The Golem and the Jinni: a book review

The Golem and the Jinni. Helene Wecker. 2013. Harper Perennial. Pages: 486. [Source: Bought]

• • •

Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.

Struggling to make their way in 1899 New York, the Golem and the Jinni try to fit in with their immigrant neighbours while masking their true selves. Meeting by chance, they become unlikely friends whose tenuous attachment challenges their opposing natures, until the night a terrifying incident drives them back into their separate worlds. But a powerful menace will soon bring the Golem and the Jinni together again, threatening their existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.

• • •

Rating: 4/5

I wish I could have rated this story as a 5 out of 5, but there were just a few things that knocked this story from favourite to merely a story I liked a lot.

I first learned of The Golem and the Jinni when I was looking through Goodreads for novels staring golems so I could find inspiration for a race of stone-like beings for one of my fantasy stories. The word "golem" had been bobbing around in my head for a while, so I looked it up. And when I saw it I thought I have to read this!

I'm so glad I did, because it opened my eyes to a time period in a part of the world I don't think about very often—or hardly at all.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that it was delightfully void of any swearing. I didn't have to worry about any unexpected s-words, b-words, or f-bombs. There was some blaspheming, but there's only so much you can expect from a secular author. It's very rare for a book such as this, though, to possess no swearing.

The second thing I want to say is that the authoress was delightfully sensitive in her handling of the three respective religions she included in the book: Judaism, Christianity/Catholicism, and Islam. The main two were Judaism and Catholicism, because the Golem was taken care of by a rabbi and the jinni was found by a Syrian Catholic. Only one character was Muslim—or he was—but in his flashback he was and she handled it well as well. Reading this book didn't make me feel as if she was mocking the faiths she decided to put in the book (which is awesome since I'm a Protestant Christian so I always have an eye for details such as this).

One of the things I didn't like was the mention of sexual intercourse. There were several points where it was mentioned even though the author wasn't overly explicit, only saying enough to let you know what the characters were doing. There were at least four different scenes.

The story was a tiny bit slow, but it was also delightfully engrossing. There were times where I couldn't bring myself to put the book down, and the cliffhangers were put in all the right places. The settings and scenes were all so real that I always felt like I was there, an invisible spectator standing behind the characters, watching everything unfold before me. There were parts to Ahmed's personality that I liked, some that I did not; and Chava had a personality similar to my own that had me connecting to her from the beginning.

I didn't see who was the villain until the last quarter, which didn't bother me even though the book had me following him from the beginning. It left me feeling quite surprised, which I don't experience with stories very often. There were parts that left me feeling sad for certain characters, and I think I even gasped once or twice while reading. I like it when a story latches onto my emotions and doesn't let go.

There looks to be a sequel to the story planned to be published next year. If it follows through I look forward to snatching it up so I can see what happens to Chava and Ahmed.

Until then I'll have to distract myself, lol.

A Defense of Honor: a book review

A Defense of Honor. Kristi Ann Hunter. 2018. Bethany House Publishers. Pages: 352. [Source: Netgalley/Bethany House Publishers Review Program]

§§§

When Katherine "Kit" FitzGilbert turned her back on London society more than a decade ago, she determined never to set foot in a ballroom again. But when business takes her to London and she's forced to run for her life, she stumbles upon not only a glamorous ballroom but also Graham, Lord Wharton. What should have been a chance encounter becomes much more as Graham embarks on a search for his friend's missing sister and is convinced Kit knows more about the girl than she's telling.

After meeting Graham, Kit finds herself wishing things could have been different for the first time in her life, but what she wants can't matter. Long ago, she dedicated herself to helping women escape the same scorn that drove her from London and raising the innocent children caught in the crossfire. And as much as she desperately wishes to tell Graham everything, revealing the truth isn't worth putting him and everyone she loves in danger.

§§§

Rating: I'm gonna have to give it a 5/5

When I saw this pop up in my email in May, it was the most interesting of the stories that Bethany House Publishers offered to me for that month. I don't think I was that enthused when I chose it, because I didn't feel that I was being given much of a variety to choose from.

All I can say is that I'm so, so glad that I chose this one.

