Giveaway: Code Triage

Since I enjoy Candace Calvert's novels so much, I love to share the experience with others. I'm doing a giveaway for my copy of Code Triage by Candace Calvert.


You can learn more about this novel by reading my review.



This contest is for USA & Canada residents only.


To enter the giveaway:

1) you can twitter me saying "Hi @genrereviewer. Enter me in the giveaway for suspense novel CODE TRIAGE by Candace Calvert."

OR

2) You can leave a comment to this post asking to be entered. Please also leave some way for me to contact you--or follow this blog so you can see the winner announcement. Also include the name of one of the previous novels in this series (which can be found in my review). I'd be fun if you also included why you're interested in reading this novel.


The winner will be randomly selected. I'll announce the winner at noon (Central Time) on Oct. 7, 2010 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 mailing address. If the winner hasn't responded with a mailing address within four days, I reserve the right to pick a new winner.

I hope everyone has fun with this!

Code Triage by Candace Calvert

Code Triage by Candace Calvert ISBN-13: 978-1-4143-2545-3 Trade Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Tyndale House Released: October 2010 Author Website

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Dr. Leigh Stathos likes her ER shifts fast, furious, and adrenaline-infused—“Treat ’em and street ’em”—with no emotional complications. Life’s taught her a soul-rending lesson: nothing lasts forever, including marriage. And the clock is ticking toward the end of hers. Then an unwelcome confrontation with “the other woman” begins a whole new set of lessons.

San Francisco police officer Nick Stathos never gives up, whether protecting his patrol neighborhood, holding fast to faith—or trying to save his marriage. Seven days is all he has to reach Leigh’s heart. But when a desperate act of violence slams Golden Gate Mercy Hospital into lockdown, it starts a chain of events that will change lives forever.


Review:
Code Triage is a medical suspense novel that will appeal to both men and women. The author dug into the deeper issues of how three different childhoods created three people with different expectations about love and marriage and how that threatened to tear apart Leigh and Nick's marriage. This book is for anyone who wonders if marriage can last for a lifetime.

You don't need to read Critical Care or Disaster Status to understand this story, and you can read this novel first without spoiling your enjoyment of her previous novels. However, Leigh's story starts in Disaster Status, so you'll enjoy this series the most if you read them in order.

The author has a fondness for symbolism, and she's getting ever better at skillfully weaving it into her stories. The world-building was excellent. The details about the stables/horse troubles and the ER brought the story alive in my imagination without slowing the fast pacing. The tension remained high throughout the story. The suspense was created through the medical emergencies, the physical danger during the crisis, and the relationship tensions between Leigh, Nick, and Samantha.

The characters were interesting, complex, and realistic. They faced realistic problems in their work and in their relationships. I felt like this story really could have happened.

Several of the main characters were Christians, one of whom felt like she couldn't trust God (or humans) to be there for her. Through circumstances, she learned that the burden of making relationships endure wasn't centered on her shoulders. The novel wasn't preachy. While it will probably appeal most to Christians, I think most non-Christians wouldn't be bothered by how the religious content was worked into the story.

There was no sex. There was a very minor amount of "he swore" style bad language. Overall, I'd highly recommend this novel and the whole series as exciting, well-written, 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 from Chapter One
Don’t drop that baby; don’t—

Heart pounding, Officer Nick Stathos slammed the door of his car and sprinted toward the police perimeter, gaze riveted on the panicky young mother at the window of the second-story apartment. She clutched her infant against her baggy navy scrubs and leaned farther out to stare at the scene below: police officers, neighbors in pajamas and robes, patrol cars, a fire truck and ambulance. Lights sliced red-white-blue through the grayness of the late September morning.

She craned her head backward, and her eyes, mascara-streaked and desperate, followed the San Francisco PD helicopter hovering above the shabby, converted pink Victorian. Nick hoped that methamphetamines, once Kristi Johnson’s drug of choice, weren’t at the root of today’s drama. She’d been allowed to keep her kids after a previous skirmish, and he knew how rare the mercy of a second chance was. He’d been praying for one in his marriage for the better part of a year.

He jogged forward through a gathering crowd of reporters, flashed his badge at the first in a line of officers, then slowed to a walk. The mother lifted the baby to her shoulder and disappeared from view, then returned to lean over the windowsill again. The baby’s legs dangled limply as she fought with the tattered curtain, and Nick winced at a childhood memory of eggs dropped from a highway overpass. A baby’s skull wouldn’t have a chance against concrete. Dispatch had to be wrong—Kristi wouldn’t neglect her kids. Could never harm them. He knew the girl; he’d patrolled her Mission District neighborhood for nearly five years.

