This is a fiction book in a series by Lisa T. Bergren . The author states it is based on the true fact that Saint Paul references to earlier letters that were sent to the Corinthians in the Bible we use today. It is clear that these letters existed.
In this story the gifted ones were spoken of in Paul's letter. Later while copying the letter a monk is divinely inspired to draw a picture of one of the gifted. The monk is caught and put to death.
Generations later the gifted begin to appear. The secret is told to Father Piero when he is young by his teacher because he is also in the picture. He has kept this secret for many years. One day while he is on his weekly visit to one of the Abbeys he sees the lady in the fresco and knows it is her in that moment.
Lady Daria de'Angelo is a healer just as her mother was before her, using herbs and poultices to help the ill. Daria is on pilgrimage at the Abby because her handfast of marriage has been broken because she is believed to be barren.
She is also a woman in charge of a family business because her parents have died. With no male kin, She must have a guardian to represent her. Her guardian is The Barron Del Buco a ruthless and ambitious man who plans to have all that she owns for himself.
As Daria is preparing to return home a young nuns hand is crushed by a grinding stone. Father Piero encourages her to pray for the healing and God allows the first miracle when the nuns hand is restored completely.
Father Peiro cautions the nuns to secrecy fearing Daria will be accused of witchcraft.
He also decides to accompany Daria on her journey home.
Gianni is a Knight of the church and captain of the guard. He has been sent on a mission to track down a sorcerer who has injured, mislead and murdered many. One of his comrades is injured and as he is trying to save him he is ambushed by the sorcerer and left to die. Daria and father Piero happen upon him and God once again allows her to heal with prayer.
Gianni is thanking the lord and while in prayer God tells him to become her protector and the prophecy foretold of the gifted begins.
Can they do the will of God and stand up to those who would destroy them? With betrayal and evil at every turn the sorcerer tries to bend them to his will. They must decipher the prophecy and find the other gifted.
Good thriller, couldn't put it down! 8/10
Saturday, September 12, 2009
BLINK OF AN EYE By Ted Dekker
This is a book Ted Dekker released as Blink and re released as blink of an Eye in 2007 with a few minor changes. Both versions have had great popularity.
Mariam is a Saudi Arabian princess who is being forced into a loveless marriage for the gain of her family. She is in love with another, Samir her fathers chauffeur. She knows that disobedience would mean death. She has just witnessed her dear friend suffer this fate. Without another option, she runs away.Pretending a shopping trip in Jidda, She flees to America. She shows up on the doorstep of a professor of middle eastern studies at Berkley named Hillary Brackenshire. The shocked professor takes her in for a few days. But she will not be safe when she is discovered missing. Omar, the man she was to marry will be after her and so will her father.
Seth Border a twenty six year old American student of Berkley is a genius with an IQ of 193.
He's popular but doesn't really feel like he fits in. Besides being really smart he's developing another gift even more unusual, He can see things right before they actually happen.
On the day he meets the princess he uses his new gift to save her from being captured. At first Miriam thinks he is attacking her but when she sees the real attacker she cooperates.
Seth and Miriam are then on the run together. As the two young people learn to work together to stay alive and stay ahead of their attackers the bond grows between them. Seth struggles with his new ability and he is forced to reevaluate his old belief that there is no God.
This book is full of action and humor. It is also very relevant today.
8\10
Mariam is a Saudi Arabian princess who is being forced into a loveless marriage for the gain of her family. She is in love with another, Samir her fathers chauffeur. She knows that disobedience would mean death. She has just witnessed her dear friend suffer this fate. Without another option, she runs away.Pretending a shopping trip in Jidda, She flees to America. She shows up on the doorstep of a professor of middle eastern studies at Berkley named Hillary Brackenshire. The shocked professor takes her in for a few days. But she will not be safe when she is discovered missing. Omar, the man she was to marry will be after her and so will her father.
Seth Border a twenty six year old American student of Berkley is a genius with an IQ of 193.
He's popular but doesn't really feel like he fits in. Besides being really smart he's developing another gift even more unusual, He can see things right before they actually happen.
On the day he meets the princess he uses his new gift to save her from being captured. At first Miriam thinks he is attacking her but when she sees the real attacker she cooperates.
Seth and Miriam are then on the run together. As the two young people learn to work together to stay alive and stay ahead of their attackers the bond grows between them. Seth struggles with his new ability and he is forced to reevaluate his old belief that there is no God.
This book is full of action and humor. It is also very relevant today.