The story begins with handsome Graham at a ball in a lavish ballroom, talking to a couple of "friends" who only seemed interested in gossiping. Then—there! He spots it—something interesting! A flash of green fabric—a hand snaking out between the plants to snag a treat from a passing platter—he gets up to follow, thankful to separate himself from those two.

He finds her in the garden—and thus begins one of the most interesting chapters of his life.

This has to be one of the most original ideas I've come across. When I think about history, about the Regency era, I never thought about what happened to the illegitimate children or the women who were intentionally ruined by greedy men who were only after the biggest dowry available.

The fact that the main character was working to protect those children made me really excited because there's so much that could go wrong when she's going out there and getting those irresponsible men to pay for their mistakes.

I don't think I've ever felt such rage about the unfairness of something since I watched the episode of Blue Bloods where a young man came and punched a pregnant woman in the face, knocking her out so she landed on her front and crushed her baby. I wasn't as violently angry about the injustice as I was then, but it was close.

The book made me think a lot about how tough women have had it for centuries. Yes, there have been powerful queens, women leaders, etc., but when it comes down to it, women have always been the more vulnerable of the two sexes. Kit knew this, but she was able to take advantage of what had happened to her and her friend and do something good, even though it ended up morphing into something not good (i.e. blackmail) until a new face came along and helped her right her ways.

I'm honestly excited for Haven Manor - 2 to come out next year. And once its out I'm definitely going to start collecting the Haven Manor book as paperbacks.

The Accidental Guardian

The Accidental Guardian. Mary Connealy. 2018. Bethany House Publishers. Pages: 305. [Source: Netgalley/Bethany House Publishers Review Program]

***

When Trace Riley finds the smoldering ruins of a small wagon train, he recognizes the hand behind the attack as the same group who left him as sole survivor years ago. Living off the wilderness since then, he'd finally carved out a home and started a herd – while serving as a self-appointed guardian of the trail, driving off dangerous men. He'd hoped those days were over, but the latest attack shows he was wrong.

Deborah Harkness saved her younger sister and two toddlers during the attack, and now finds herself at the mercy of her rescuer. Trace offers them the only shelter for miles around, and agrees to take them in until she can safely continue. His simple bachelor existence never anticipated kids and women in the picture and their arrival is unsettling – yet enticing.

Working to survive the winter and finally bring justice to the trail, Trace and Deborah find themselves drawn together – yet every day approaches the moment she'll leave forever.

***

Rating: 3.5/5

I hate to say this, but I wasn't really all that happy with this one. Yes it was engaging, and yet it had a good plot, and it had so much going for it which drives me crazy because Mary Connealy didn't seem to harness it properly.

I'm not the biggest fan of western stories, though once in a while I'll pick up a good one. When I was a teenager, I was in love with Gilbert Morris' Reno series. But, unfortunately, this story just didn't meet my expectations.

Trace was such a sweet man and is the kind of man I dream of finding someday.

The plot of this novel was good, with the climax hitting at the end with a decent resolution afterwards. The novel itself ends rather abruptly, but I can see how it leads immediately to its sequel, The Reluctant Warrior, which comes out later this year. I think I will read it when it comes out, just to quell some curiosities I have.

I guess the biggest problem I have it the fact that there were blocks of dialogue that here paragraphs long. It really didn't work for this novel. When Trace told Deb about his past, he kept talking and talking, instead of switching over to a flashback or something that would have drawn the reader deeper into the world of the story.

The way the story was written made me feel like I was on the 'outside' instead of being sucked in. The goal of the author should be to suck their readers into their story. I like it when I'm sucked into a story, because that way I can escape from the stresses of real life for a while.

This is only a problem, I think, because I've been training myself to become a better writer, and through my countless hours reading articles by other authors, I've begun to notice little things that break little rules I've learned to follow. It's kind of like how my training to become a better photographer has been judging the pictures I've seen and the movies I've watched, to the point I can't look at a blurry photo and call it 'good' anymore.

