Review: Peter's Angel

Title: Peter’s Angel (first volume in the Peter’s Angel trilogy)

Author: Aubrey Hansen

Page Count: 336 pages

Stars: 4.5 of 5

• 4.5 = an excellent book that was gripping and enjoyable

Teaser: In the wake of a lost War for Independence, Peter Jameson, a young colonel, struggles to protect his tiny patriot state of Rhode Island from the oppression of New Britain. When New Britain invades, Peter finds himself leading his small cavalry against the massive British army. But war becomes the least of his worries when his own men kidnap him and hold him for ransom. Facing certain death, Peter is freed by a mysterious boy who vanishes without leaving his name. Peter determines to find his "angel" and reward him. But his rescuer has a secret of his own, and he will do anything to keep from being found.

That summary barely does anything to scratch the multifaceted surface of Peter's Angel, but it'll have to do for now until you read the book for yourself!

Age level: Teens and up (13+)

Violence: 2 of 5

• 2 = PG-level violence that's a minor theme in the book

Romance: 2 of 5

• 2 = romance is minor but present

Language: 0 of 5 (although language is implied in one scene)

Christian worldview: Peter’s Angel is an explicitly religious/Christian novel, which makes it particularly interesting to read and review. Altogether, I was pleasantly surprised by the subtle-yet-present thread of spiritual commentary throughout the story. It worked perfectly in light of the setting in alternate-American-colonial-times. Also, Hansen wove in discussions on courtship, swearing, and God’s role in world events in an extremely skillful way—some of the best I’ve read in Christian fiction. Peter’s Angel presents an excellent example of how to write a Christian book.

My Personal Opinion: First, a few comments about what bumped this book from 5-star status. The beginning felt a bit heavy and factual and, although interesting, it could’ve used a bit more conflict. Also, even considering that Peter’s Angel is a trilogy, the ending felt rather abrupt and made me very, very impatient for the next book.

Now for the good points. The concept itself is extremely fascinating. It’s historical fiction plus that sense of questioning and exploring reality, that sense of asking, “what if something had happened differently?” In terms of the writing, the characters were my favorite aspect of the book. Each voice was distinct and the use of details to differentiate the various characters worked well. Although the action may have been slow to start, once it did begin, there was an excellent balance of character and plot-driven conflict. The setting was well-crafted, and Hansen’s marvelous use of details made each scene spring to life before my eyes.

All in all, I’d highly recommend Peter’s Angel. If you’re at all interested in Christian fiction, I’d definitely suggest that you read Peter’s Angel, both for pleasure and to learn from a job well done!

Review: The Silver Shawl

In today’s post, I’ll be reviewing a book, but not just any old book. Today's story is a historical mystery novella by Elisabeth Grace Foley. Why the changeup? For one thing, today is the publication of The Silver Shawl, and it’s fun to celebrate with authors as they release their new books. For another thing, I love Agatha Christie’s books—if you don’t, you need to—and The Silver Shawl was highly reminiscent of Christie’s work. Plus, it’s enjoyable and fun to read. So, with that said, let me enter full review mode.

Title: The Silver Shawl

Author: Elisabeth Grace Foley

Page Count: 45

Stars: 4 of 5

4 = well-written and a good read

Teaser: In a small town in turn-of-the-century Colorado, a young woman has disappeared from the boarding-house where she lives. Her distraught fiancé is certain that she must have been kidnapped. But the case takes a new turn when a city detective appears on the scene, looking for a woman who matches the description of the missing girl. Was Charity really kidnapped, or did she have a reason to flee? Mrs. Meade, a gentle but shrewd widow lady who lives across the hall in the boarding-house, feels that there is something wrong with the story of Charity's disappearance...but can she unravel the mystery before it is too late?

Age level: Preteens and up (10+)

Violence: 2 of 5

1 = mild injuries appropriate for all ages

Romance: 1 of 5

1 = there's a hint of romance at a PG level

Language: 0 of 5

Christian worldview: No religious concerns of note. On the positive side, Silver Shawl had a sweet and Biblical portrayal of the fiancé-fiancée relationship.

