, the prophecied one, the heroine who is never told of her specialness, the deus ex mechina powers and skills, etc, etc, etc.

Add all that to the fact that it turns out to be Christian fantasy. I didn’t know this when I picked the book up and wasn’t thrilled with the discovery. (Though if I’d read the author’s bio I would have guessed it.) Not only because I’m not a fan of Christian fiction, but also because I didn’t think it was well integrated into the plot. Sure, there were angels and demons, but the use of the mythology doesn’t equal evangelicalism. All the encounters with God and talking about faith does, or rather it did here, and it felt very shoehorned into the story.

All in all, not absolutely horrible. But I’m not particularly interested in continuing the series.