8\10
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
YOUR HEART BELONGS TO ME By Dean Koontz
Meet Ryan Perry , thirty four, athletic, loves to surf, Internet entrepreneur. He has done very well in life so far. His friends call him Dotcom. He has his own cook and a driver also has a personal trainer three times a week. With the healthy lifestyle he leads you would think he would be the last person to begin suffering from heart problems, But he does.
He goes to the internist to find out whats wrong and learns he has an enlarged heart. The doctor sites several reasons why a person might have this problem one of them being poisoning. The doctor says only a biopsy can show for sure what course of medical action to take.
Ryan then goes home to his fortress like manson and begins to hear strange noises and whispering when nothing is showing up on his twenty camera security system.
This makes him begin to suspect everyone around him. Could his caretakers , Lee and Kay Ting be sneaking around whispering about him?
He decides to call, Wilson Mott a private detective he has used before to check some people out. but instead , when he gets Mott on the phone he asks him to find his girl friend Samantha's mother. Samantha has told him they are estranged.
He then goes to a Dr named Gupta for a biopsy and while he's there a nurse named Ismay Clemm says some very strange things to him, asking if he hears the man coming for him and telling him to come to her when he hears the bells. He decides he must have been having wild dreams on the anesthesia and puts it out of his mind. He continues to feel as if people are following him and be fearful is it real or just part of his condition.
He finds out from the doctor that there is no cure for him and he will need a new heart.
Then he gets a call from Wilson Mott, Samantha's mother Rebecca is in Vegas and is dating a euthanasia doctor named Spencer Barghest. Her and Samantha are probably estranged because she made the decision to remove a feeding tube from her brain damaged daughter and allow her to die. The girl was Samantha's twin.
The next day he goes to Samantha's for dinner and ends up staying the night. In the middle of the night he is awakened by voices and gets up to see Samantha talking to Spencer Barghest outside. He then makes the decision he needs to go to Vegas and search Rebecca's house and also Spencer's. He calls Mott to set it up and takes off to Vegas.
He meets with people Mott has put in place to help him and he searches Rebecca's home ,finding nothing. He then goes to Spencer's and searches finding out that Spencer is a man obsessed with death even having photo albums of dead faces, Teresa, Samantha's twin being one of them.
Ryan then decides he must be over reacting and goes back home. As time goes on he begins to fear more and more he wont get a heart in time. He decides to begin to look for another doctor , maybe if he gets the transplant this terrible fear will be over. He then finds a Dr. Hobb and begins to see him without telling anyone. He is unwittingly pulled by fear and fortune into the underworld of black market organ transplants.
I thought this book was good because it opens your eyes to think about how someone could be blind enough not to realize what the cost is for the things they need. After all this country is full of things like that. (blood diamonds etc...)
7/10
He goes to the internist to find out whats wrong and learns he has an enlarged heart. The doctor sites several reasons why a person might have this problem one of them being poisoning. The doctor says only a biopsy can show for sure what course of medical action to take.
Ryan then goes home to his fortress like manson and begins to hear strange noises and whispering when nothing is showing up on his twenty camera security system.
This makes him begin to suspect everyone around him. Could his caretakers , Lee and Kay Ting be sneaking around whispering about him?
He decides to call, Wilson Mott a private detective he has used before to check some people out. but instead , when he gets Mott on the phone he asks him to find his girl friend Samantha's mother. Samantha has told him they are estranged.
He then goes to a Dr named Gupta for a biopsy and while he's there a nurse named Ismay Clemm says some very strange things to him, asking if he hears the man coming for him and telling him to come to her when he hears the bells. He decides he must have been having wild dreams on the anesthesia and puts it out of his mind. He continues to feel as if people are following him and be fearful is it real or just part of his condition.
He finds out from the doctor that there is no cure for him and he will need a new heart.
Then he gets a call from Wilson Mott, Samantha's mother Rebecca is in Vegas and is dating a euthanasia doctor named Spencer Barghest. Her and Samantha are probably estranged because she made the decision to remove a feeding tube from her brain damaged daughter and allow her to die. The girl was Samantha's twin.
The next day he goes to Samantha's for dinner and ends up staying the night. In the middle of the night he is awakened by voices and gets up to see Samantha talking to Spencer Barghest outside. He then makes the decision he needs to go to Vegas and search Rebecca's house and also Spencer's. He calls Mott to set it up and takes off to Vegas.
