Donna Smith

I don’t know why I wasn’t emotionally engaged in their journey, but once I realized that I was skimming whole pages, DNF.

I should have liked this book because it contains a teacher who does actual teacher things, and children who act like children… yet I found myself skimming paragraph after paragraph, especially the descriptions about how each main character found the other hot. I get it: apparently they’re hot. <shrug> Come to think of it, it’s probably because I’m fried at the end of a school term and have the attention span of a cricket. Time for a comfort reread probably. Maybe I should reread Olivia Dade’s teacher characters in her Maryville books…

So, I knew from the start that this was yet another new author's take on urban fantasy, but was hopeful when I found some clever variations on the tried and true tropes. Alas. As the unrealistic characterisations piled up and the plot was wrenched this way and that with little regard for realism I gave up and did not finish. I just do not think any of the people in the story would act in the ways that they do, given what we are told (not shown) about their background. (Also, she's 18 years old, has been in foster care for 12 years, but her mum died at her birth...so what's with the missing 6 years? Bad editing? Did I misunderstand?) I hope this author keeps practicing on her writing group because some of the ideas showed spark, but I do want much more practice and much more editing before I attempt another one.

Pragmatic, research-based, common-sensical, useful, straight forward, and comprehensive. I like Foyle's style and find the content useful and encouraging. Each chapter could be a book on its own–the topics she tackles are significant–but having them dealt with quickly and gathered together between one set of book covers makes this a great reference for people understanding the unique stressors in cross-cultural ministry. This book is a great starting place for pre-field workers and support teams who need to understand likely things to come, a great check-up and reflection tool for mid-career missionaries (like me), a great resource for those trying to articulate the effects of the manifold and serious stresses in the multicultural life.

I liked the character of Sophie enough when reading the Lei Texiera books to seek these out, but so far I like Lei a lot better. These feel very thin in the crime and not as thoughtful on the character development. I also can't get into the creepy computer stalker-turned-boyfriend the Ghost. Urk. I miss Alika Wolcott! I'm glad that Sophie has loving people in her life...but maybe too many loving men who want to save her... Yeah, these are quick, easy reads (often read two back-to-back as I did with the Lei books), but not quite as emotionally or intellectually engaging as the Lei books.

DNF at about 80%. I was hoping to be engaged in a well-drawn world different than my own (spies, special forces, Australia) by compelling characters and the author's insider knowledge; instead, I encountered 1-dimensional archetypes playing with fancy spy-military toys in engaging episodes. Alas for the missed opportunity! It reminded me of the (more compelling) young-teen series Alex Rider. Jo is apparently so bad-ass, so kind, so competent, so cool, so dangerous that she always wins at everything, including charming ocean mammals better than everyone. Yawn.

The thing is: I read a lot of romance. And: my faith and spirituality are central to my identity and lived experience, a daily practice and such a high value that I've organized a great deal of my life around my Christian convictions. Like, Christianity isn't a background cultural structure for me. You might call me evangelical about it.
So, I read a lotta romance: wanting a break from stories that weighed down my spirit by not telling the truth about the human experience of sexuality or family or conflict or whatever–and maybe not so many swears because I don't need to store all that in my head especially mid-semester when my middle school students are aggravating!–I timidly decided to try to read gasp! Christian romances.
So I tried this one.
Alas.
Why, if Christianity is central to my identity, do I avoid reading Christian fiction?* Because I think that books should tell the truth about what it means to be human, not twist a story into a a tract where everyone lives happily ever after after employing a magical formula of prayer or faith. It's more complex than that! There's doubt and sin and uncertainty about what God is saying. Fall Flip presents a kind of cultural formulation of Christianity that is NOT congruent with my experience of spirituality. Characters spray a bit then just “know” what to do; the happily ever after doesn't feel earned but kind of an author-produced “ta da” after enough pages had passed by, to reward characters for giving a nod to God. Where was the heroine's anger at God about her husband's death, to pick one instance I felt lacked emotional resonance and realism? I finished the book annoyed; I don't think Fall Flip tells the truth about grief, divine guidence, forgiveness, conflict.
(Also, why were people supposed to care of someone had died in a house? Maybe that's an American cultural thing that I just don't get. Who cares? Humans die! Houses are lived in, and sometimes died in! Big whoop. Weird American culture.)
The thing is: in non-Christian fiction, people can be tropey and gimmicky and plot leaps of logic can happen and I think, “oh well, bad writing” but when a book identifies itself as Christian and uses faith as a central device to help characters grow up, find love, become their true selves and it's tropey and gimmicky it's such a let down.
I'll keep looking; surely there's hope for this genre, right?