The Accidental Guardian had its good and its bad, and one day I might reread it when my life isn't as stressful it has been over the last month. But until then, the book will remain at a firm 3.5 out of 5.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Agatha Christie. 1920. William Morrow Paperbacks. Pages: 230 (plus an extra scene). [Source: Bought]

Who poisoned wealthy Emily Inglethorp and how did the murderer penetrate and escape from her locked bedroom? Suspects abound in the quaint village of Styles St. Mary - from the heiress's fawning new husband to her two stepsons, her volatile housekeeper, and a pretty nurse who works in a hospital dispensary. Making his unforgettable debut, the brilliant Belgian detective is on the case.

~~~

Rating: ★★★✩✩

Although I finished this novel on New Years Eve, this review comes a couple days too late and doesn't count towards the Back to the Classics challenge I participated in last year. Unfortunately, I went to college, and the course load didn't let me pick it up other than to move it around my dorm room.

I have mixed feelings about this mystery, I guess I'm still getting used to Agatha Christie's style, but I found this mystery to be rather long-winded. I get that this was the first book of her Hercule Poirot series and that she was basically introducing her character in this book, but there were some things that irked me.

Silly me, I found myself introducing myself to Agatha Christie through the tenth book in her Hercule Poirot series, Murder On the Orient Express. So it came as quite a shock when I began to read The Mysterious Affair at Styles and I found the story had been written in first-person - since the other had been written in third. I guess this is what I disliked the most about this book, because I came in expecting to follow Poirot around and instead found myself following this guy around whose last name was not 'Poirot'.

All in all, I did enjoy this novel, even though the time it took for me to finish reading this (which was 4 months) made it feel like the mystery had stretched on forever. I enjoyed the mystery because you couldn't tell who was the murderer until the very end. And the true murderer of Emily Inglethorp came as quite the shock to me. I never saw it coming!

Book Review: The Artisan's Wife

The Artisan's Wife. Judith Miller. 2016. Bethany House Publishers. Pages: 333. [Source: Netgalley / Bethany House Publishers review program]

Ainslee McKay's world is shaken when she discovers her twin sister has not only eloped with a man she barely knows but now Ainslee must fulfill their obligation at a tile works in Weston, West Virginia. Ainslee must learn the ropes and, if she can keep the tile works profitable, her brother will help her sell the business. 
When Levi Judson arrives and shows Ainslee his designs for new tiles, she's impressed by his skill and passion for the business. But he's hiding his true reason for coming to Weston. And Ainslee knows he'd be crushed to learn his plans for a long career at McKay Tile Works are in vain since she intends to sell. Can the growing feelings between them survive if the truth comes to light--or is a future together as untenable as the future of the tile works itself?

~~~

Rating: ★★✩✩✩

I was sorely disappointed with this novel. At points I thought the story was going well, but then the jumbled plot soured my opinion of the story. When I chose to read and review this novel, I expected that the story would revolve around Ainslee and how she struggled to keep the fact that she wanted to sell the tile works from the man she fell in love with. Instead, Ainslee's older brother drops the bomb in front of the man she loves, a man who is one of her employees (that's why she was trying to keep the secret from him). And she wasn't madly in love with him at the time - yet.

I couldn't get into this novel, and not because it was the third novel in a series (something I didn't know when I requested the novel). The interactions, reactions, and the way the characters felt stilted, unrealistic to me. I know that Judith Miller put a lot of time and energy and thought into the story, but I didn't like it.

The plot felt strung out. The tension that could have been gained was let go half-way through the novel (the secret about wanting to sell the tile works), and the sudden appearance of "awful" Aunt Margaret and subsequent death seemed unneeded and pointless to the story - it probably would have seemed less pointless to me if I was forewarned about the novel being the third in its series and I had read the first two instalments. There wasn't enough forewarning about Aunt Margaret for her part to mesh with the rest of the story. 

I wish I liked the story more, because I really did like Ainslee. And I really felt for her when her twin sister took off on her and eloped. But that wasn't enough.

The Magician's Nephew

The Magician's Nephew. The Chronicle's of Narnia #1. C.S. Lewis. 1955. HarperCollins Publishers. Pages: 221. [Source: Childhood Gift]

He never finished what he was going to say for at that moment something happened. The high-backed chair in front of the fire moved suddenly and there rose out of it - like a pantomime demon coming up out of a trapdoor - the alarming form of Uncle Andrew. They were not in the empty house at all; they were in Digory's house and in the forbidden study! Both children said "O-o-oh" and realized their terrible mistake. They felt they ought to have known all along that they hadn't gone nearly far enough. 

