Brilliant Disguises by William Thornton

William Thornton makes his fiction debut with this tale of a man who poses so well as a Christian that he fools everyone--everyone, that is, except for himself and the One he cannot escape. In the process, he seemingly works miracles but cannot satisfy the hunger inside himself to find out who he really is.

The protagonist, is Cameron Leon, a newly-hired worker for the Forster Foundation, a world-wide charitable organization led by a reclusive billionaire. To get the job, Cameron has to join a church. However, Cameron, still mourning the recent death of his brother Peter, decides he will only pretend to "get saved." In the process, he impersonates not only a Christian, but on occasion, his brother. Cameron continues to receive tearful phone calls from Peter's widow, Cecelia, who wants to hear her late husband's voice. Cameron, a born mimic like his brother, flawlessly impersonates him but feels the need for a personal kind of cleansing. Cameron discovers not only how many faces he has, but how many there are among the people around him. In the end, he finds he has been impersonating someone--or Someone--all along.

My Review:
Thank you to the author for providing my copy of this mystical novel.

Written in first person narrative from the viewpoint of the protagonist, Cameron, or Cam, is someone who pretends to be a dedicated Christian even though he does not believe in God; he does this in order to get a job. Cam goes through life striving to do good--or be good enough, but realizes that he falls short. He's a likeable character, who strives to please.

Cam is a quick study with the ability to mimic; he can easily imitate most anyone. One of the strangest things Cam is coerced into doing is to make phone calls to his brother, Peter's widow using Peter's voice. She insists she "needs" this.

The novel causes the reader to question why we pray as we do? Why attend church? Why commit good deeds? I must say that the second half of the novel is much better than the first half.

Discussion questions and additional material are included.

If you would like to read the first chapter, click here.

Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs

A mother who cannot face her future.
A daughter who cannot escape her past.

Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she turns to the auld ways, desperate to conceal a generations-old scandal that taints her family’s name.

Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips. Elisabeth cannot—must not—discover the truth, or all will be ruined.

His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.

One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown.

A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illumines the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.

A Reader’s Guide and Scottish Glossary Are Included.

My Review:
Thank you to the good folks at Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and WaterBrook Press for my copy of one of my favorite authors newest historical fiction works. Although it falls into the category of Christian fiction, there's very little that separates this novel from a secular work. Other than the absence of graphic sexual scenes and profanity, the novel contains only a few references to Psalms.

Set in Scotland and written in the third-person point of view of Elisabeth, the wife of a titled gentlemen, the intricate plot unfolds during the Jacobite Rebellion. Characters are well-formed, and the dialogue is spot on. The one caveat I have is that it leaves me wanting more, and the sequel is not scheduled until 2011. (sigh)

If you'd like to read chapter one, click here.

If you'd like to buy a copy, click here.

The Right Call Sophie Trace Trilogy—Book 3 by Kathy Herman

With information that could solve a series of murders but endangers the girl he loves, a college boy grapples with what to do—and whom to trust.

Ethan Langley is home for the summer, eager to renew his friendship with Vanessa Jessup and her infant son, Carter. And her parents, Police Chief Brill Jessup and her husband, Kurt, approve: Ethan is thoughtful, kind, hard-working, and ambitious. Before Ethan is even settled, a series of random shootings leaves someone he loves dead.

While police are scrambling for suspects, Ethan learns shocking details that could break the case—but it imperils the lives of those he’s come to love. Going to the police with what he knows endangers Vanessa and Carter . . . yet not telling them is just as dangerous. He’s been dealt a risky hand in a game for which he doesn’t know the rules. Will he make the right call?

My Review:
Thank you to The B & B Media Group, Inc. for my copy of this Christian fiction novel. This is the third installment of the Sophie Trace Trilogy series. However, it can be read without having read the others as the author nicely fills in all gaps.