“Stathos, don’t waste your time.” A uniformed officer, a paunchy veteran he recognized from the Tenderloin station, stepped forward, raising his voice over the dull thwoop-thwoop of chopper blades. He exhaled around a toothpick clenched between his teeth, breath reeking of coffee, cigarettes, and bacon. “SWAT’s on the way.” He glanced up at the window and shook his head. “911 call from a four-year-old, and now Mom—one Kristina Marie Johnson, twenty-two years old—is refusing to let us do a welfare check. Landlord informed us she has a gun in there. Says the boyfriend deals meth.”

“Gun?” Nick growled low in his throat. “Let me guess: same landlord who’s been trying to evict her? Think he could have a reason to lie?” He watched the window. “There’s no gun. The boyfriend’s under a restraining order and long gone. I’ll talk to her.”

“She’s not talking; that’s the trouble.” The officer crossed his arms. “Her kid told dispatch she and the baby were left alone all night. That they were ‘real sick.’ You should hear the tape; it’ll rip your heart out. Said she’d been ‘singing to Jesus’ all night to keep from being scared. Begged for someone to find her mommy. Then Mom shows up a few minutes before we get here and won’t let us in. Child Crisis is on the way. The medics need to check those kids.”

“So I’ll talk to her.” Nick pushed past him.

“You can’t fix this one, Stathos. Give it up.”

Nick looked back over his shoulder. “You don’t know me very well. I don’t give up.” His jaw tensed. “Ever.”

The officer shook his head, eyes skimming over Nick’s jeans and hooded USF sweatshirt. “Think you’d come up with a better way to spend a free Friday, but go ahead and knock yourself out. Colton’s in charge. Fill him in, and—”

They both looked up as Kristi Johnson shouted.

“Officer Nick! Don’t let them take my babies! Tell them I’m clean now. You know I am. Tell them I would never . . .” She shut her eyes and groaned. “This is all a mistake. My girlfriend sleeps over while I work nights at the nursing home. She comes over after her swing shift. Always gets here fifteen minutes after I leave.” Her brows drew together. “They’re only alone for fifteen minutes; that’s all, I swear. I had them tucked into bed, but I guess she didn’t show up last night. I didn’t know!” She shifted the baby in her arms and his legs swung again, floppy as a home-sewn doll’s.

Read the rest of chapter one.

Author Quirks: T. L. Higley

Next up is T. L. Higley, author of Petra: City in Stone. I asked her:


What's a quirky or little-known fact about yourself, your writing, and/or one of your novels?


Her answer:

I take research seriously – a little too seriously sometimes! I’ve traveled to each of the settings of my books, through Egypt, Greece, Israel, Jordan and Italy. While in Jordan researching for Petra: City in Stone, I knew the story would prominently feature the High Place of Sacrifice – a plateau very high above the city which is carved into a rock gorge. So of course, I had to climb to it! I paid a little Bedouin man whose grandfather had lived his whole life in a cave on the side of the mountain to take me up there. We made half the trip by donkey, and then climbed the rest of the way on foot. There were times he had to reach down and haul me up! When we reached the top, I found the 2000 year old altar still stood, along with the slaughtering slab for animal sacrifices. Of course I had to climb up on the altar and get some pictures. My Bedouin thought I was crazy, I think! You can see pictures of my escapades here: Photos of Petra. It was an awesome experience!

Thank you, Tracy, for sharing this story and your trip photographs! I really enjoyed viewing the pictures after reading the novel, and I thought you did a great job at describing Petra. I could recognize the photos of the places described in the book.

Tournaments, Cocoa & One Wrong Move by Nancy Rue

Tournaments, Cocoa & One Wrong Move by Nancy Rue Trade Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Zondervan Released: Sept. 2010

Source: Advanced Reading Copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Publisher's Website, modified:
Everything seems to be going right for Cassidy Brewster—she’s the star of her high school basketball team, has a near-perfect GPA, and college recruiters are showing up at her games. But during the state tournament, she injures her knee. She won't be able to play for the rest of the season.

With pressures at home and at school, Cassidy becomes desperate and agrees to secretly take some supplements that will help get her back on the court more quickly. But the supplements turn out to be steroids. A teammate recognizes the signs, turns her in, and tries to take her place as star of the team. No one believes that Cassidy didn't know they were steroids. She's removed from the team and her best friends shun her. As Cassidy’s world falls apart, a mysterious book begins to speak to her, and it might just contain the answers Cassidy has been trying to find.