He meets with people Mott has put in place to help him and he searches Rebecca's home ,finding nothing. He then goes to Spencer's and searches finding out that Spencer is a man obsessed with death even having photo albums of dead faces, Teresa, Samantha's twin being one of them.
Ryan then decides he must be over reacting and goes back home. As time goes on he begins to fear more and more he wont get a heart in time. He decides to begin to look for another doctor , maybe if he gets the transplant this terrible fear will be over. He then finds a Dr. Hobb and begins to see him without telling anyone. He is unwittingly pulled by fear and fortune into the underworld of black market organ transplants.
I thought this book was good because it opens your eyes to think about how someone could be blind enough not to realize what the cost is for the things they need. After all this country is full of things like that. (blood diamonds etc...)
7/10
Sunday, September 6, 2009
UNDEAD AND UNWELCOME By MaryJanice Davidson
This book is the latest in a long line of the series about Betsy Taylor AKA The Queen of the Vampires.
I found this book to be lighthearted, quick to read , humor. It has youthful characters and attitude but as it has some intimate scenes it is not for children.
In this latest addition to the story, Betsy is aboard Jessica's plane on her way to Wyndham Manor, home of the werewolf pack. She is carrying the remains of her friend Antonia (werewolf) back to the pack. She also has to go before the werewolf council to explain the details of Antonia's death. Unlike Betsy and Antonia, werewolves and vampires are not normally friends. They do not trust one another and many of the werewolves blame Betsy for Antonia's death. Will she make peace or start a war?
Meanwhile back at St Paul Manson, Betsy's half sister Laura,the Antichrist (no really!) is using her Satan worshipper followers to kill vampires. Can Marc get Betsy home in time to stop her?
6\10
Get This Book Here!!
Undead and Unwelcome (Queen Betsy, Book 8)
More Books By MaryJanice Davidson!
Undead and Unwed (Queen Betsy, Book 1)
Undead and Unemployed (Queen Betsy, Book 2)
Undead and Unappreciated (Queen Betsy, Book 3) (Berkley Sensation)
Undead and Unreturnable (Queen Betsy, Book 4) (Berkley Sensation)
Undead and Unpopular (Queen Betsy, Book 5)
Undead and Uneasy (Queen Betsy, Book 6)
Undead and Unworthy (Queen Betsy, Book 7)
I found this book to be lighthearted, quick to read , humor. It has youthful characters and attitude but as it has some intimate scenes it is not for children.
In this latest addition to the story, Betsy is aboard Jessica's plane on her way to Wyndham Manor, home of the werewolf pack. She is carrying the remains of her friend Antonia (werewolf) back to the pack. She also has to go before the werewolf council to explain the details of Antonia's death. Unlike Betsy and Antonia, werewolves and vampires are not normally friends. They do not trust one another and many of the werewolves blame Betsy for Antonia's death. Will she make peace or start a war?
Meanwhile back at St Paul Manson, Betsy's half sister Laura,the Antichrist (no really!) is using her Satan worshipper followers to kill vampires. Can Marc get Betsy home in time to stop her?
6\10
Get This Book Here!!
Undead and Unwelcome (Queen Betsy, Book 8)
More Books By MaryJanice Davidson!
Undead and Unwed (Queen Betsy, Book 1)
Undead and Unemployed (Queen Betsy, Book 2)
Undead and Unappreciated (Queen Betsy, Book 3) (Berkley Sensation)
Undead and Unreturnable (Queen Betsy, Book 4) (Berkley Sensation)
Undead and Unpopular (Queen Betsy, Book 5)
Undead and Uneasy (Queen Betsy, Book 6)
Undead and Unworthy (Queen Betsy, Book 7)
BLACK By Ted Dekker
This Book is the first in a trilogy Ted Dekker wrote way back in 2004
It starts of in Switzerland at a dinning table with two men named Valborg Svensson and Carlos Missirian. They are discussing their plan to hold the world hostage by developing a deadly virus and controlling the only vaccine against it. Svensson tells Carlos to go to Bangkok to get a man named Thomas Hunter who has been having a dream about just such a virus.
