C.A. Gray's Blog, page 32
January 14, 2022
Soul Harvest, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog post on Soul Harvest.
The post Soul Harvest, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins appeared first on C.A. Gray.
January 13, 2022
Review of Apollyon
I can’t totally say why this book didn’t do it for me. It might have been because I wasn’t paying close enough attention, though usually a fantastic story will hook me such that I can hardly help it. I think it’s more likely that it just felt like more of the same, though. I could point to specific character progressions in the earlier books, intrigue or mysteries that came up and had yet to be resolved. In this one, Hattie gets poisoned by the GC and (spoiler alert) loses her baby to miscarriage, and then decides she wants to assassinate the Potentate in vengeance. Her doctor, a member of the Tribulation Force, falls in love with her for reasons unknown even to the rest of the characters, because she’s as ditzy and unlikeable as ever. Meanwhile, Chloe’s pregnancy advances and it seems like there might be complications. There’s a worldwide rally in Jerusalem of the 144,000 witnesses. All the members of the Tribulation Force are in hiding.
But, it all just felt fairly episodic. I really learned nothing new about any of the main characters, and they didn’t have anything happening in their personal lives beyond what was happening to the world at large as the trumpet judgments progressed. I also didn’t so much care for the theological explanation for why God was “allowing” all of these horrible worldwide judgments. It made sense for characters to ask the question, but the explanation the Tribulation Force gave, that God was essentially responsible for all this carnage because He was lovingly trying to draw people to Himself, doesn’t sound like God at all. They did admit that the locusts (associated with Apollyon at the end) were actually messengers of Satan, and God merely protected His own from them. But the emphasis of their explanation was on God’s ultimate culpability, which they twisted into a depraved message of love.
This book is only #5 of a series of 13… it’s possible I might just try to read synopses of the rest of the series. I am still curious how it all ends, who lives and who dies, but I’m not sure I’m curious enough to read another eight books.
My rating: ***
Language: none
Violence: none to speak of (though violent things are happening so I guess there’s not none)
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
The post Review of Apollyon appeared first on C.A. Gray.
January 7, 2022
Eight Winter Nights by Liz Maverick
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog post of Eight Winter Nights.
The post Eight Winter Nights by Liz Maverick appeared first on C.A. Gray.
January 5, 2022
Review of Soul Harvest
The earthquake that concluded “Nicolae” left Chloe and Amanda, Rayford’s new wife, unaccounted for. Buck presumably survived the earthquake due to his proximity to Rabbi Ben-Judah, one of the sealed 144,000. Rayford survived because of his proximity to Nicolae, and because he was in the air at the time. But the worldwide earthquake from the sixth seal of judgment otherwise wiped out 1/4 of earth’s population. There’s utter chaos and devastation everywhere.
Buck searches frantically for Chloe, believing her to be in the rubble of their home. Rayford hears from multiple sources that Amanda was on a plane that crashed and is now underwater, and Carpathia tells him that it is too difficult to drag up the plane to verify for him that she perished. Rayford just can’t believe that she’s dead though. He especially can’t believe the reports he hears from many sources that she was a plant all along, reporting back to Carpathia on him. But he’s obsessed with first finding her if she’s alive, and clearing her name even if she’s not. The gloves come off with Carpathia, and he no longer shows even a modicum of respect for him.
Rabbi Ben-Judah is also now in hiding, being sheltered by the Tribulation Force, but broadcasting his biblical teachings to the rest of the 144,000 Jewish witnesses via the internet.
Hattie, too, is missing–but Rayford and others begin to suspect that if she survived the earthquake, Carpathia intends to kill her and thus dispose of both her and the child she’s carrying. This is later confirmed when Carpathia reiterates that he wants Rayford to break up with Hattie on his behalf, but Rayford learns that it’s a trap: he wants both of them in the same place so that he can kill them cleanly. Buck goes to rescue her instead, though, and the trap meant for Rayford gets sprung upon Buck instead.
