Title: Breath of Angel
Author: Karyn Henley
Published: June 21, 2011 by Waterbrook Press
Purchased: Received free from work, $2.99 on Kindle.
☆/5
Blurb: The stranger’s cloak had fallen back, and with it, a long, white, blood-stained wing.
When Melaia, a young priestess, witnesses the gruesome murder of a stranger in the temple courtyard, age-old legends recited in song suddenly come to life. She discovers wings on the stranger, and the murderer takes the shape of both a hawk and a man.
Angels. Shape-shifters. Myths and stories—until now.
Melaia finds herself in the middle of a blood feud between two immortal brothers who destroyed the stairway to heaven, stranding angels in the earthly realm. When Melaia becomes a target, she finds refuge with a band of angels attempting to restore the stairway. But the restoration is impossible without settling an ancient debt—the “breath of angel, blood of man,” a payment that involves Melaia’s heart, soul, and destiny.
Title: The Canary List
Author: Sigmund Brouwer
Published: June 21, 2011 by Waterbrook Press
Purchased: Received free from work, $9.99 on Kindle.
☆/5
Blurb: Protected by the dark of night, Jaimie Piper runs. But is anywhere safe when Evil is hunting you?
She’s just a twelve year-old girl, bumped around between foster homes and relegated to school classes for challenged kids, those lagging in their test scores or with behavioral issues. But her real problem is that she can sense something the other kids can’t—something dark. Something compelling her to run for her life.
All Crockett Grey wants is to mark the anniversary of his daughter’s death alone.
But when his student Jaimie comes to him, terrified, her need for protection collides with his grief, and a tangled web of bizarre events sends them both spiraling toward destruction.
Crockett’s one hope of getting his life back is to uncover the mysterious secrets of Jaimie’s past and her strange gift. It isn’t long before his discoveries lead him to a darker conspiracy, secrets guarded by the highest seat of power in the world—the Vatican.
Title: The Skin Map
Author: Stephen R. Lawhead
Published: August 31, 2010 by Thomas Nelson
Purchased: I can’t remember the date but, I purchased it in hardback, $7.99 on Kindle
☆/5
Blurb: It is the ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure. Chasing a map tattooed on human skin. Across an omniverse of intersecting realities. To unravel the future of the future.
Kit Livingstone’s great-grandfather appears to him in a deserted alley during a tumultuous storm. He reveals an unbelievable story: that the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legend or the weekend hobby of deluded cranks, but pathways to other worlds. To those who know how to use them, they grant the ability to travel the multi-layered universe of which we ordinarily inhabit only a tiny part.
One explorer knew more than most. Braving every danger, he toured both time and space on voyages of heroic discovery. Ever on his guard and fearful of becoming lost in the cosmos, he developed an intricate code—a roadmap of symbols—that he tattooed onto his own body. This Skin Map has since been lost in time. Now the race is on to recover all the pieces and discover its secrets.
But the Skin Map itself is not the ultimate goal. It is merely the beginning of a vast and marvelous quest for a prize beyond imagining.
Review: The reason I lumped these three together is because, as the title says, I didn’t finish them so the reviews would be quite short and honestly, I feel like these books don’t deserve their own separate posts. I don’t like not finishing books, I really don’t so even if I’m not interested, I still push through. I just couldn’t with these books.
The Breath of Angel book, I got to Chapter 7, set the book down and never picked it up. I admit, there’s things in there that should be very interesting, I should be very curious about it but…it’s how it’s written. Even writing about it now, I have no desire to pick it back up, none at all. It is completely forgettable. Will I pick it up again and try to read through it in the future? Maybe, after a couple of years.
The Canary List, I didn’t even get past the first couple of pages. I tried to read it back in 2011 when I got it but, I couldn’t get through it then, can’t get through it now. It’s a really good thing that I got these two books for free otherwise, I’d be so mad that I completely wasted my money.
The Skin Map. I got much further in this book than I did the last two, I was almost finished actually when I just had to set it down. I was so bored all the way through. What’s really disappointing about this book, so much more so than the others is, I love this author. I loved his Song of Albion series, I loved the first book in The Dragon King Trilogy and I was really, really excited about this one. I was let down, it fell so short. I tried to push through, I really did but, no luck. I was just so bored.
Honestly, if I could give these books negative stars, I would. Even the books that I gave one stars are better than these and I would suggest reading those before reading these in a heartbeat.
Thank you for reading my review.
Fiction - A Separate World 