Clean Reading Recommendations

I obviously can't read every book ever published, so I've started asking other people if they've read any "clean" books recently. ("Clean" meaning no to minimal cussing and no explicit sex scenes.)

This week, I'm featuring romantic comedy books written by Trisha Ashley. When I asked on Twitter for clean reading recommendations, she said, "There is no graphic sex in any of my novels - I close the door and tiptoe away..."

(I included her descriptions of the books.)

Wedding Tiers. Josie's leading an idyllic life in the Lancashire countryside, being self-sufficient in the garden and making weird and wonderful wedding cakes, until her Eden turns into a case of Paradise Lost.

A Winter's Tale. When Sophy inherits a dilapidated old house complete with ghostly ancestor, a surly head gardener hell-bent on completing the sixteenth-century knot garden, restoration seems to be the least of her worries...

Happy Endings. Giddy exploits of sex'n'gardening novelist Tina Devino. (Tina is a bit naughty.)

Sowing Secrets (in hardback as Generous Gardener). A War of the Roses ensues when a TV gardener arrives in a Welsh village.

Sweet Nothings. A cheating husband gets his just desserts.

Singled Out. Horror writer Cass Leigh faces up to her demons.

Every Woman for Herself. Their father set out to recreate the Bronte family in the wilds of West Yorkshire but even the best laid plans can go awry.

The Urge to Jump. Sappho's never thought of having a baby until her friends suggest she might have left it a little late, but while she bossily sets about sorting out everyone else's problems, fate might just be sneaking up on her.

Good Husband Material. Her first love was all wrong, so why doesn't marriage to Mr Right make her happy?

Thank you, Trisha Ashley, for taking the time to send me this information.

And the Winner is...

It's time to pick a winner for the ARC of "Menu for Romance" by Kaye Dacus. Using a random number generator and numbering the entrants in the order I received them, the winner is:

Janel


Congratulations! I'll be contacting you for your address.

For those who didn't win, you can always join in the fun by buying a copy of this book at your favorite bookstore.

Author Quirks: Preetham Grandhi

Next up is Preetham Grandhi, author of A Circle of Souls. I asked him:

What's a quirky or little-known fact about yourself, your writing, and/or one of your novels? (For example, you can tell us about a non-standard pet you have, an unusual way you do your writing, a strange real life incident that inspired a scene in one of your novels, or so on.)


Preetham Grandhi's answer:

Writing A Circle of Souls was one of the most challenging things I have ever done, and I thought going to medical school was hard. It took me four and a half years to write. I actually wrote the first draft in 1 and half years; it took me the rest of the time to revise over 15 times. Writing the book was hard, but promoting the book is much harder.

This kind of book is what you call fictional realism. Of course, only I know what is fact and what is fiction. Here are some facts which you will be able to identify with after reading the book. I grew in Bangalore on a street that was called "Elephant rock road" that had, at one end, a large rock with an elephant painted on it. That's where the idea for elephant rock in the book came from. My sister in India became one of the characters in the book: her name is Sheetal. Many of the ER experiences in dealing with the health care system described in the book are mine that occurred during my fellowship.

I think, in the end, we are all accountable for our actions, and that was the message I wanted to pass to the reader. Our paths cross for a reason. The only thing is we don't know, where, when and how.

Thank you, Mr. Grandhi, for telling us about writing your book.

A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi

A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi Trade Paperback: 341 pages Publisher: Sweetwater Books First Released: 2009 Author Website

Source: ARC from the author

Back Cover Description:
The sleepy town of Newbury, Connecticut, is shocked when a little girl is found brutally murdered. The town's top detective, perplexed by a complete lack of leads, calls in FBI agent Leia Bines, an expert in cases involving children.

Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Gram, a psychiatrist at Newbury's hospital, searches desperately for the cause of seven-year-old Naya Hastings devastating nightmares. Afraid that she might hurt herself in the midst of a torturous episode, Naya's parents have turned to the bright young doctor for help.

