Blog Tour: AD 33 by Ted Dekker

Ted Dekker is a master of his craft. He's a phenomenal story teller and has a way of drawing you into his books. This series is my first look into the writing of Ted Dekker and I have to say that I enjoy it very much. This is the second book in the AD Series.

For those of you that read my blog quite often you know that I look at a few different things. I look at plot, character development and readability. Lets take a look into those things.

The plot of this book is very well written. You can tell that there was a lot of thought given to how the stories fit together and flow with one another. Sometimes when there is a series involved an author has trouble with trying to make the plot too complex so that they can fill the books out. That isn't the case here with Mr. Dekker. He does a magnificent job.

The character development is very well done. The characters aren't over developed in any way. What I mean by that is that sometimes the author tries to give you way too much information on the character and half of it ends up being irrelevant to the story. Not so in this book. The characters slot in well to the plot and the overall makeup of the story.

The readability of this book is very good. It has great pacing and it's easy to read. Someone who is a faster reader could sit down and knock this book out in half a day. It's not an intimidating read and it flows very well. I like the writing style very much.

I think this book would make an excellent gift for the person in your life that enjoys reading and reading series books. You should consider this book for your holiday shopping needs. It can be picked up online or in stores and it's very easy to spot with the beautiful red cover that it has.

Disclaimer: I know this review is vague. I strive very hard not to give away any of the plot of the book because I hate when that happens. I just try to present a well written book and suggest it to my readers. This is a well written and well done book. 

Book Review: Flexible Wings by Veda Stamps

Flexible Wings by Veda Stamps
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Flexible Wings is a wonderfully written story about a military family, swimming, and friendship, to name a few of the themes. I wasn't sure how I was going to like this book as it didn't immediately jump out at me when I read the excerpt of it. I was pleasantly surprised however and ended up enjoying it very much.

The character development is done very well. Sometimes with short books it's hard to get enough info on the characters or you get too much info on them and the plot doesn't get as much time as it needs. Neither of these issues showed up in this book. The author does a wonderful job of character development throughout the story.

The plot of the story was pretty straight forward. There weren't any major twists and turns that caught you off guard, but sometimes that's refreshing in the story and that was the case with this. I didn't find myself wanting any more or less when I finished the book. That's the mark of a good story to me.

The writing style of this book was probably my favorite part. It was just so down to earth. I could imagine myself having this conversation with my family if we were in these situations. There were not outlandish parts that made it unbelievable in any way. The only thing I didn't like, and this is going to sound weird, was the titles of the chapters. I didn't like them because they gave away what was going to happen in each chapter. There wasn't really much buildup as a result because you kind of knew what was coming based on the chapter label.

I enjoyed the readability of this book very much. You could easily sit down and read it in 2 or 3 hours if you had that kind of time to commit in one stretch.

This books touches on many wonderful topics of family dynamics. The sibling interactions are wonderful to watch as they develop. The arguments with mom and dad are very down to earth and applicable. I think this book has the capability of helping many young readers cope with some family angst they may be having. The topic of moving and making new friends is also a big one in this book. That is such a hard thing to do, moving to a new home and school, and I think that lots of kids cope with this everyday. The author tackles in a very straight forward way and doesn't pull any punches about how hard it can be. I appreciate that very much.

Overall I gave this book 5/5 stars. It is a solid read that I would recommend to anyone that would ask me about it. Veda Stamps has crafted a wonderful novel that touches on some tough issues. She approaches these issues with a grace that is sometimes lost in the world today. Well done.

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