Review:
Tournaments, Cocoa & One Wrong Move is young adult general fiction with a romance. This is the third book in the Real Life series, but you can read the books in any order. The story was fast-paced, and the suspense grew as things got worse and worse in Cassidy's relationships at school and with her own family. Suspense also came from wondering if she'd get well enough to play again and, if so, if they'd override the rules to let her play again. I could hardly put the book down.

The world-building was also excellent, with the details about the setting, girls high school basketball, and physical therapy bringing the story alive in my imagination. The characters were realistic as were the pressures Cassidy faced. I even cried in sympathy with what she was going through. However, I thought the ending was a bit unrealistically tidy.

I was also concerned by the "bad boy" as Cassidy's romantic match. I'm all for getting to know people that are different from you rather than scorning them based on preconceptions. However, Cassidy's father was portrayed as unreasonable when he expressed concern about her friendship with the "trouble" kids. Granted, his stated reasons were bad ones (appearances), but I'd have a talk with my child if they started hanging out with "the bad crowd." Though it works out for Cassidy in the novel, peer pressure usually works the other way around in real life.

Christians and non-Christians were portrayed realistically with both the good and the bad. Cassidy finds a book, "RL," that's like a Bible and gives her guidance about her situation. The personalized & paraphrased stories seemed to be more loosely based on the Bible verses than previously, and I sometimes felt like the wording or conclusion was changed a bit to make it fit the author's point. Also, this time I usually didn't see how the stories even related to Cassidy's situation. Granted, everything was tied together into an a-ha moment near the end, but I prefer how the RL book was handled in the previous two books.

There was a very minor amount of bad language in the "he cussed" or "Don't say it!" style. There was no sex. Overall, I'd recommend this novel as well-written, 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 from Chapter One
It was the best night of my life, it was the worst night of my life.

I think we read a book in Junior Honors English that started something like that. I couldn’t tell you the title now. I usually forget stuff like that the day after the test.

Anyway, that night Honors English was the last thing on my mind. So was AP Chemistry and the crush I had on the guy who bagged my mother’s groceries. All I was thinking about was basketball.

Specifically the fourth quarter of the game against Monument Valley High, which we had to win to take the county title. Actually, which I had to win. When Monument Valley called a long time-out — like, all of a minute long — Coach Deetz pulled us all into what he called a “puddle” (a “huddle” to any other coach), but his beady browns zinged to me at the end of every question. I was used to it.

“What’s the score, ladies?”

“Sixty-eight, sixty-eight,” Kara said beside me.

A half dozen of my best friend’s blonde curls had escaped from that messy bun thing she always did with her hair for games, and they were sweat-plastered to her temples. She could shoot with deadeye accuracy like nobody in El Paso County, but when the score got this close she usually choked. Reason number one why Coach’s eyes kept flicking to me.

“And how much time is left on the clock?” he said.

“A minute thirty seconds,” M.J. Martinez said, her voice so gone you could barely hear her accent.

Read more of chapter one.

Jonathan Park & the Secret of the Hidden Cave by Sandy & Pat Roy

Jonathan Park & the Secret of the Hidden Cave by Sandy & Pat Roy ISBN: 0-89051-263-9 Trade Paperback: 112 pages Publisher: Master Books Released: 1999, 2001

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, my take:
When two families are forced to shelter in a hidden cave during a violent rainstorm, ten-year-old Jonathan Park meets tom-boy Jessie. The excessive rain is flooding the river to the point it's going to destroy Jessie's family's farm. The kids are excited to find fossils in the cave. Maybe they can sell the fossils to help pay the mortgage on the farm!

But some scam men are determined to buy the farm cheap and sell high. When they catch wind of the kid's plan, they follow them to the cave and shut off the lights with them trapped inside. How will the kids find their way out of the dangerous cave and past the waiting men? And are the fossils even valuable? Read and find out!


Review:
Jonathan Park & the Secret of the Hidden Cave is a middle grade adventure story for boys and girls. It's an exciting story about a boy who finds unexpected friendship (and adventure) after some of his old friends rejected him because of his new, Christian beliefs. After the exciting introduction, the pacing slowed a little as backstory information was filled in while the kids explored the cave. Then the tension jump back into high gear. The suspense was mainly from the threat of physical danger due to the flooding and the bad guys.

The characters were engaging, and the descriptions were vivid. Since much of the story occurred in a cave with a scientist parent present, there was some discussion about how long it takes for cave formations to form (like over a bat fossil they find) and how fossils are formed. They even talk about how dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible (though obviously not using that exact term). This information was woven into the adventure and didn't slow the story.

This was a Christian story. The characters do pray for safety, comment that God's in control, and believe that God created the universe as described in the Bible.