The situations confronting Leia and Peter converge when Naya begins drawing chilling images of murder after being bombarded by the disturbing images in her dreams. Lacking any other clues, Leia explores the information found in Naya's crude drawings which lead her closer to the killer...and panic him into further action.


Review:
A Circle of Souls is a suspenseful mystery with a dose of paranormal and a pinch of romance. The main paranormal element is Naya's being able to speak with the murdered girl while she's sleeping.

The book was fast-paced and had realistic characters. The world-building was very good. The details relating to the psychiatrist were very good and immersed the reader into his world. However, I questioned a few of the police procedural parts (like how quickly the missing person status was put into affect, the use of an amber alert, and how many people tramped through the crime scene before forensics was brought in).

This was a very multi-cultural book: Peter is white, Naya is Indian, Leia is half-Mexican half-white, another character is British, and yet another is a black Jamaican.

There were also a variety of belief systems. The most talked about were the Hindu religion (specifically regarding reincarnation and destiny) and Jamaican folklore. The belief systems were more lived than talked about, and the only parts that were explained were those related to the case. By the end, a non-Hindu main character does come to believe he might have a reincarnated soul.

I almost would have liked more of an explanation of the Hindu elements of the book because I was confused by how Naya could talk to the soul of a dead girl if, as it's later implied, a soul is immediately reborn. But the answer didn't really matter since I was already suspending disbelief about the paranormal elements, anyway.

The writing was very good, though it could have been tightened in a few places. For example, several times the author repeated a detailed physical description of a character after having given that full description just a page or two before.

There was a very minimal amount of profanity of the "he swore" variety and a brief, non-graphic sex scene remembered from the childhood of one of the main characters. (The scene explains the motives behind most of his subsequent actions.) The gore was not graphic while still making the murder chilling. Overall, I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it as "good, clean reading."


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Prologue
The slaaf stumbled along the shore of Willow Lake. The ground was soft from the previous night’s rain, and wet leaves made a slippery carpet under his feet. His arms ached from struggling to contain the animal he carried in a coarse gunnysack across his shoulder. The sedative had worn off, and the animal thrashed more and more violently as the slaaf approached the faded red boathouse. Finally, in front of the peeling door, he dropped the squirming sack. The creature inside yelped as the bag hit the ground. The slaaf found the key on his large metal ring, unlocked the padlock, and slipped inside.

He lifted the sack onto a long, wooden workbench near the back of the boathouse, where its contents lay still for a moment. He wiped his sweaty forehead with his arm, while with his other hand, he fingered the small bag of white powder inside the front pocket of his jeans. He sat carefully in a creaky wooden chair against the wall. He wanted to wait, knowing it would be over so quickly...but his hand moved against his will, pulled out the bag, reached in, and took a pinch. He placed the white powder in the palm of his other hand. He snorted it, and his head came alive.

Yes, yes, he thought. He cast his euphoric mind into the ether, searching for his master. Would he come?

But the euphoria didn’t last long, and the slaaf, having felt no trace of his master’s presence, found himself slammed back into his body. His hands were gripping the arms of the wooden chair. The muscles in his legs had tensed so rigidly that he wondered if he would be able to stand.

“I hate you! I hate you!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. The sound of his panting was interrupted by a low whine from the sack on the workbench. The slaaf snorted more of the cocaine and tried again to reach his master, whom he was certain was toying with him. Again, he failed. It took more and more of the cocaine to reach the ecstatic state he needed to summon his master. And now, the little bag was empty.


Read the rest of the prologue and chapter one.

Clean Reading Recommendations

I obviously can't read every book ever published, so I've started asking other people if they've read any "clean" books recently. ("Clean" in this case means no explicit (or illicit) sex, no blasphemy, and no graphic violence.)

This week, I'm featuring Middle Grade and Young Adult fantasy books recommended by author R.J. Anderson.


(Click on the titles to read reviews, either here or on other book blogs. I included her comments about the books she recommended.)

The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. (There's a sweetness and innocence about them that is refreshing. ENNA BURNING deals frankly with the effects of war and violence and the deadly effects of anger in a way that is sometimes haunting, but I feel it's not gratuitous.)