*excepting writers who can WRITE; I'm lookin' at you Sayers, Tolkien, Lewis, Robinson,

Hm: a mix. On the one hand, character's back stories and situations were engaging; the situation created interesting conflict that must be addresses. Clearly the geography of Manhattan had been studied for the late 70's world building. I liked the author's light touch on race because it's a pet peeve when only the non-white characters are named as non-white, but this author did that kind of description really well–context and exposition clues to fill that in, but not heavy handed–and I appreciate it.
Why did I give up at 30%? Because I felt the connection to characters/setting/conflict at 30% that I had reached at 5%. More development of all those domains of storytelling, please! Interactions felt kind of basic/formulaic when I was ready for them to be nuanced and deeper. Similarly the setting felt sketched in rather than fleshed out at that point–soooo much going on in NYC in the late 70's! It was a totally different city thannow! let's get that world-building goin' on, for the love of gritty walk-ups!!–and the back stories felt flimsier the longer they spent being not developed. A few continuity oddities made it hard to follow–like, some action read like it all happened on one day but apparently there were some months in between there that I skipped, and I'm not a careless reader.

How to break into a new-ish genre for me, Christian romance? Venn diagram book bloggers' recommendations and my library's catalogue.
I finished it, but...
This isn't an author I'll read more of. My quibbles are various and serious.
The Christian faith of the MCs seemed decorative rather than fundamental to conflict/character/plot. The book would have been better for me without it as a flourish. It was confusing to me: faith and prayer are interesting, complicated, vivid, surprising in my own life; here they seemed like a think cultural veneer that just went along with the setting rather than a source of character development or conflict/resolution.
The shallow use of faith matched shallowness in supporting characters and main characters. The h's best friend was a thinly painted character (perhaps she had her own book and I missed it?) with a nameless husband who did all the home chores so she could be an indulged princess (yuck!). Friend's advice to the h on how to get a man included wearing tighter clothes and getting gel nails. (You should see the expression on my face as I recall this because–...???!!! What the WHAT??) The main plot-turning actions of the characters also seemed kind of arbitrary and not arising from genuine character development. IOW, I didn't believe that these people were people, but rather paper dolls moved around by an author through a pre-plotted outline.
Why did I read the whole thing? It wasn't horrible.

I like this book because I am picky and reject books with bad world building and inauthentic details. You can blame my rich, varied, well-lived life. I am picky about wilderness survival and hiking stories. About stories of crossing culture and learning language. About women, gender, and family dynamics. About geography, history, historical economies, technologies, textiles, and foodways. I am picky about stories of fights and self defense. This story doesn't ping my “you've got to be kidding” radar in any of these areas...plus, you know, stuff like plot and characters are cool and all.

I want more.

NB: It ends on a not-quite-cliffhanger after establishing the characters and resolving one of the main conflicts while introducing more. I care about the characters and am happy to pay $3 USD to buy the next one. This is a new author for me, but won't be my last book by her.

Edit: I've now read parts 2 and 3. They are actually ALL PART OF ONE BOOK, just split into three parts that you have to buy separately–?? The chapter numbering also continues serially from parts 1 to 2 and 3. I do recommend getting all three since they FUNCTION AS ONE NOVEL. Well worth reading, interesting development, sustained world-building and character arcs. I approve.