The characters are well written. There's Brill, the first female police chief in the town's history. Working in a high pressure position, while being wife to Kurt, mother of three, and grandmother to Carter, gives her depth. The family grows in love and support.

People begin to be shot down in the streets, for no apparent reason, and it's Brill's responsibility to solve the cases. There are some surprise twists and turns, which I love.

However, there is too much repetition. This character tells that character about a circumstance, and later, the reader reads yet another conversation about the same topic being discussed between two others.

Nonetheless, the book is a worthy read, with quite a bit of romance and tracking a slippery killer(s). Discussion questions are included.

And now, the first chapter:

Drew Langley jumped at the loud thud upstairs and resisted the temptation to bang on the wall and dispel the roaring laughter that followed. Was he the only student in the apartment building still studying for finals?


A warm breeze rattled the blinds, and he closed his eyes, inhaling the intoxicating fragrance of magnolia blossoms wafting from the south campus of Stanton College. It took every ounce of discipline he could muster not to close his books and give in to the lure of spring.


He heard rubber soles on the hardwood floor and lifted his gaze as his roommate came to a quick stop in front of the mirror over the worn living-room sofa.


Tal Davison wet his fingers and smoothed his hair. “I see you’re still studying. I guess that means you’re not coming.”


“To what? I thought you had a date.”


“Why do you make me tell you everything twice? You’re worse than my grandmother.”


Drew put down his pencil. “Sorry, I’ve been focused on other things. Tell me again. I’m listening.”


Tal came and stood in the doorway of Drew’s bedroom, his arms folded across his chest. “I’m going over to Henry’s for a junk-food buffet and beer. You’re invited.”


“Thanks. But I really need to study for my English lit final. It’s next week, and I’ve got chapters of catching up to do.”


“Suit yourself. I’m brain-dead. I couldn’t learn another thing if you paid me.” Tal started to go and then stopped. “Listen, thanks again for letting me move in here for the last few weeks. It’s nice sharing an apartment that doesn’t reek of marijuana. I hope I haven’t been as big a pain as your other roommate.” He shot Drew a half smile.


Drew leaned back and folded his arms. “Hey, not at all, man. I hope you don’t think I’ve been ignoring you. It’s just that I have to keep up the grades. No four-oh, no scholarship. There’s no way I can afford to attend Stanton without it.” I don’t have a rich father footing the bill.


“Doesn’t it cramp your style to go to college in Sophie Trace? Your parents are pretty close by, aren’t they?”


“Thanks to the scholarship I can live off campus. That’s all the independence I need. It’s nice going home whenever I want. My parents really help me stay on track.” Drew studied Tal’s expression.


“I take it you wish your dad wasn’t so close?”


Tal got quiet for a moment and seemed to be somewhere else. “He’s much too busy to breathe down my neck. And he doesn’t care about my grades as long as I pass and he can tell his cronies that his namesake’s attending his alma mater and is going to work for him after graduation.”


“Is that so bad?”


“I just wish he cared more about me and less about his image. I’m not sure I can ever measure up to his expectations.”


“Come on, man. You’ve got it made in the shade. All you have to do is get through one more year, and he’ll hand you the job of a lifetime. I thought you were pumped about it.”


Tal flashed a crooked smile. “I’m trying to be. It’s my big chance to make Dad proud of me. It’s all he’s talked about for years. But there’s a lot of pressure, learning to run a big corporation. The closer I get, the more intimidated I feel.”


“He must think you can do it, Tal. There’s a lot at stake for him, too.” Even if he is handing it to you on a silver platter.


“Maybe I’ll buy a little time after I graduate—tell Dad I’m burned-out and need to backpack across Europe for a while before I jump into the corporate world.”


A grin tugged at Drew’s cheeks. “Then you’d need someone to babysit your Hummer. Can I apply for the job? Man, I wish I’d been there when your dad had it delivered to your birthday party.”


“It was an awesome way to turn twenty-one, all right. But I’d trade it in a heartbeat for a relationship with my dad like you have with yours.”