The Magic Thief and The Magic Thief: Lost by Sarah Prineas. (Very clean indeed, with an interesting and fresh approach to the idea of magic and some lovely character interactions as the young gutter thief Conn learns to trust and form a friendship with a grumpy old wizard named Nevery. The magic involves runes and words but there's nothing occult-ish about it, IMO.)

Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. (Anything by Patricia C. Wrede is clean.)

The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. (I adore these books, which are just plain amazing. They take place in an alternate world based loosely on Renaissance-era Greece and the Mediterranean in which the gods are real. A very complex series with some very rich character development and interaction, and some fairly traumatic events (not graphically described, but implied) that have long-lasting consequences for the hero. I think they're some of the best books I've ever read, period.)

Dragon Slippers and Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George. (Nice clean reads. I suspect all her other books are as well, but I haven't read them yet.)

Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon's Gate by Adrienne Kress. (Delightful adventure stories with a hearty dash of magical realism.)

Airman by Eoin Colfer. (An adventure in the spirit of Dumas -- some harrowing incidents and violence would make it appropriate for teens rather than children, but it's not excessive.)

Dull Boy by Sarah Cross. (The story of a young man with superpowers who had to figure out how he got those powers and how to live a normal life with them. It's basically a teen superhero comic in book form, with a witty and engaging cast and a blockbuster climax, and I got a huge kick out of it.)

Foundling and Lamplighter by D.M. Cornish. (He writes a fantastic, incredibly well-developed secondary world fantasy involving a world populated by monsters that the humans must fight against. He challenges the reader's preconceptions about which characters are good and which evil, but he does so in a very conscious way not encouraging confusion of good and evil *itself* at all. The hero has a lovely character that's quite different from your standard fantasy hero -- somewhat Sam Gamgee-ish in his humility, loyalty, and self-sacrifice. Some of the monster-fighting stuff gets a bit gruesome, but I didn't feel it was too much for the context. The books are appropriate for ages 10 and up.)

Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter by R.J. Anderson.

Thank you, R.J. Anderson, for taking the time to send me these recommendations.

I've read Patricia C. Wrede's books before and enjoyed them. And, of course, I've reviewed Shannon Hale's books on this blog. Several of the others sound quite interesting, and I think I might pick up a few to review on my blog in the future.

Giveaway: Menu for Romance

Menu for Romance by Kaye Dacus Trade Paperback: 317 pages Publisher: Barbour Publishing First Released: 2009 Author Website

I like this author's books, so I'm holding a giveaway contest for my ARC of Menu for Romance by Kaye Dacus. You can learn more about the book by reading my review.

Due to shipping costs, this contest is for USA residents only.

To enter the giveaway:

1) you can twitter me saying "@genrereviewer Enter me to win MENU FOR ROMANCE. The title of a previous book by Kaye Dacus is ________." (Of course, you need to fill in the title of a book previously written by Kaye Dacus.)

OR

2) You can leave a comment to this post asking to be entered and giving the title of a previous book written by Kaye Dacus.


The winner will be randomly selected. I'll announce the winner at noon (Central Time, Daylight Savings Time) on July 30th on this blog. If you entered using twitter, I'll send you a @ or DM telling you of your win and asking where to send the book. If you entered using the blog comments, you'll need to leave your e-mail address or check back to see if you won so you can e-mail me your shipping address.

I hope everyone has fun with this!

Author Quirks: Jeanette Windle

I don't have an interview for today, but here's something interesting about Jeanette Windle which is included on her bio section of my ARC for Veiled Freedom.

As the child of missionary parents, award-winning author and journalist Jeanette Windle grew up in the rural villages, jungles, and mountains of Colombia, now guerrilla hot zones. Her detailed research and writing is so realistic that it was prompted government agencies to question her to determine if she has received classified information. Currently based in Lancaster, PA, Jeanette has lived in six countries and traveled in nearly thirty, including Afghanistan.