My Personal Opinion: I don’t usually read novellas, much less historical novellas, much less historical mystery novellas, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I began Foley’s book. From the beginning, however, I was captivated by Foley’s use of details. The descriptions of characters, the settings, the small gestures—everything felt vivid and true-to-life.

In the larger, overall structure of the story, the book read a lot like a short story by Agatha Christie. Mrs. Meade wasn’t quite a Mrs. Marple, but there were certain similarities nonetheless. The mystery wasn’t obvious, either; it left me guessing for quite a long time, which is saying a lot, for me. 

My one point of criticism is that the end of the story lagged a bit. There wasn't quite enough tension to keep the story going for the last few pages. However, otherwise, the story and characters were spot-on.

So, in all, I enjoyed The Silver Shawl quite a bit. If you haven’t had the chance yet to discover this marvelous world of short historical mystery, I suggest that you start right now! And you can leave a comment, too, to celebrate a fellow-writer’s self-publication day.

Review: The Fetch

In today's post, I'll review a book I read recently called The Fetch, which has a fantastic premise about Anastasia Romanov but (in my opinion) a rather flawed execution. A word of caution: this book is the first in a proposed series. While it stands alone acceptably enough, the story is not quite complete by the end of the novel.

Title: The Fetch

Author: Laura Whitcomb

Page Count: 384 pages

Stars: 3 of 5

• 3 = enjoyable. May have minor content issues or flaws in the writing.

Teaser: Calder is a Fetch, a “death escort” who brings the souls of the dying to a decidedly non-Christian heaven (there is no Hell, as Calder explains). After falling in love with an earthly woman, he breaks his vows as a Fetch and stays on earth to try to find her. The woman happens to be one of the Romanovs, on the way to her death on the eve of the Russian Revolution. The story “solves” the mystery of why Anastasia and Alexei’s bodies were not found with the rest of their family.

Age level: Mid-teens and up (15+)

Violence: 3 of 5

• 3 = between PG and PG-13 violence that plays a major role in the story

Romance: 2 of 5

• 2 = romance is minor but present (for instance, one kiss at the end of the story)
• Note: this book is technically classified as "supernatural romance." However, I felt the romance was really a side issue and hardly came up until the very end.

Language: 1 of 5

• 1 = replacement swear words

Christian worldview: Clearly, the idea of a Heaven without a Hell is contrary to Christianity at its heart. If everyone is saved, then how can God have any justice or integrity? To be honest, God was really brushed aside in the story as an unsolvable mystery. The book did mention a historical Flood and Tower of Babel, but its explanations were again not entirely Biblical.

My thoughts: My favorite part of this story was the incorporation of the Russian Revolution and the Romanovs. By setting it in such a specific time and place, Whitcomb managed to surpass the ordinary clichés of supernatural fantasy and add suspense in regard to how she would clear up the mystery of Anastasia. The idea of Fetches was also intriguing, although I don’t think the philosophy of them stands up at all against the Bible. Still, not a bad idea.

As far as the romance goes, even though the book is billed as “supernatural romance,” there really wasn’t any romantic interaction between the characters until nearly the very end. It almost left me wondering whether there would be any after all.

The book’s biggest weakness, in my opinion, was that it was far too long. The characters spend half of the book on a chase around the world that seems pointless, and then the ending breaks in abruptly. If instead the author had ended the story about halfway through the book, with the excitement of death and danger still in the air, I might have been a lot more satisfied.

Overall, The Fetch was an enjoyable read but not outstanding. I’d recommend it to those interested in Anastasia or in the modern genre of supernatural romance.

How to Name your Characters

This baby is adorable! publicdomainpictures.net

“Mary—watch out! There’s a candy-spitting dragon coming in at twelve o’clock!”

“Aw, John, another dragon? Weren’t the fire-breathing-unicorns bad enough?”

That little snippet of dialogue could probably be turned into an interesting story—except for one major problem: the characters’ names. I mean, really, a fantasy story featuring dragon with main characters called Mary and John? That’s almost as bad as calling them Jane and Tarzan!

No doubt, as you’ve already learned from our little mini-series on names (see here and here), the names we bear and the names we give characters have extraordinary power. So as authors it’s important to focus on giving our characters the best names we can.

