Category Archives: Thomas Nelson

Plain Perfect By Beth Wiseman

Plain Perfect by Beth Wiseman
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (September 9, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1595546308
ASIN: B0023RSZT6

A search for peace in Amish country proves anything but simple for a woman on the run from life…and herself.

On the rolling plains of Lancaster County, PA., Lillian Miller is searching for her grandparents’ house…and so much more. After years of neglect and abuse, she’s turning to a lifestyle of simplicity among the Amish to find herself.

As she discards the distractions of her former life, she befriends the young boy working on her family’s farm and his attractive widowed father, Samuel Stoltzfus. Despite Lillian’s best efforts to the contrary, her feelings for Samuel–and his for her–deepen. Will Lillian find her faith in Plain living, or will she be forced to return to her former life?

This was a sweet story about a woman who is searching for something. Miserable with her life, she escapes from her abusive, live-in boyfriend and goes on a quest to find her estranged grandparents in Amish territory. Lillian’s life is full of questions: Why did you mom leave the Amish community when she was young? Who is Lillian’s father? Can she find the peace she seeks by living as an Amish woman for awhile?

While living among the Amish, Lillian grows closer to her grandparents, feeling sadness about her grandfather’s cancer. He is suffering, but will only do so much to ease his own pain because of his Amish beliefs. Lillian’s grandmother is worn out, and Lillian attempts to make the lives of the elderly couple easier as she learns the Amish way of life.

Romantic sparks fly when Emily meets Samuel, a young Amish widower. She grows close to Samuel’s son, but the couple struggles with the fact that it’s a sin to be unequally yoked and Lillian is not an Amish woman.

I thought this story was sweet and enjoyable. It was a light, inspiring read.

SPOILER BELOW:

Don’t read the following if you haven’t read the book but plan on reading it in the future.

I did think it was a bit unrealistic that Lillian became Amish at the end. I’ve noticed in some of the Plain/Amish stories that an English person will become Amish at the end – this especially happens when they want to live happily ever after with their Amish mate. I’d think it would be a rare feat to give up all modern conveniences that we’ve enjoyed since birth and convert to the Amish way of live. Although it’s possible, I don’t feel that it’s plausible. This comment has no bearing on the story – I still thought it was a nice read, but I just couldn’t imagine the ending to turn out like it did.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Skin By Ted Dekker

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SKIN BY TED DEKKER PODCAST

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you like suspenseful Christian fiction then you must read Shades of Chocolate. Shades of Chocolate is about Toni, an unsaved woman who runs a chocolate-themed bakery. Her life is in danger and as she struggles with religion and faith issues, she works with Jason. Toni has hired Jason to work in her bakery. Jason is wealthy, and while he’s on hiatus from his family’s business, he grows closer to Toni. He’s worried about her – can he protect her? He wants her to share his faith – but that would take a miracle. Come and read this faith-filled wonderful Amazon bestselling novel today! Tell your friends and church buddies by sharing the link at the end of this blog post. You may also go to https://ceceliadowdy.com/shades-of-chocolate/
Skin by Ted Dekker

Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (April 3, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1595542779

From the back cover:
A freak storm has spawned three tornadoes that are bearing down on the town of Summerville. Yet under the cover of the storm looms a much more ominous threat: A vindictive killer known as Red who’s left a string of victims in his wake and is now bent on exacting his final revenge on the unsuspecting town. But there is an enigma surrounding Red that the FBI is unwilling to admit-closely guarded secrets of something gone terribly wrong beneath the skin of Summerville. Secrets that will destroy far more than one small town. Wendy Davidson is caught in the middle. She’s a recovering cult survivor who takes refuge in Summerville on her way to visit her estranged mother. And with her, four strangers, any of whom could be the next victim . . . or the killer.

==
This book gave me nightmares. No, I’m not kidding. It was chilling, gruesome and bloody.

HOWEVER, I wanted to keep reading the story. I wanted to see what happened to Wendy, Colt, Pinkus, Nicole, and Carey. I also wanted to find out the identity of the killer named Red.

Five people are drawn together, being influenced by an evil killer named Red. Red is obsessed with ugliness…The five people are forced to decide which one of them is the ugliest…therefore deciding which one of them will die next. Red gives the five ultimatums throughout the book.

This isn’t the usual genre that I read, and in order for me to tell you my full thoughts about the story, I’ll have to give spoilers. If you want a chilling story that’ll keep you reading, this book is for you. But, if you’re somewhat squeamish, I wouldn’t recommend this novel. See below for my further thoughts….