There were some nice black and white illustrations. There was no bad language or sex. Overall, I'd highly recommend this enjoyable novel as well-written, 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 from Chapter One
The red 4x4 sped down the muddy road, spraying water from newly formed streams. While his father, Kendall, navigated the unpaved road, ten-year-old Jonathan Park held tightly to the dashboard as the truck dipped and pitched. The windshield wipers flopped helplessly back and forth, unable to keep up with the driving rain. It was a race against time.

"The clouds are getting darker!" Jonathan yelled above the noise.

The sky flashed, temporarily blinding the two as they strained to see through the windshield. A clap of thunder boomed through the noise of the storm. "If we could just make it to Ghost Ranch before dark. It was a mistake to wait for a break in the storm," said Kendall. "I'm sorry, Jonathan, I shouldn't have dragged you out in this!" Hail began pelting the car as if to emphasize his point.

Read the rest of chapter one.

Catching Moondrops by Jennifer Erin Valent

Catching Moondrops by Jennifer Erin Valent ISBN-13: 978-1-4143-3327-4 Trade Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Released: Oct. 2010 Author Website

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
It’s been two years since Jessilyn Lassiter last looked evil in the eye, but she knew better than to think it was gone for good. At nearly nineteen, Jessilyn is more in love with Luke Talley than ever, and he is finally beginning to care for her in the way she always dreamed he would. But their romance is interrupted when Tal Pritchett—a young black doctor—comes to Calloway, stealing the heart of Jessilyn’s best friend, Gemma, and stirring up the racial prejudice that has been simmering just beneath the surface.

The tension escalates when Miss Cleta, Jessilyn’s neighbor, becomes the first white townsperson to accept Tal’s treatment, an offense that quickly leads to violence at the hands of the revived Ku Klux Klan. As Jessilyn dreams of vengeance, she begins to realize that in order to bring true peace, she’ll have to win the battle that’s waging in her own heart first.


Review:
Catching Moondrops is a historical novel set in 1938 in Calloway, Virginia during a period of high racial tension. It's also an awesome story and a fast read. It's the third novel in the series, but you can easily follow it without having read the first two novels. However, the impact will be higher if you've followed Jessilyn's story from the beginning. The previous two novels are also very well written, so start with Fireflies in December and Cottonwood Whispers.

The pacing and world-building were excellent. I was completely pulled into the story. The characters were engaging, realistic, and complex. They dealt with realistic struggles, like losing a best friend, wondering how the future will turn out, dealing with traumatic events, and standing up for the right thing even when it's dangerous. The tension was created by a number of "normal" worries and changes in everyone's lives with spikes of high tension when lives were in danger.

Sad things happen in this novel. It's mostly about dealing with the really hard things in life, like seeing hatred spill over to harm the innocent, why God doesn't bring immediate justice to wrongdoers if He's real, and what hatred and bitterness can do to a person's life.

Many of the characters were Christians and several tried to get Jessilyn to make peace with God. However, I think many non-Christians share Jessilyn's view, so they might enjoy this novel as much as Christians.

The ending was very satisfying. There was a very minor amount of fake bad language. There was no explicit sex. Overall, I'd highly recommend this well-written, clean novel.


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 from Chapter One
There’s nothing in this whole world like the sight of a man swinging by his neck.

Folks in my parts like to call it lynching, as if by calling it another word they can keep from feeling like murderers. Sometimes when they string a man up, they gather around like vultures looking for the next meal, staring at the cockeyed neck, the sagging limbs, their lips turning up at the corners when they should be turning down. For some people, time has a way of blurring the good and the bad, spitting out that thing called conscience and replacing it with a twisted sort of logic that makes right out of wrong.

Our small town of Calloway, Virginia, had that sort of logic in spades—after the trouble it had caused my family over the years, I knew so better than most. But the violence had long since faded away, and my best friend, Gemma, would often tell me that made it okay—her being kept separate from white folks. “Long as my bein’ with your family don’t bring danger down on your heads, I’ll keep my peace and be thankful,” she’d say.

But I didn’t feel so calm about it all as Gemma did. Part of that was my stubborn temperament, but most of it was my intuition. I’d been eyeball-to-eyeball with pure hate more than once in my eighteen years, and I could smell it, like rotting flesh. Hate is a type of blindness that divides a man from his good sense. I’d seen it in the eyes of a Klansman the day he tried to choke the life out of me and in the eyes of the men who hunted down a dear friend who’d been wrongly accused of murder.

And at times, I’d caught glimpses of it in my own heart.

The passage of time had done nothing to lessen its stench. And despite the relative peace, I knew full well that hearts poisoned by hateful thinking can simmer for only so long before boiling over.

