Category Archives: B and H

Double Blind By Brandilyn Collins – Review And Book Giveaway

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Double Blind

Double Blind by Brandilyn Collins

***I’m giving away one copy of Double Blind. To be entered into the giveaway, you must read my review and ANSWER THE following QUESTION:

If you were suffering from severe depression, and were offered a unique cure, a computer chip implanted into your brain to cure your depression, would you do it? Keep in mind that the chip implantation would include brain surgery. Also comment about why you would or would not do this.

Lisa Newberry is battling a deep, dark depression. Her husband was recently killed in a car accident, a short time later she was mugged, and before her husband died, she suffered from multiple miscarriages. Lisa feels she has no hope, so, when a company, Cognoscenti, offers help, she decides to be a part of their new trial study. The study requires Lisa to have a chip implanted into her brain. This new brain chip supposedly offers a “cure” for her depression.

Desperate, she agrees to the terms, which require her to have brain surgery. There’s no guarantee that the chip will help her depression – it’s possible that Lisa will be implanted with a placebo. After the surgery, Lisa feels much better, realizing the chip has “cured” her depression. However, while still in the hospital, recuperating from surgery, Lisa begins having strange dreams and visions – she sees images of a woman being murdered. Are these images just nightmares, or, is she really seeing visions of a real person being murdered?

Determined, Lisa storms into the Cognoscenti offices, wanting to know what they’ve done to her, demanding answers.

Lisa continues to be plagued with these visions and, her mother arrives, offering to help Lisa. Lisa’s relationship with her mother is strained, and she’s not sure if she wants her mother to help her right now. Her best friend, Sherri, also offers assistance to Lisa.

I could easily tell that this was a Brandilyn Collins book. The woman seeing the visions of the murder kind of reminded me of Collins’ book, Eyes Of Elisha. This book kept you guessing until the very end, and it was deeply suspenseful and chilling. It was a quick, page-turning, enjoyable read. There were so many unexpected things happening in this book – you’ll be surprised when you read it.

Amidst all this turmoil, Lisa realizes she needs to stop and think and evaluate her relationship with God, where does she stand with Him?

So, if you were suffering from severe depression, and were offered a unique cure, a computer chip implanted into your brain to cure your depression, would you do it? Leave a comment with your response in order to be entered into the drawing! Don’t forget to leave your email address so that I can contact you if you win!

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~Cecelia Dowdy~

Rooms By James Rubart

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Rooms by James Rubart

On a rainy spring day in Seattle, young software tycoon Micah Taylor receives a cryptic, twenty-five-year-old letter from a great uncle he never knew. It claims a home awaits him on the Oregon coast that will turn his world inside out. Suspecting a prank, Micah arrives at Cannon Beach to discover a stunning brand new nine-thousand square foot house. And after meeting Sarah Sabin at a nearby ice cream shop, he has two reasons to visit the beach every weekend.

When bizarre things start happening in the rooms of the home, Micah suspects they have some connection to his enigmatic new friend, Rick, the town mechanic. But Rick will only say the house is spiritual. This unnerves Micah because his faith slipped away like the tide years ago, and he wants to keep it that way. But as he slowly discovers, the home isn’t just spiritual, it’s a physical manifestation of his soul, which God uses to heal Micah’s darkest wounds and lead him into an astonishing new destiny.

I got this book as a free Kindle download awhile ago. I don’t own a regular Kindle. I have the free Kindle for PC. Hopefully, I’ll own a Kindle by Christmas! 🙂

I found this book somewhat appealing since I’m a big fan of The Twilight Zone. This show was on before I was born and I watch reruns on New Year’s and Fourth of July almost every year.

Rooms reminded me of one long Twilight Zone episode. The book was somewhat intriguing and I wanted to see if Micah and Sarah ended up together at the end and I also wanted to see the outcome of Micah’s faith journey. This book has a great inspirational message that I believe most readers of Christian fiction would love.

Micah is shocked when rooms start appearing in the house he’s inherited from his crazy Uncle Archie. He goes to bed and wakes up and sees a room that was NOT in the house the day before! Although I thought the concept was interesting, during the first half of the book, I felt the situation was somewhat repetitious as Micah found room after room after room…the same situation over and over again. Also, when Micah talks to the mysterious voice (his own voice/alter ego), I felt it was a little bit repetitious too, hearing Micah talk and reason with himself.

Also, when the book talked about the parallel universe, it kind of reminded me of another sci-fi type book entitled Eli. I read Eli several years ago and I recall the book dealt with a parallel universe.

I was kind of puzzled about why Rooms was compared to Dekker’s and Peretti’s book House. Rooms was intriguing, the way the Twilight Zone is intriguing because you’re dealing with supernatural/unexplainable elements, but I didn’t find the book scary at all.

I wanted to see what happened in the book, but I found the writing to be corny. I felt the dialogue was somewhat clichéd and some of the situations that were supposed to be serious felt somewhat contrived to me. Also, I noticed the author used dated references like: Popeye, Foghorn Leghorn, and Candid Camera for example. I’m not sure younger readers would get the gist of what the author was talking about with the dated references.

This book does show you that you can’t rely on riches and wealth, only your faith in God, the one and only true God, to save you.

I think the story would’ve been more powerful if Micah ran a company that was distasteful to a lot of Christians, like, a porn company or an illegal company. I think the message would have come through better if Micah ran a company like that, and then learned that his ways were distasteful to the Lord? I think it was hard for me to grasp that Micah gave up his software company for God…almost making the reader feel that the author is pointing out that riches are distasteful to God, even if they are legal, like Micah’s software company.

This book was outside my regular genre of pleasure reading (romance, women’s fiction, regular suspense) but overall, Rooms was an interesting story and you’ll want to know what happens at the end.

~Cecelia Dowdy~