“I guess I take it for granted.”


“Well, don’t,” Tal said. “I can’t remember the last time I sat down and had a real conversation with mine. He’s either working himself to death or hiding out at the lake house with wife number four—the fashion model who’s got silicone for brains.”


“I didn’t realize she was his fourth wife.”


“And she’s pregnant with daughter number seven. Maybe he’s going for the record.”


“Yeah, but you’re still his only son. And you and your mother are close.”


“Not in proximity. She’s spending a lot of time in New York with her boyfriend. He deals in fine art, and she likes to go to the auctions with him. I doubt I’ll see her anytime soon.”


Drew shifted his weight. Why hadn’t Tal mentioned before that his mother was seeing someone?


“Actually, I’m happy for her,” Tal said. “And I don’t mind sharing her Nashville house with the maid, the cook, and the butler. I’ll lie around the pool and read sci-fi novels and give my brain a rest. I’m so burned-out I can’t stand to think about another year of studying.”


“You’ll be ready to hit it again in the fall. Just think how good you’ll feel when you get your degree.”


Tal smiled wryly. “Would you believe my dad’s executive bonus last year was ten million? I must be nuts not to be more excited about the job.”


No kidding. “So why aren’t you?”


“I don’t know … my dad’s ruthless. And the company takes precedence over everyone and everything. I want more out of life than that.”


“I hear you. But if it were me, I’d at least try it long enough to earn a couple million and then go do whatever I wanted.“


“I’ve thought of that.” Tal stood up straight, the result of his beer drinking and bingeing hanging over his belt. “But I have a feeling that once Dad has me under his thumb, I’ll never get out from under. What I really want to do is go to the police academy.”


“Have you told him how you feel?”


“I tried. But Dad doesn’t really care how I feel. It’s my duty as his only son to keep the family business going. If I turn my back on that, he’ll basically disown me. Not that we’re close now, but it’s hard to think of having no dad. Hey, enough serious talk. It’s party time. Sure you don’t want to come?”


“Yeah, I’ve got to hit the books. Who’s your designated driver?”


“Don’t need one. I’m walking.”


“You think that’s smart? Henry’s neighborhood isn’t exactly the safest part of town.”


“I’ll be fine. But I’ll tell you what”—Tal laughed and tossed his keys to Drew—“if I don’t make it back alive, the Hummer’s all yours.”



©2010 Cook Communications Ministries. The Right Call by Kathy Herman. Used with permission. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.

Free Yourself to Love by Jackie Kendall

The Liberating Power of Forgiveness

Jackie Kendall's childhood was a horror story of abuse. A counselor deemed her family "one of the top-ten most dysfunctional in America." Family members have dealt with this trauma in different ways: Two siblings committed suicide. Some siblings ran wild.

When Jackie decided that she wanted to break the mold and be a healthy, loving woman, to forgive or not to forgive was not a question. Simply put: one can't love freely without the developed skill of forgiving freely. In this volume, Jackie shares her own story and struggle to learn this vital life skill. She also reveals the reasons for--and results of--refusing to forgive. In passionate, empathetic prose, Jackie urges her readers to exchange free-floating bitterness for the freedom to love and be loved.

My Review:
This primer on forgiveness gives an in-depth insight on how to do the job. The author breaks down the ability to forgive as per the biblical command to forgive 7 times 70.

She lists the six most commonly used excuses for not forgiving:

1. The offense was too great.
2. The memories of the offense are so vivid.
3. The offense was repeated.
4. You want to make the person pay for the offense.
5. You are too angry to even consider forgiving this person.
6. The offender didn't say, "I am sorry."

Addressing each excuse, the author points out that forgiving is a gift, a choice that we must make to experience the freedom to love. She also points out that reconciliation does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with forgiveness. A list follows each chapter that help "Make It Personal." I feel that most folks will find this book helpful.