Not Quite Mr. Knightley, by Kim Griffin

 

 

It was the year 1970, and Nancy was living her dream. An internship at the U.S. Embassy in London, and a handsome My. Knightley fiance.
But when she reads a letter from her future father-in-law, her house of cards comes crumbling down. She packs up and runs, but once home realizes she didn't leave it all behind her. A quick proposal from the boy next door has her life turning in unexpected directions.
This book is wonderful at showing how to set boundaries to protect a marriage, how important respect and honor are inside the marriage, and how important life itself is.
Kim Griffin is one of the best Christian authors I read. She always puts true scriptural lessons in the pages, and not just superficially. We can all learn from Nancy's beautiful story, about repentance and faith and God's love, as well as how love should be lived out towards others. It truly was a wonderful book to get wrapped up in.

Katabasis, by R.F. Kuang

 

This book. I’ve tried to give myself time to think about it, but it just seems so big. There was a lot of description and history. This is not a book you can dip in and out of during those times when you have “ten or twenty minutes to read.” You have to be focused—every sentence seems to add information to what you already know. Sometimes you don’t think it’s necessary, but it all adds to the depth of the world and the characters.

That said, I really loved the story. Alice Law never wanted anything but magic. Her tunnel vision bordered on obsession. Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge is considered the best in the world, and Alice will sacrifice anything to work with him. When his death in a magical accident jeopardizes her goals, she is determined to go to hell and bring him back—even though her rival, Peter Murdoch, has the same goal.

The descriptions of the landscapes and the adventures while they are in hell are very entertaining. The backstory (it feels like there is so much more about Peter’s life than Alice’s) drags the story down a bit, and it does start a little slow, but once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down without it occupying my thoughts until I finished it.

Expected publication August 26, 2025

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for the advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Dancing in the Florida Sun, by Kim Griffin

One of the things I love most about Kim Griffin's Christian Fiction is that it is truly Christian. Many books today have a sentence or two about God and call themselves CF. Kim delivers on the Christian message.
Brooke Ferguson had the life she dreamed of: a 4.0 in pre-law, the perfect pre-med boyfriend, and a prestigious position in her sorority. When she found out she was pregnant, all that came crashing down. Her sorority kicked her out, and her boyfriend became distant. She struggled with being a single mom. She thought she was at rock bottom—but then her mother died. How could she survive it? 
Moving in with her grandmother in sunny Florida seemed a good way to get a new start. 
This book follows Brooke as she searches for peace and healing in her new life.
God is so patient with us, even when we are angry at him and stubbornly refuse to see His goodness. Brooke goes through many things that many of us struggled with before we became believers, on our Christian walk, and meets up with good people who lead her through it all. I enjoyed this story immensely, how it dealt with hard issues without seeming dark, and the beautifully sweet romance that ensues. In this crazy world, we live in now, this story was the perfect one to get lost in.
Thank you to Kim Griffin for the ARC of this delightful book!

(Pub date: 3/26/25)

 

Water Moon, by Samantha Sotto Yambao

In a world where we are allowed choices, there will always be regrets.
Would you rather avoid the regrets and live where fate has decided your entire life? Or find a way to eliminate the regrets your choices have led to.
On a back street in Tokyo, there is an unassuming ramen restaurant. But occasionally, a person - a chosen one - will open that door and walk into a very special pawn shop instead, a shop where you can pawn your regrets and life choices.
Hana Ishikawa's life was arranged from the moment she was born. Now she has just inherited her family's pawn shop from her father, but on her first day as owner she wakes up to find the shop ransacked, and her father missing, along with a precious artifact.
Expecting ramen, Keishin steps into the ransacked shop and soon offers his help to find her father and the artifact. Knowing he is from the outside world, Hana tries to dissuade him, but he is on his own journey of self-discovery and recognizes this as a chance for something new. Together, they wind through the fantastical world that Hana lives in, to find her father and return the artifact, and learn more about themselves than they could imagine.
The prose and writing style of Samantha Sotto Yambao is stunningly beautiful, unlike anything I have ever read. Is it possible to find your favorite book of the year in January? Because I think I may have. I will never look at choices - or how I use time - again the same way.

Publishing date: January 14, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/ Del Ray, and the author for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Will and the Wilds, by Charlie N. Holmberg

 

It was a story that totally engulfed me as I was reading, and when I stopped reading, it took a fraction of a moment for me to come back to the real world.
Unlike many fantasy stories, this one has a small cast and a small world - but it works. It is YA Romance set in a fantasy world, but it reads almost like a fairy tale.
Enna and her father live in a secluded spot at the edge of the woods, where monsters called Mystings lurk and humans must take care. She is bold and unafraid, but when she is attacked by a Gobler Mysting, she decides to summon a mysting that she can bargain with to protect her. But what she gets is more than she bargains for.

I've read several of this author's books and enjoyed them all.