New converts are added to the number of believers in droves, as the title suggests. The earthquake finally convinces many of the survivors to turn to Jesus, and Carpathia’s modest appeal is revealed for the power grab it truly is. The “prophet” is also revealed as Carpathia’s right-hand man, Fortunado.
The action continues, and I still raced right through to the end!
My rating: *****
Language: none
Violence: nothing gratuitous
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
The post Review of Soul Harvest appeared first on C.A. Gray.
December 31, 2021
Christmas Every Day by Beth Moran
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog post.
The post Christmas Every Day by Beth Moran appeared first on C.A. Gray.
December 27, 2021
Review of Eight Winter Nights
A fun chick lit holiday story, though definitely not what I’d call a “sweet” romance. It’s not terribly clean, though not overtly dirty either. At least it wasn’t objectionable enough that I stopped reading.
The story follows Rachel, a Jewish 20-something still living with her very Jewish family, who meets Oz at a Hanukkah party and falls in love at once. Unfortunately, she does everything with her gorgeous best friend Tamara, and once Tamara meets Oz, they hit it off too. Rachel steps back and lets her best friend get the man of her dreams, never telling anyone of her feelings for him–which develop into downright obsession over the subsequent year. A year later, Tamara breaks up with Oz and goes on vacation to Bali, right after Oz breaks his leg. Bizarrely, Tamara tells Rachel she wants her to stay with Oz to take care of him since he’s both injured and heartbroken. Oz, meanwhile, begs copywriter Rachel to help him write love letters to win Tamara back. Rachel draws on her own journals for source material, and feeds Oz the very things she wrote about him, to then send to Tamara. It’s a fairly contrived premise, but it almost doesn’t matter… what’s important is the emotional experience of the characters that follow.
At first I had a bit of a hard time with the idea of a romance where the guy is clearly still into someone else, and it’s a short book, so how exactly was this going to turn around this quickly? But by the time of the Hanukkah party that same year, Oz comes around and realizes that he’d been fooling himself about his own feelings all along. That also might be a bit contrived, but the way it happened in the story was still well done.
I do wish it was easier to find truly sweet romances that also aren’t cheesy, though. Seems that’s too much to ask.
My rating: ***
Language: I think there was some, I didn’t keep track
Violence: none
Sexual content: not “on screen” but there were plenty of innuendoes and fantasies
Political content: none that I can recall
The post Review of Eight Winter Nights appeared first on C.A. Gray.
December 24, 2021
The Christmas Pig by JK Rowling
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog review of The Christmas Pig.
The post The Christmas Pig by JK Rowling appeared first on C.A. Gray.
December 22, 2021
Review of Christmas Every Day
This is one of the best books I’ve read all year! Elements of the beginning of the story are straight out of “The Holiday,” but that’s okay, I love that film. 
The rest felt original to me, and even had some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.
The story follows Jenny, a British 20-something at the lowest part of her life–and that’s saying something. As per most chick lit heroines, at the exposition of the story, everything is going wrong for her. She grew up in a less than supportive family, twin sister to her outrageously beautiful and glamorous sister Zara, and daughter to a mother who did not know how to support or show her love. After mental health crises precipitated by living in Zara’s shadow, Jenny falls for her boss, Richard, whom she dates in secret. She’s sure he’s going to propose to her at the office holiday party in front of everyone–when, suddenly, he proposes to her twin sister instead. She’d been seducing him behind Jenny’s back.
Jenny retreats into the woods of Sherwood Forest, outside a small town that might as well be Star’s Hollow, where her grandmother raised her mother in seclusion. She finds that the cottage she’s inherited should be condemned… and yet, it’s also a duplex. The other side happens to be inhabited by a reclusive, gruff, and absolutely gorgeous man named Mack. (Of course.) Jenny has no money, and also can’t give references to potential employers, because she was fired from her former employer from breaking his new fiancee’s nose and having the cops called on her. (Oops.) But, the town is full of quirky characters with big hearts, willing to give her a chance. She soon becomes nanny to five kids with whom she falls in love, and joins a book club whose members quickly become the best friends she’s ever had. The mysterious Mack, unfriendly though he seems, sneaks into her half of the duplex when she’s not there to perform random acts of kindness when he sees her pitiful living situation.