SPOILER BELOW

I read this novel very quickly. I’ve been reading it the last few nights before going to bed. The book somehow crept into my mind and stayed there…I had bad dreams for two nights. My husband told me to stop reading the book, but I told him that the book was written in a way that made me want to finish.

Wait a second…

If you like religious, wholesome fiction, then read my novel Shades of Chocolate! Over 150 Amazon 5-star reviews! Join my email list and receive fantastic updates about new releases! Now, back to Skin…

This book was filled with so much darkness, sadness and evil…I felt that Dekker could have placed more light into the story…more goodness. It may have been in the story…hidden…and I just didn’t “see” it. I caught a glimpse of truth and goodness at the end, but that’s about it.

I wanted to rewrite the novel and take out some of the blood and gore! Chopped-off fingers, chopped-off hand, hanging deaths, shooting deaths, beautiful face disfigured with a knife, beautiful face disfigured with a blow torch…death, death, death….It was like the streets were swimming with blood…and I just wanted to say, “Stop, enough already!”

It was a bit of a relief to find out that the town was not real and the whole thing was a game. I’m not the most scientifically-minded person, but I found the ending a little bit confusing. Even though it was a game, the events physically affected the players…sometimes. For example, Pinkus’s fingers were severed during the game, but, when they came out of the game, his fingers were intact. Yet, brother and sister Nicole and Carey both died during the game and they were really dead when the game was over. [SEE MY ADDITIONAL INSIGHT BELOW. I THOUGHT OF SOMETHING ELSE ON 11/23/09.]

When the killer is revealed, it’s definitely a shock.

I won’t rant that I didn’t see much of an inspirational message since I’ve heard that this was marketed as a secular book. If I could rewrite this story, I’d place some light into it. [SEE MY ADDITIONAL INSIGHT BELOW. I THOUGHT OF SOMETHING ELSE ON 11/23/09.] Show them praying, calling out to Jesus. It didn’t appear that any of the characters were Christians. I know Carey dealt with the occult, using his pentagram and candles and stuff.

I think this book will stay in my mind for a long time. I didn’t purchase this title. After I read Three and Black, my sister heard me raving about how much I enjoyed Dekker’s work. She found this book in the discount bin at Barnes and Noble and called me, wanting to know if I wanted it. I told her to purchase it for me and she did. I haven’t read all of his books because his genre is not my usual preference, but, his genre (at least the older books) are something I can read and enjoy occasionally.

Parts of this novel reminded me of the following three movies:

It (Stephen King wrote the book. I can’t read King, either. I tried to read a King novel when I was in my early twenties and I didn’t make it past chapter one. The novel was well-written, but, he gave me nightmares, so I stopped reading and never tried again.)
Jumangi – Just Google it to find out what this movie’s about. Not sure if I spelled it right. Robin Williams starred in it and he was swept into a board game as a child, but returns from the game once he’s an adult.
The Matrix

As time goes by, and if the mood permits, I’ll probably read some more of Dekker’s older stuff within the next year or so, like the rest of the Circle series. If he has other titles as gruesome as this one, I don’t think I’ll read them.

***Additional thoughts…this book is still heavy on my mind and I just wish it would go away! I did come up with a thought on the inspirational aspect of this story this evening (11/23/09). Carey was involved with the occult and I’m assuming his sister Nicole was, too, therefore making them evil/bad as far as God is concerned. The killer, Red, is also evil, for obvious reasons. All three of these people end up dead while the good people, Wendy, Colt, and Pinkus, manage to live throughout the game. The “goodness” of Wendy, Cold, and Pinkus is portrayed by the fact that they are now alive and there was no physical damage – that’s why Pinkus still has his fingers. It’s the goodness protecting him and this protection obviously didn’t cover Nicole, Carey, or the killer? I’m rambling now, not sure if I’m on the right track…but that’s all I have to say about this novel. Now, hopefully it’ll leave my mind, allowing me to focus on something more positive and uplifting!

If you like religious, wholesome fiction, then read my novel Shades of Chocolate! Over 150 Amazon 5-star reviews! Join my email list and receive fantastic updates about new releases!

