Rachel Kovaciny's Blog

"Comets Fade with Summer" by Amber Lambda

I didn't know quite what to expect from this book.  A teenage girl is falling in love with her imaginary best friend?  What?  I got it as a gift from a friend who was confident I would like it, and they were right!  I did.
Halley has to move to California right before she starts the next year of high school.  She'd worked so hard to fit in with the coolest girls in her old high school, and now she has to start all over... but how?  She's not actually cool herself, she's just really good at blendi...

"Shadows of the Valley" by Britt Howard

I have been looking forward to this book for months and months!  I very much enjoyed the first McCade Family Novel, Song of the Valley , when I read that a couple of years ago, but I liked Shadows of the Valley even more!
This is a suspenseful story with a modern western setting and a slow-burn romance.Kasey Carter is a retired military veteran who has suffered severe wounds, both physical, emotional, and spiritual.  When her younger half-sister begs Kasey to hide and protect her children for a ...

"Of Clockworks and Daggers" by Sarah Everest

This is the second book in the Games of Greed and Ruin series -- the first was One Must Die , which Sarah Everest co-wrote with five other authors.
Of Clockworks and Daggers follows the adventures of Zenith, a young assassin-for-hire whose beliefs about his entire existence are challenged when he meets a mysterious fellow assassin who has a dangerous offer for him.  Zenith has been trying to live an honest life ever since the events at the mysterious sky mansion in One Must Die.  He's also been tr...

"Deep in the Heart" by Gilbert Morris

I picked up this book and its two sequels on a whim at a used bookstore a couple months ago.  I can remember my mom reading Gilbert Morris books when I was a teen, but I hadn't read him before.  
On a whole, I liked this first book in the Lone Star Legacy trilogy pretty well. I loved Clay and I liked Jerusalem Ann.  I liked most of the characters, actually.  And the history of Texas always fascinates me.  Though that ended up getting in my way a bit here.
Morris sets this during the time leading u...

"The Summer of Yes" by Courtney Walsh

While I wouldn't really call this "Christian Fiction" (though it is marketed as such), it's certainly clean and uplifting.  Characters do vaguely mention the Bible and praying a couple of times.  But for it to be Christian Fiction, I would want to see a lot more active faith on the part of the characters, and that should somehow be involved in their character arcs.
However, it's a really fun book the way it is. Kelsey is a wannabe book editor working as an assistant at a big NYC publisher, and ge...

"Follow the Lonesome Trail" Releases Today!

It's here!  The wild west anthology Follow the Lonesome Trail releases today!

This brand-new collection boasts stories by Allison Tebo, Hannah Kaye, A. Hartley, Emily Hayse, Elisabeth Grace Foley, and Rachel Kovaciny (aka me).  
My short story in this book is called "Safekeeping," and it's a story of second chances and hope.  A loner learns that he's inherited a poke of gold, but it's in the clutches of a greedy bartender, and he has to come up with a creative solution to get what's rightfully his...

"Chase the Legend" by Hannah Kaye

Chase the Legend by Hannah Kaye is a fantasy retelling of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.  It's about a young woman signs on with a crew hunting a legendary dragon.  She makes new friends, faces new and old fears, and finally comes to terms with the fact that she's been fleeing her future as much as her past.  
It's a good shipboard adventure story, and the characters are unique and entertaining... but I never quite connected to any of them.  That might be just a me thing, as I have come to realize...

"The Code of the Woosters" by P. G. Wodehouse

My teens and I listened to The Code of the Woosters while on a family road trip this summer, and howled our way through the whole thing. Jonathan Cecil is an absolute delight when it comes to reading the Jeeves and Wooster books.
If you are curious, this is the book involving an antique cow creamer.  Someone buys it.  Someone else wants it.  Bertie agrees to steal it.  Bertie decides not to steal it.  Various friends of Bertie's get engaged, break of engagements, attempt to steal the cow creamer....

"Midsummer Mysteries" by Agatha Christie

I did it!  I read all four of these season-themed Christie collections in four consecutive seasons!
It's the little things in life, amiright?
The short stories in this volume include stories about Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Mr. Quin, Tommy and Tuppence, and Mr. Parker Pyne.  Plus a story or two with none of them.  I've grown so fond of Pyne and Quin that I have actually picked up collections of stories about only them, because I'd like to read more!
I'd say my favorite stories in this are "Jane i...

"North and South" by Elizabeth Gaskell (again)

Have you ever felt like God nudged you to read a specific book when you needed it, without your realizing He was doing that?
At the beginning of June, my father-in-law was discussing the Industrial Revolution with some of us.  He said something about wanting a good way to get a clear idea of how the implementation of factories affected ordinary people.  I piped up and recommended North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, which is all about the two sides of the factory coin -- it shows the struggles o...