Time out for reading!

As you may know—since I said it on Facebook, this blog, and in my April newsletter—I’m in the midst of a hiatus from writing. That’s difficult for me because I’m used to working on something nearly every day, so I wander around looking lost. I vowed to get caught up on housework, and I do have nice shiny windows—inside and out—now, but it doesn’t take much to distract me from cleaning.

Reading is an infinitely more interesting way I’ve been occupying my time. Like many of you, I have an out of control “pile” of books I want to read. The two I’ve read so far during this break, have been on my Kindle for so long they’ve spawned sequels which I’m now anxious to read.

First, I read The Breakaway by Michelle Davidson Argyle. I’d read other works by Michelle: Cinders, True Colors, and Monarch, so I knew her writing would please me. The Breakaway was no exception. It’s aptly described as contemporary suspense and it’s categorized as mature YA – New Adult, but I’m well past that age and loved it.

When Naomi Jensen is kidnapped, it takes her parents two days to realize she’s missing. Escape isn’t high on her list of priorities when all she has to return to is an abusive boyfriend and parents who never paid much attention to her. For the first time in her life she’s part of a family—even if it is a family of criminals. But she’s still a captive. In a desperate attempt to regain some control in her life, Naomi embarks on a dangerous plan to make one of her kidnappers think she’s falling in love with him. The plan works too well, and when faced with the chance to escape, Naomi isn’t sure she wants to take it.

The second book I read is Dance on Fire by James Garcia, Jr. When I first heard this book was a Christian vampire story, I thought hunh? What it turns out to be is an excellently told vampire story centered around a family that happens to be devoutly Christian. And that works out very well because one of these vampires desperately desires hope that he’s not eternally damned.

Two Kingsburg police officers have been butchered in an attack as ferocious as it is mystifying. Now two detectives and their families are being drawn into a battle that threatens to destroy them and those around them. In a marriage of horror and Christian themes of good conquering evil and redemption, Dance on Fire is the fictional account of characters drawn into the fire by supernatural forces.

I’m a slow reader, but now I’m halfway through another book. And many others have been patiently waiting their turn, so I’ll probably have more book recommendations before my hiatus ends. And next week, I’ll have my first ever guest blogger, so stay tuned for that.