In May of that year, 1938, the pot started bubbling. I was on the front porch shucking corn when I saw three colored men turn up our walk, all linked up in a row like the Three Musketeers. I stood, let the corn silk slip from my apron, and called over my shoulder, “Gemma! Come on out here.”

Read the rest of chapter one.

The Edge of Recall by Kristen Heitzmann

The Edge of Recall by Kristen Heitzmann Trade Paperback: 416 pages Publisher: BethanyHouse Released: July 1st 2008

Source: Bought through Half.com.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Tessa Young is a landscape architect who specializes in the design and creation of labyrinths. For years, she has immersed herself in the healing aspects of these elaborate structures, searching for God and hoping to make sense of the nightmares that have plagued her since childhood.

When Smith Chandler, a colleague who once betrayed her, offers an opportunity to reconstruct a remarkable Colonial-era labyrinth, she can't resist this project of a lifetime. But one evening, as dusk falls, an assailant ambushes Tessa and Smith and the real nightmare begins.


Review:
The Edge of Recall is a Christian romantic suspense novel. Both men and women will enjoy it. The pacing was very good. The suspense built as the mysterious intruder on the work site progressed from vandalism to violence and as the truth about Tessa's nightmares came closer to being revealed. Tension was also provided by the various strained relationships. The characters were interesting and complex. The world-building was good, with vivid setting details and some details about the jobs.

Tessa built prayer walk labyrinths as a way to help people find God (by walking them). However, as the story progressed, she realized that she also used them as a way to keep God impersonal and at a distance. Her father abandoned her family when she was young, and she's afraid God will, too. As her nightmares spilled into reality, she learned to trust and developed a closer relationship with God. While there were some prayers and God talk, it was not a constant topic.

There was no sex. There was no bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable novel as well-written, 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 from Chapter One
Houses smaller than her dollhouse, fields stretching out and away. A pond tossing sunrays as she leans against the window, nose pressed to the glass. The plane seat rumbles. She feels it in her fingertips, in her teeth.

Daddy points. "Look there."

And she sees it. Circle upon circle, living branches shaped like the inside of a seashell. Mesmerized, she follows the path with her eyes to the very center.

Daddy's voice holds all the mystery in the world. "It's a labyrinth."

* * *

"Miss Young?"

Tessa opened her heavy-lidded eyes to white light, beige walls. For a moment she'd thought she was in— But no, it was the emergency room. She rotated her wrist and winced. Her neck burned, and she could almost feel the grip there still. She drew a ragged breath.

The nurse put a hand between her shoulder blades. "Let me help you up."

"Thank you." Tessa slid her legs over the side of the exam bed and sat up, woozy, as the curtain slid open with a squeal of metal rings on rod. A man with a hawkish face and wiry hair entered. Dr. Brinkley. She'd spoken with him ... how long ago?

"You've had some rest, Ms. Young?"

She pressed her fingers to her temples and realized that somewhere between arriving and now they had sedated her.

"Sheriff Thomas is back, if you're up to seeing him."

Her chest quaked as her mind replayed the knife flashing, Smith's stunned face. Would she have to identify him? Could she bear it? The sheriff entered, his pants and jacket shiny with rain.

"Is he ... is he dead?"

"We went over the property, Ms. Young. There's nothing to indicate a homicide."

She had a moment of disconnect. What was he saying? "You didn't find Smith?" Her throat constricted. "That's impossible."

"The rain's ruined what trace of an altercation there might have been."

She jolted. "Someone attacked us. He stabbed Smith."

"Someone not quite human."

"I didn't say he wasn't human, just grotesque, misshapen—"

"Pale and malformed, rotten teeth and milky eyes. Wasn't that the description?"

The description conjured up his image. "Yes. That's what I saw."

The sheriff slid out the pad he'd jotted her words on before. "Yours was the only vehicle."

She nodded. "I don't know how he got there, but it isn't the first time. I thought I saw him weeks ago."

"You said your boss was six-one, one-eighty. How would this small, malformed person with no transportation—"

"He must have hidden Smith, buried ... the body."

"We searched the field and surrounding woods." The sheriff looked her over slowly. "I'll round up some dogs in the morning, but before I do, why don't you tell me what really happened?"

She stared. "What do you mean?"

"It appears you had a scuffle, but frankly, your story is . . ." He spread his hands. "Not plausible."

Her panic rose. "It's not a story. I barely got away. Someone attacked us. He—" She fought the grief that raised the pitch of her voice. "Have you talked to Smith Chandler? Can you tell me he's alive?"


Read the rest of chapter one.