In time, the book club morphs into more of an accountability group for a life challenge: to achieve each member’s chosen goal by Christmas. For Jenny, it’s to learn more about her family and to make her cottage into a home. For another member, it’s to find her absolute favorite reclusive author, who is supposed to live somewhere in Sherwood Forest. One single mom decides she wants to find love again. One married mom who might as well be single decides she wants to climb a mountain. One sweet secret agent man wants to learn to bake. One elderly woman with cancer wants to go out with a bang, experiencing every adventure she can think of.
Meanwhile, Jenny falls for Mack, but unfortunately learns he’s married–though she has no idea where his wife is. A strange man lurks to try to buy her property or scare her into selling. Jenny’s twin’s wedding looms, and she decides as part of her own self-discovery, she should go. Mack’s wife turns up after all… and she’s not what anybody expected. The story is episodic, much like “Anne of Green Gables” or “Gilmore Girls,” but it definitely leaves the reader with the feeling that what really matters is relationships–of all kinds. (And yes, there’s a Christmas theme too, woven into several key scenes.) It’s the literary equivalent of a cup of hot cocoa.
My rating: *****
Language: if there was any, I don’t remember it
Violence: none to speak of (though there was one weird attempted rape scene that never got very far and was over quickly. Could have done without that.)
Sexual content: none except the above (and again, nothing actually happened).
Political content: none
The post Review of Christmas Every Day appeared first on C.A. Gray.
December 17, 2021
Nicolae, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins
Today’s podcast comes from this blog review of Nicolae, book 3 in the Left Behind series.
The post Nicolae, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins appeared first on C.A. Gray.
December 13, 2021
Review of The Christmas Pig
I’m so glad that JK Rowling is back to writing children’s stories. (Tried the Robert Galbraith stuff, and… no. Way too gratuitous in almost every way.)
One of the things I love about Rowling’s style is how effortless and yet complex her characterization is. She’s a master of showing, not telling, and communicating in as few words as possible the essence of a character’s emotions. I was concerned she might be putting this skill to depressing use in the set-up of this story, though. Poor little Jack finds himself in the midst of his parents’ divorce, with no one to comfort him but the stuffed pig he’s had since he was tiny, and could only call it “Da Pig”–so his name is DP for short. He makes friends at school with a cool older girl named Holly, who is kind to him until they discover that Jack’s mom is going to marry Holly’s dad. Then, suddenly, Holly hates Jack. A classic step-sibling fight escalates until Holly throws DP out a the car window on a wintry Christmas Eve, and it appears DP is gone forever. When Jack’s grandfather can’t find DP, Holly feels bad and buys him a new pig just like DP, but of course the replacement is nothing to him. Jack is furious and devastated. But then his toys come to life on Christmas Eve night, and the real fantasy story begins. (Finally.)
The new pig, later dubbed Christmas Pig, or CP for short, teaches Jack about where lost things go. While their “bodies” are still wherever they were when lost in the real world, their “essences” go to a series of purgatory-like holding stations according to how long they’ve been lost, how important they are to their owners, and whether or not they’re still findable in the real world or whether their “bodies” have been destroyed. On Christmas Eve night, the most magical night of the year, Jack himself can enter this lost world and search for DP, and try to bring him home again. With CP’s help, he braves all the various dangers of this underworld of things to find his best friend and bring him home. But along the way, he learns a lot about his guide, his stepsister, and himself.
The same emotional trappings could be translated to a great love story in a different context. This one is heartwarming, and not nearly as dark as I thought “The Ickabog” was–which is good, for a kids’ story.
My rating: ****1/2
Sexual content: none
Language: none
Violence: none
Political content: none
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