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you like suspenseful Christian fiction then you must read Shades of Chocolate. Shades of Chocolate is about Toni, an unsaved woman who runs a chocolate-themed bakery. Her life is in danger and as she struggles with religion and faith issues, she works with Jason. Toni has hired Jason to work in her bakery. Jason is wealthy, and while he’s on hiatus from his family’s business, he grows closer to Toni. He’s worried about her – can he protect her? He wants her to share his faith – but that would take a miracle. Come and read this faith-filled wonderful Amazon bestselling novel today! Tell your friends and church buddies by sharing the link at the end of this blog post. You may also go to https://ceceliadowdy.com/shades-of-chocolate/

SHADES OF CHOCOLATE BOOK LINK

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Thomas Nelson

1 Reply

I just found out yesterday that Thomas Nelson will start offering self-publishing packages under their Westbow imprint. I have mixed feelings about this for various reasons. I’ve been reading about this on blogs all day. I don’t talk about industry topics on my blog much, but this has been heavy on my mind for the last 24 hours! I’m not a Thomas Nelson author, but, geez, this is a big deal to me…and to others! Here’s a few blog posts about the topic, but, beware, there are tons of comments on Rachelle’s blog about this…over 100!! Sandra Bishop, an agent with Macgregor Literary, blogged about it today, too.

I’d ask what do you think about this, but, I believe all has been said on the other blog posts!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Christian Speculative Fiction

1 Reply

I wanted to make a correction to one of my previous blog posts. I referred to Eric Wilson’s novels as a Christian vampire series. Here’s what Eric said about his novels:
My novels are not “Christian vampire” stories. They are stories from a biblical worldview that deal with the evil nature of vampires and their counterfeit method of finding life in blood (as opposed to our finding life through the blood of Jesus).

I wish more would give the series a chance, because such concepts are widely explored in the mainstream market. As Christians, we too often surrender the battle instead of dealing with the issues head-on.

I believe our discussion of vampires and creatures of the night would fall into the Christian Speculative Fiction category? Novel Journey recently posted about Speculative Fiction in the Christian market. If interested in this topic, then you should read this post.

I think I’m done with this subject for now. Soon, I’ll be posting a review for The List, a novel by Sherri Lewis.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Vampires In Christian Fiction

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One of my blog readers was surprised that I’d mentioned Twilight on this blog because Twilight is about a vampire. Well, coincidentally, I was reading this article yesterday, and discovered that Thomas Nelson, a large, well-known Christian publisher, has a Christian vampire series called Jeruselum’s Undead Trilogy by Eric Wilson. How in the world do you Christianize vampires? I haven’t read these books because, as I stated on this post, I don’t read many vampire/creature-of-the-night novels. If you’ve read this series, I’d be interested in knowing if they’re good, riveting stories? Do the plots draw you in? Here are the book covers and the summary of one of the novels from this series. The covers look pretty scary to me! I’m not sure if I’d want to read this before going to bed at night! I might have nightmares. If you like scary stories with a message, then I think you might want to read these. I might read one of them and then decide if I want to read the other two:

Field of Blood – Jeruselum’s Undead Trilogy Book One
From Barnesandnoble.com
Synopsis

Judas hung himself in a place known as the Akeldama or Field of Blood.

But what if his death didn’t end his betrayal?

What if his tainted blood seeped deep into the earth, into burial caves, causing a counterfeit resurrection of the dead?

Gina Lazarescu, a Romanian girl with a scarred past, has no idea she is being sought by the undead.

The Collectors, those released from the Akeldama, feed on souls and human blood. But there are also the Nistarim, those who rose from their graves in the shadow of the Nazarene’s crucifixion–and they still walk among us, immortal, left to protect mankind.

Gina realizes her future will depend on her understanding of the past, yet how can she protect herself from Collectors who have already died once but still live?

The Jerusalem’s Undead Trilogy takes readers on a riveting journey, as imaginative fiction melds with biblical and archaeological history.

Forever Knight, The Trilogy Part Two

Haunt of Jackals – Book Three

==========
I watched the Twilight movie On Demand yesterday. Surprisingly, I wasn’t intending to watch it. I was going to watch another movie – a foreign film about a cult, but the movie I was hoping to see wasn’t listed On Demand anymore. I’m off from work this week, my husband and child were both out of the house, so I was guaranteed watching a movie with no interruptions. I’d already made my popcorn, and was bummed when I couldn’t find the movie that I wanted to watch. So I decided not to let this movie-watching opportunity to pass me by, so I chose to watch Twilight. It pretty much stayed with the story-line in the novel with a few exceptions.
1. Bella, the main character, is a vegetarian in the movie and her and her dad eat at the diner every night. In the novel, Bella cooked for her and her dad. I don’t recall any scenes at a diner. I kind of liked how they had her cooking meals for herself and her dad. I guess the scriptwriters made her a vegetarian because Edward, the hero, eats animals instead of people, which kind of makes him a vegetarian vampire? This makes both Bella and Edward to have a common bond?
2. The trio of evil vampires don’t appear in the novel until about half or three quarters of the way into the story; when Edward, Bella, and his family are playing a baseball game. In the movie, they added a thread where the evil vampires are killing people in town, eating them. This thread of murders is not included in the book.
3. In the movie, Edward’s family are foster kids to the doctor and his wife. In the book, I don’t recall their being known as foster kids. Everybody was under the impression that they were a natural family?