To do that, here’s a few tips.

1. Keep a name collection. 

• List all your old favorites, your fabulous invented names, those book characters that you can’t get out of your head—last names, first names, place names. List normal names like Jason but don’t be afraid to go wild with names like Leopold Vincent Williams III. Whatever you do, keep it so that you can have a handy reference for later use whenever you’re stuck and need a name in a hurry.

2. Think about the time and place of your story.

• If you’re writing historical fiction (or any story set in the past), be sure to research popular names at the time. Not taking the time to research a name can be disastrous: think, for example, of the Disney flop movie The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, where medieval characters had names like Veronica and Belthazar. No wonder no one liked the movie!

• If you’re writing fantasy, try to come up with different “sound systems” for each of your people groups. A sound system is basically a set of sounds used by that language, some similar to English, others different. Then select particular sounds out of the whole system to use for names. For example, maybe female names start with the sounds “Uu” or “Lo” whereas male names start with “Ma” or “Ki.” If you have multiple languages/people groups, make sure the names of each people group sound different enough to tell them apart.

• If you’re writing science fiction, the same tips apply as for fantasy, above. However, you may also want to consider names with symbols or numbers. Plus, if you’ve got aliens with different vocal organs from humans, you could try to come up with a way to represent those languages on paper. It’d be a challenge, certainly, but it could take your writing from forgettable to memorable.

• If you’re writing contemporary (on-earth-now) fiction, make sure the names are believable. If you still chose to use an outlandish name like “Dremnei,” have an explanation ready or else your readers won’t believe it. Also, be sure to consider the character’s ethnicity: you wouldn’t have a Japanese character named “Jane,” or an Indian character named “Will.” A great place to look for contemporary (modern) names is in movie credits, especially for the non-famous people like the crew members.

3. For unique names:

• Scramble the letters in a normal name to get a new name. For example, Ethan could become Tehan or Nateh or Ehnat or any number of other possibilities.

• Combine two common names into one. For example, Sarah and Janelle could combine to make a name like Saranelle or Janarah.

• Type a sentence, phrase, the lyrics of a song, or even a random string of words together without spaces. Look for possible combinations of letters to use as names. For example: asyoulikeit (as you like it) could be a name like Asy, Olik, or Keit.

• Use a common word and make it a name. Fiddle around with various spellings if you want to be a bit more subtle. For example, you could use the names Lavendyr, Thyme, Rust, or Rain for potentially strong, meaning-packed names.

4. Warnings

• Make the name pronounceable. When we read, we hear the words in our head, and every time we read a word we can’t pronounce, our mind slows down until it comes up with a pronunciation for the word. The harder a name is to pronounce, the more your reader has to slow down and the more distracted they can get from the story.

• Be aware of the associations with the names you chose. This is especially true if you use a famous name like Elvis. No matter how good your writing may be, it’ll be pretty hard to convince a reader to take a coldblooded assassin seriously if his name is Elvis. If you do use a famous name—the benefits being it could add great backstory to your characters—try to make it subtle. For example, instead of naming a character Audrey Hepburn, name her Audrey H. Lake.

• Be sure to consider what nickname(s) the name would give your character. People tend to use nicknames with people they know well, so using a nickname is a great writing strategy to add realism to your story. However, if your character’s name is “Imortelle,” she might be stuck with a nickname like “Tell” or even “Telly.”

• Think about the meaning of whatever name you choose. Sure, maybe the meaning won’t come up in the story, but it can add depth to a character nonetheless. Plus, you never know—the character’s name meaning might end up being an important factor in the story.

• Consider the sounds of the name: soft, gentle sounds like “f,” “b,” “sh,” or “l” might give a character a different feel than a name with hard, clipped sounds like “k,” “t,” “v,” or “r.”

• Don’t give multiple characters in your story similar-sounding names. For example, Billy and Bonnie will just confuse your readers. So will Jack and George and Jake and Jason. Make them distinct and memorable.

And that’s it—your simple guide for choosing the perfect name for your characters. Speaking of which, I think the names “Liddy” and “Dar” would be great for the fire-breathing-unicorn story.