I've been hearing (positive things) about this book for a few years; a copy finally ended up in my possession; I've got to chapter 2 so far; I can see it becoming a standard book on my shelf and for many missiologists in Melanesia. I've appreciated Bartle's work in journals (2005) and now I'm glad to have a chance to absorb this longer case study. (How am I the first person reviewing this book? Thanks, Bartle, for your scholarship.)

And: can I give a shout-out to the Melanesian Institute and the Point series, which have been the source of so many insights that have guided my research during my student years? Cheers, guys! Keep publishing.

I'm still totally into this series. Many little details add up to a very satisfying reading experience because they are true to my own experience across places/cultures. For example, people who are learning language in Red Wolf talk like you actually would. The pre-industrial world everyday life details also feel true. The fights feel real. The hierarchical vs. egalitarian culture clashes (and all the other culture clashes) feel real. The political and economic details–so well researched. I live cross-culturally and am an historian, so I get fussy about these things, and I am just really impressed with Chase's achievement here! And also, you know, exciting, quickly-plotted, and character driven with arcs and growth of all the main characters.
It's been maybe 6 months since I read the previous ones, so I kind of forgot who some of the characters are (and there are a lot now), and I still feel like these would be better when they are all published together in one volume–they're bite-sized at present–and I don't have to put up with CLIFFHANGER ENDINGS, but I'm down for the next ones, for sure.

Eh...I liked the idea of this book, but the reality was very meh for me. To me, it read like fan-fiction for a fandom I didn't know where the point was just to write sexual tension devolving into sex scenes, not to do such traditionally novelley things like, say developing plot, character, setting, conflict, or resolution. I started skimming pretty hard around 30% because I wanted to follow the treads of this book that were interesting to me (the amputee, the bestfriendship) but ended up DNF around 50% because, just–blah. I want this author to get a really good editor and make a few more drafts and I might be willing to try again because–not enough double amputee/best friends romances out there, right??

DNF at 60%. Consent: she keeps pushing his boundaries to get what she wants, a more sexual relationship than he is comfortable with. Initially promising eccentric characters devolved in interest to me past where I would put up with their immaturity. I love nerdy wallflowers who prefer chess to flirting; I don't like immature, self-centered manipulators who break rules irregardless of consequences and push other people's sexual boundaries, even people 10 years older than them.
I might give Bowman another try as other aspects of the writing were strong, but these MC were not for me.

Maybe 2 1/2 stars...but I READ this a year ago and when I picked it off my shelf not only had I FORGOTTEN that I'd read it, but it took me till the end of chapter 2 to resurect any memory of having already read it! So, an action/adventure book that I forget in a year, despite characters I already cared about and epic settings and historically-researched contet? Maybe I'll stick at 2 stars.
I will also stick with Novik because I LOVED Uprooted, and I'm intrigued by the “dragons in the Napoleonic Wars” concept, but this book shouldn't have been called the Black Powder War, but “The Silk Road Journey/The Sojourn in Istanbul/The Black Powder War” since it is in 3 distinct episodes, and feels more like “and then lots of plot happened” rather than “and then more character development happened”.

A quarter of the way through, when I was guffawing my way around my house, cracking myself up by repeating lines I'd just read, unable to stop snickering as I made dinner, I decided that any book that made me laugh and laugh would get 5 stars unless it blew it big time before the end. It didn't. I binge-read this one from after work till midnight, and re-read the last 10% over breakfast because it was such a sweet HEA. Awww! Time to read more by this author.