Those are the main differences that I can recall. I preferred the book over the movie, though. The book drew me in more, and I guess that’s because reading leaves more to the imagination.

If you saw Twilight, and read the novel, which did you prefer, the book or the movie? If you had a preference, could you tell me the reasons behind your preference?

This blog post about vampires has got me to thinking about stories I’ve read in the past that had vampires, but, I’ve come up empty! Vampires and creatures of the night just don’t make my regular list of reading material! Maybe it’s because I used to get scared when I was a little kid when people mentioned vampires! My father, if he came home from work early enough, used to watch a soap opera about vampires called Dark Shadows. I used to cringe when he’d watch it and I hated it when he came home early enough to watch! I wanted to watch The Flintstones, but he’d turn the channel to Dark Shadows! Barnabas Collins (not sure if that’s spelled right) was a vampire in Dark Shadows. This show was on a long time ago, back in the early seventies. I was about four or five at the time.

I also read a novel called Frankenstein by Mary Shelley several years ago. That novel wasn’t very scary, and I recall that the writing was strong, and it’s considered a classic. Frankenstein isn’t a vampire, though, he was a monster.

That’s about all I can say about vampires. The other things about vampires that I’ve been exposed to is stuff you see on TV and in the movies; like using garlic to ward off vampires – weird stuff like that…
~Cecelia Dowdy~

The Perfect Life by Robin Lee Hatcher

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The Perfect Life by Robin Lee Hatcher
Paperback: 302 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (February 5, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1595541489
ISBN-13: 978-1595541482

Product Description – from Amazon.com

Katherine Clarkson has the perfect life. Married to Brad, a loving and handsome husband, respected in their church and the community. Two grown daughters on the verge of starting families of their own. A thriving ministry. Good friends. A comfortable life.

She has it all–until the day a reporter appears with shocking allegations. Splashed across the local news are accusations of Brad’s financial impropriety at his foundation and worse, an affair with a former employee. Without warning, Katherine’s marriage is shattered and her family torn apart. The reassuring words she’s spoken to many brokenhearted women over the years offer little comfort now.

Her world spinning, Katherine wonders if she can find the truth in the chaos that consumes her. How can she survive the loss of what she thought was the perfect life?

For those interested. I’m giving away this novel.

Robin Lee is one of my favorite authors. One thing she did in this book, which I wasn’t used to seeing her do in other novels, was use the first person point of view for one of the characters. If you read this book, I highly recommend you finish it. Something happens at the end that surprises you, making you stop and wonder when people are accused of something, whom should you believe is telling the truth? The subject of adultery is dealt with in this novel, however, based upon the outcome, I feel that it’s dealt with in a very different, yet believable manner. This book was a good, quick read. I read it on the plane while I was on my way home from Chicago!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

With This Ring, I’m Confused

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SPOILER WARNING!!!!

I recently finished reading With This Ring, I’m Confused by Kristin Billerbeck. It’s the third and final installment to the Ashley Stockingdale series. Ashley is a thirty-something Christian woman who is anxious to get married. She finally does gain a fiance, by the name of Kevin Novak, who also happens to be a pediatric surgeon. Although I enjoyed the book and I thought Billerbeck was funny in her depictions of Kevin’s mother and his crazy anorexic sister Emily, I felt that she should have had more scenes showing Ashley and Kevin together. Since Ashley and Kevin are engaged, you can assume they are in love, however, other than a few scenes where they hug or kiss, or have some meal in a restaurant, I don’t think I see them enough, intereacting with each other to believe that they are in love.

I did enjoy the antics of Emily as she did a lot of things to spoil Ashley’s wedding. The main thing she did was cancel Ashley’s wedding dress, and instead ordered a Scarlett-O’hara-styled dress that Ashley hates. Plus Ashley argues with her future mother in law and Emily about having a buffet dinner or a sit-down dinner.

On top of all the turmoil going on in Ashley’s life, her ex-boyfriend, Seth, comes to work for her company. Seeing her ex each day swings her emotions into overdrive as he tries to convince her to call off the wedding. As time moves on, Seth admits that he’s going to marry Arin, a petite mutual “friend” at their church who is pregnant, however, he is not the baby’s father.

After Kevin gains a backbone and learns to stand up to his mother and sister, Ashley does manage to have the wedding of her dreams in the end….wearing her beloved Vera Wang wedding gown!

Until next time,
Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com
www.blackchristianfiction.com