Some Say Love by Staci Stallings 4 stars

Some Say Love by Staci Stallings is book three in the Hope series. I did not read the first two books, but this story stands on its own. It centers on a young widow, Jenna, who lost her husband, daughter, and father when a drunk driver hit their car. She is now engaged to Scott, who has a little toddler of his own, and relational baggage following a divorce. Stallings does a fine job of weaving real-life ups and downs as this couple learns to navigate family issues, including dysfunctional relationships, as well as with the family of the deceased. The story spans a wide cast of characters with extended family, pastors, and friends. They each play a role, and I must say, Stallings does a good job of keeping them all straight. The family (all of them) have a real feel. They aren’t perfect, and jumping these relational hurdles is part of the story and growth of characters.

One large element in the story is Jenna’s grief. She has buried it for three years trying her best to move on but not dealing with it. She suffers nightmares and at times just shuts down emotionally and sleeps. She attends a grief class with her sister-in-law but just can’t bring herself to go again. Scott offers to go with her and he learns much about why Jenna is the way she is, but it doesn’t help him know what to do. Until he starts reading a little book on grief.

A couple of things I didn’t like, is that several longer passages feel quite preachy, almost as if they were taken from a book and reworded a little. The first chapter hooked me. I cared about Jenna and Scott, but then the first quarter of the book felt sluggish. The story is a good story, but I think with some editing it could be even better.

I recommend this book to people who enjoy Christian fiction and believe in the baptism of children rather than baptism as a public symbol of the profession of faith. It’s not a huge part of the story, but it is included in the plot. I'd also recommend this book for people dealing with grief.

I almost gave the book 3 stars because of the preachy patches and the sluggishness in the first part of the book, but the story is worth the read. Stallings creates characters you can care about and will miss when the story is done. So I give it 4 stars.

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Dream of Dragons (Age of Sorcers series book 8) 5 stars

Dream of Dragons is the final book in the Age of Sorcerers series by Morgan Rice. I give it five stars and applaud how she ties up every plot thread with her large cast of characters. She leaves no questions rattling around in the brain by the end of the story. 

 

 

 

Like real life, not everything goes the way one hopes as the plot takes some surprising twists. It is enjoyable to read an unpredictable story. It keeps me hungry for more. In this case, it costs a few beloved characters their lives. I will say no more because I do my best not to include spoilers in my reviews.

 

Throughout this series, Rice shows the reader how the magic in her world works, enough to understand what various characters are doing as they conjure up what they need in a given circumstance. In this final book, the lines of good versus evil are clear between those wielding these magical powers. This includes dragons, humans trying to get their hands on the amulet which can control the dragons, and three sorcerers, each with their own plan for how things should play out.

 

Watching the members of the royal family grow in their roles in this last book brought a measure of satisfaction as well as disappointment. Not a bad kind of disappointment, but the kind of disappointment we experience in real life when things don't work out the way we would like. The living out of their destinies brings with it a fantastical realism and Rice delivered one scene that really caught me by surprise near the end. 

 

Along with this, there are a few different relationships going on throughout the story, to make you hope boy-gets-girl, or girl-gets boy, and even one case where enemies might just be falling in love. In this final book, all this is resolved.

 

I recommend Dream of Dragons as well as the entire Age of Sorcerers series to fantasy readers, especially those who enjoy “clean fantasy” free of explicit sex. If you enjoy sword and sorcery fantasy, this series is a must-have for your bookshelf.

 

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Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages - 3 Stars

 

I read Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages by Frances & Joseph Gies for a couple of reasons. First of all, for research. My fantasy novels take place in a pre-industrial world with limited technology. I often find bits of history and ancient technology I can adapt and reimagine. This book was a good choice for that kind of information. I also enjoy reading history and learning how, where, when, and why things came about. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel offers up plenty of that too. If I were rating the book solely on the content, I would give it four stars, but if I were rating based on the organization of information, I might give it a three.

 

The book is quite informative. It reveals the origins of technologies from ancient Greece, Egypt, and China and follows the evolution of these technologies into the Middle Ages. From there, it shows how these innovative ideas spread and morphed into something more sophisticated.

In my opinion, the book got off to a slow start. The first chapter looks at a variety of worldviews regarding the definition of the Dark Ages. It discusses what years encompass the Medieval Ages (since differing world views don't agree on this), along with a brief but general mention of technology from those times and whether or not they were considered good or bad based on the various world views. While this approach may be interesting to some people, I felt it started things off on a sluggish footing. Chapter 2 kindled my interest as the author delved into technologies of ancient Egypt and how they influenced Rome and Greece and how they, in turn, often improved on those technologies coming up with upgraded or modified versions of the same inventions. What they accomplished is quite remarkable, and the book goes on to show that much of today's technology finds its roots in this history. The third chapter looks into waterwheel technology and explains how it changed economics, politics, and more.

The book covers an array of technologies before and after the Middle Ages. The insights are fascinating. However, the organization of the information is not conducive to finding something read in a previous chapter. For instance, if I wanted to revisit the section on bridges and the Crusaders, I would have to remember to look in the chapter on the Technology of the Commercial Revolution 900-1200. I would prefer it organized by "technology and inventions."

I recommend this book to people researching these topics or history buffs wanting to know more about the origins of technologies. However, if you find something of interest you might want to come back to, make sure to bookmark the page or highlight the text, or you might spend quite a bit of time hunting for it.

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