• • •

Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

• • •

The Magician's Nephew continues to be my favourite Narnia novel. It's not because it's the first novel, no, it's because of what Digory and Polly have to go through and what they see on their way to and while they're in Narnia.

I can still remember the day when my father gave me my boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia - I was in second grade, I think, and I was getting ready to go to an assembly with my father at the school I was going to (Comox Elementary, which has sadly been closed down). He handed me the boxed set and let me open it, and told me he would read the books to me whenever he could. And he did, though the last novel I remember that he read to me was The Horse and His Boy. I read the rest by myself because my father, I guess, soon became too busy to just sit down and read to me.

The story starts with Polly playing out in the garden when a boy peeks his face up over the wall dividing his garden from her own. The boy, who she was soon to learn was named Digory, was crying because of how ill his mother was getting. After that meeting, they become good friends and go regular little adventures, you know, the kind kids like to do.

But one day, they go up into the attic and decide to try and go explore the empty row house attached to their houses. But they make a grave mistake and accidentally enter into Digory's attic, where they discover that his uncle has converted the attic into a study...

This has to be my most favourite Narnia novel. There's so many things that happen in it that make me think. Think, think, THINK, think, THINK! And I love it when a book makes me THINK.

One of the parts of the books that makes me think the most is the part when Digory and Polly appear in Charn and take in what's left of that world. The fact that Charn's sun is red and "tired"-looking immediately makes me think that Charn's sun was a red giant - which is a star that has reached the end of it's life. It was hanging low over the horizon, so it made me think that it had probably swelled from its original size and took up most of the sky by the time Digory and Polly got there. Charn was an old world, and yet the sun had always been large and red, according to Jadis.

The fact that Charn was no more by the time Digory and Polly's adventure in Narnia was over unsettles me a bit, and I don't know why. 

I deeply love C.S. Lewis' style of writing in this book. It makes it sound like a lovely fairy-tale and it sucks me in every time I open this story. I look forward to the day I can read it to my kids, like my father did to me.

One thing I wish I could do, though, was find one of the sets of green and gold rings that Uncle Andrew created. I would love to explore the Wood between the Worlds, just to see what other worlds there could have been. My curiosity always gets to me like that. What other worlds were there other than ours and Charn and Narnia?

Note: I never realized, until now, that Digory and Polly lived in the Victorian era, when Sherlock Holmes still solved mysteries and the thought of motor-cars were still a bit of a ways away...

The Phantom of the Opera / Le Fantôme de l'Opéra

The Phantom of the Opera / Le Fantôme de l'Opera. Gaston Leroux. 1909-1910/1911. Bantam Classics. Pages: 338. [Source: Library]

When I borrowed The Phantom of the Opera from the library, I didn't really know what I was getting into. I thought that the story would start out with the main characters, which I assumed were the Phantom and the girl, which I later learned was Christine.

But no, The Phantom of the Opera began with a group of characters that had nothing to do with the story at all, and that was when my frustration began.

I was disappointed with The Phantom of the Opera because I my mother told me that it was Phantom/Christine-centric. Yes, the story revolves around Christine and the Phantom, but not as much as I had thought. Hoped. Instead, as I read, I felt removed from the action, unable to connect with the characters.

It was torture for me to get through this novel. In fact, it read less like a novel and more like an autobiography/Leroux's personal opinion of what happened. I went in wanting a novel and didn't get what I wanted.

So, I did not like The Phantom of the Opera. I did not like Erik/The Phantom, nor did like Christine. Christine didn't feel real. She was out there. She infuriated me. I connected with Raoul, more than anyone else because of how Christine played with his heart! She would go to him, and then leave, over and over, and it made me so MAD at her! In my head I imagined throwing the book across the room, and throttling her.

But I made it to the end, and Raoul finally got the girl. I guess I can be slightly pleased with that ending. But, oh boy, I'm never going to pick this book up again.