3 stars for setting (!), 2 stars for characterisation
The best part of this book, which will stick with me, is a view into a world foreign to me: a middle-American farming community, shrinking and in crisis. This sketch of that world was worth the read. The structure of this novel included five or six major sub-plots, setting it up to be a kind of epic series where a cast of dozens is featured over a series of books. I kind of liked this structure compared to the usual romance plot.
This is my first Macomber–can that really be so since she's apparently written ten thousand million books? I doubt I'll seek her out again because I found the setting more compelling than the characters! Apparently there's a kind of Dakota farmer version of macho and alpha, where prideful, stubborn, and utterly emotionally unintelligent passes for sexy and compelling. Seriously, men of the Dakotas: listen before you jump to conclusions! Make “I” statements! Assume the best, not the worst! Learn to fight fair! Communication is sexy too! Apparently I've got to much California or whatever in me because a marriage proposal that includes calling someone foolish and stubborn leaves me cold.
Quibble: I'm a teacher. I have taught in a one-room multi-grade schoolhouse in a new town with a challenging climate. I did not manage to single-handedly save a dying town and renovate a theatre in my spare time while writing and producing a play. All I managed to do–just barely–is hold on to my sanity, and I'd been teaching for a decade. Props to our main character, the Disney princess version of the first-year teacher. I kept thinking, “what are they doing in a pre-internet world for multi-level mathematics instruction? How has she manged to set up the day curriculum wise? How is her ten-year-old minor in education and subsequent low-level job prepared her to teach high school science to kids in four grade levels???”

Second read; upping my stars from four to five because I'm finding so precious Liese's portrayal of autism and also that these two are committed to respecting boundaries, doing the hard work, and taking the time to heal and build friendship before committing to a sexual/romantic relationship. I appreciate that representation, that the “bad boy” isn't fixed by the love of a good woman, but by steady and true friendship, good role models, authentic community, choosing to be vulnerable, taking responsibility, telling the truth, finding a therapist, getting appropriate medical interventions, and making many tiny incremental changes to grow and heal.

Emotional intelligence is sexy.

And I'm so into all the increasingly excellent neurodiverse rep in this genre, of which Liese is excellently in the vanguard.

DNF at 40%. It was kind of interesting and clever and I liked what it was doing with subverting tropes, but then I switched to another book and never got back to it and didn't miss it, so... bye. I loved Meg Cabot comedic, witty style when I first came across her books 25 years ago (Princess Diaries, etc.).

This review contains spoilers.
I can't summarize what this book is about to others without laughing aloud at the ridiculousness. Of course a runaway programmed-from-childhood Russian assassin was rescued deep under the sea by an autistic uni-diving water mage entrenched in her rural idyll created by a found family of other (probably) elemental mages, because: what else? Oh, and she has a pyromaniacal stalker. And survived the foster system.

Despite the over- over- over-the-topness of it all, this one zipped along (except for the pages-long sex scenes, which I started skimming because: I get it. You're into each other.). Also, so interesting were the detailed descriptions of diving/urchin harvesting on the California coast! Very nifty.

But: tone! Every time someone pontificated about the heroine's disabilities because of autism, I flinched a bit. It's like the nuance between being an autistic person and a person with autism. To everyone in this book, including the heroine, she's an autistic person. She “had some form of autism, yet she had carved out a life for herself in spite of all the odds...” “If she was autistic, she was too high functioning not to have had some help as a child.” “There would be a few people in her life who appreciated her quick mind and bravery facing the challenges of a world she was born too sensitive to function in properly–yet she managed, carving out a life for herself against impossible odds.” Maybe because this is 2010 and autism awareness has shifted just that much in 13 years, these quotes sound cringey? But if I were picking fiction to represent the successes and difficulties of life on the spectrum, this wouldn't be on my list.

I liked a lot about this book, and might try the others in the series once I absorb the ridiculous elements a bit more. (Runaway Russian assassins!!) I like stories of healthy found families and the urban fantasy elements, so I may be up for more. (This is my first Feehan.) I agree with other reviewers that some things were just repeated tooooooo many times. (Like: I get that she has BLACK EYES because we are told a dozen times or more...but what colour was her hair again? I can't picture her in my mind except as too skinny (also oft repeated) and with BLACK EYES, or maybe they're BOTTOMLESS black eyes. (Which to me sounds like her pupils are blown because of chemicals, trauma, etc., but what do I know? Bottomless like the sea, no doubt.) 3 1/2 stars