Then the book switches gears to Thomas Hunter. We enter his life as he is walking down the street in Denver when suddenly he is shot at and begins running for his life. Tom fights back when two men corner him and he escapes to hide on a rooftop. Suddenly something hits him and he is falling. He looses consciousness and when he wakes up, he is in another world with a strange black forest all around him. There is a man named Bill he's never seen before, trying to get him to drink from a strange looking puddle. He doesn't know anything for sure, except he shouldn't drink the water, no matter what. Bill walks off into the forest and then Tom feels himself being drawn towards the water, just as he's about to drink, razor sharp shale slices through his skin .He looks up and sees thousands of bats hanging in the trees. (creepy!) He passes out again and, bam he's back in Denver. Tom heads for the apartment he shares with his sister Kara. She bandages him up and he lays down to rest and once asleep, bam he is back in the black forest, running for his life. He sees a white bridge ahead, with green land on the other side of it and runs for it.
The next time he sleeps in Denver, it happens again, only this time he meets strange white talking birds and a girl named Rachelle, who tell him that hi memories of Denver are dreams of the histories.The world he is dreaming of was destroyed by a virus long ago. Rachelle believes he must have amnesia from hitting his head. As the story goes on, Tom decides this all must be happening to him so that he can stop the virus from happening and save the world. But he is not sure which world is more real to him. He would much rather stay with Rachelle and the peaceful world he has found. But of course, his conscience wont let him. Tom Keeps trying to get people to listen to, and believe him, even going so far as kidnapping a young scientist to stop her from releasing her vaccine to the world market.
I really enjoyed the world Ted Dekker created and loved the connection to Elyon (their name for God ) the beings had in the future. I thought this part was a brilliant way of paralleling the love of God for mankind and the great romance a person has with God.
I give it a 7\10 only because I hated the end, but I will have to see what WHITE and RED have to offer, the overall score could go a lot higher, oh yea, now it's more than a trilogy there's GREEN too!
Get This Book Here!!
Black (Circle)
Other Books By Ted Dekker
Green (The Circle, Book 0: The Beginning and the End)
Elyon (The Lost Books)
Lunatic (The Lost Books)
Chosen (The Lost Books, Book 1) (The Books of History Chronicles)
Complete Circle Series: Hardcover Box Set
It starts of in Switzerland at a dinning table with two men named Valborg Svensson and Carlos Missirian. They are discussing their plan to hold the world hostage by developing a deadly virus and controlling the only vaccine against it. Svensson tells Carlos to go to Bangkok to get a man named Thomas Hunter who has been having a dream about just such a virus.
Then the book switches gears to Thomas Hunter. We enter his life as he is walking down the street in Denver when suddenly he is shot at and begins running for his life. Tom fights back when two men corner him and he escapes to hide on a rooftop. Suddenly something hits him and he is falling. He looses consciousness and when he wakes up, he is in another world with a strange black forest all around him. There is a man named Bill he's never seen before, trying to get him to drink from a strange looking puddle. He doesn't know anything for sure, except he shouldn't drink the water, no matter what. Bill walks off into the forest and then Tom feels himself being drawn towards the water, just as he's about to drink, razor sharp shale slices through his skin .He looks up and sees thousands of bats hanging in the trees. (creepy!) He passes out again and, bam he's back in Denver. Tom heads for the apartment he shares with his sister Kara. She bandages him up and he lays down to rest and once asleep, bam he is back in the black forest, running for his life. He sees a white bridge ahead, with green land on the other side of it and runs for it.
The next time he sleeps in Denver, it happens again, only this time he meets strange white talking birds and a girl named Rachelle, who tell him that hi memories of Denver are dreams of the histories.The world he is dreaming of was destroyed by a virus long ago. Rachelle believes he must have amnesia from hitting his head. As the story goes on, Tom decides this all must be happening to him so that he can stop the virus from happening and save the world. But he is not sure which world is more real to him. He would much rather stay with Rachelle and the peaceful world he has found. But of course, his conscience wont let him. Tom Keeps trying to get people to listen to, and believe him, even going so far as kidnapping a young scientist to stop her from releasing her vaccine to the world market.
I really enjoyed the world Ted Dekker created and loved the connection to Elyon (their name for God ) the beings had in the future. I thought this part was a brilliant way of paralleling the love of God for mankind and the great romance a person has with God.
I give it a 7\10 only because I hated the end, but I will have to see what WHITE and RED have to offer, the overall score could go a lot higher, oh yea, now it's more than a trilogy there's GREEN too!
Get This Book Here!!
Black (Circle)
Other Books By Ted Dekker
Green (The Circle, Book 0: The Beginning and the End)
Elyon (The Lost Books)
Lunatic (The Lost Books)
Chosen (The Lost Books, Book 1) (The Books of History Chronicles)
Complete Circle Series: Hardcover Box Set
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