Book Review: From This Moment

From This Moment. Elizabeth Camden. 2016. Bethany House Publishers. Pages: 352. [Source: Netgalley/ebook from Bethany House Publishers' book review program]

Romulus White has tried for years to hire illustrator Stella West for his renowned scientific magazine. She is the missing piece he needs to propel his magazine to the forefront of the industry. But Stella abruptly quit the art world and moved to Boston with a single purpose: to solve the mysterious death of her beloved sister. Romulus, a man with connections to high society and every important power circle in the city, could be her most valuable ally.

Sparks fly the instant Stella and Romulus join forces, and Romulus soon realizes the strong-willed and charismatic Stella could disrupt his hard-won independence. Can they continue to help each other when their efforts draw the wrong kind of attention from the powers-that-be and put all they've worked for at risk?

~~~

When I requested From This Moment, I was drawn by the potential for a good mystery hinted at in the synopsis. And I wasn't disappointed. It was one of those times that I wished Bethany House Publishers was able to send me a physical copy of the book so I would be able to keep it after I reviewed it! It's definitely going to be a book I'm going to add to my collection, just so I can read it again sometime.

There were so many things I loved about this novel, from how real the characters were to the mystery and the thrill I get when we don't know who is friend or foe. Romulus was my favourite character by far. He was so 3D is was crazy. He's definitely the kind of man I would like to marry some day - not because he runs a magazine or because he's handsome. I'd marry him if I could because of his personality.

This novel was one wild ride, and was oh so realistic. I felt like I was there, in Victorian Boston, watching as the streets were dug up so the subway could be built. The dynamics between characters were as real and volatile as if they were happening in real life.

I was quite surprised at how rough the constabulary was with Stella. When two constables barged their way into Stella's boarding-house room, I nearly had to swallow my heart! I guess I was really surprised since I'm used to Murdoch Mysteries, a mystery series that takes place in Victorian Toronto, where a couple of the regular characters are constables at Stationhouse 4. Constables Higgins and Crabtree are actually gentlemen with whoever they interact with.

I guess I learn something new every day. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who would like to read it.

Book Review: Playing the Part

Playing the Part. Jen Turano. A Class of Their Own Book 3. 2016. Bethany House Publishers. Pages: 352. [Source: Netgalley/ebook from Bethany House Publisher's book review program]

Lucetta Plum is an actress on the rise in New York City, but is forced to abandon her starring role when a fan's interest turns threatening. Lucetta's widowed friend, Abigail Hart, is delighted at the opportunity to meddle in Lucetta's life and promptly whisks her away to her grandson's estate to hide out.

Bram Haverstein may appear to simply be a somewhat eccentric gentleman of means, but a mysterious career and a secret fascination with a certain actress mean there's much more to him than society knows.

Lucetta, who has no interest in Abigail's matchmaking machinations, has the best intentions of remaining cordial but coolly distant to Bram. But when she can't ignore the strange and mysterious things going on in his house, it'll take more than good intentions to keep her from trying to discover who Bram is behind the part he plays.

~~~

When I requested Playing the Part, I was wondering if I would get the same satisfaction I would get from reading a novel such as Julie Klassen's. Jen Turano's Playing the Part did not disappoint, even though her writing style took me a bit to get used to.

Right away I fell in love with all the characters, though I did become a little annoyed at Abigail for trying to hook Lucetta up with someone. I speak from experience when I say that I understand why she wanted to run from Abigail's matchmaking attempts, since my mom and grandmother used to tease me about any cute boy I came across when I was younger.

Bram Haverstein was such a realistic character that I could almost see him standing on the pages. I enjoyed his character, his personality, and found that if I knew him in real life I would assuredly have considered him a good friend of mine.

It's so refreshing to come across a historical fiction novel by an author who isn't one that you're used to. It's also refreshing to find an interesting story that takes place post-Civil War that doesn't take place in the Wild West (no offense, those can be good too if they pique my interest).

Playing the Part was sprinkled with just the right amount of humor, mystery, and suspense that was where it was supposed to be. I would be extremely interested in looking into more of Jen Turano's books once I've worked through my To Be Read pile.

Congratulations, Jen Turano, I think you just gained a new fan!