Top 3 Books with Maps and New Book Map Reveal (Lizzie)

Maps are fun. I still look at them when going on road trips and look for them at the beginning of books. I've seen books with treasure maps, maps of houses, maps of villages, and maps of a large part of the story world.

I can't talk about books with maps and not talk about Tolkien's The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, or Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, but I want to mention other books as well, so I'll just say these are the top books with maps after the classics.

Books with Maps

1) The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

 2) The Dreamhouse Kings series by Robert Liparulo

This is a fun map because it is of a house instead of a continent, but if you know the story (which I review here) you'll understand how important a map of this particular house is. I also got to meet Robert Liparulo recently at the Realm Makers conference in St. Louis!

 

3) The Sword of Lyric series by Sharon Hinck

There are a lot of other great books with maps, but these are three that came to mind. Do you have a favorite map or favorite book with a map? 

I am a part of author Patrick Carr's street team and just saw the map to go with his upcoming release The End of the Magi and am excited to share it! I never thought much about the magi beyond Christmas songs until seeing a magus return to look for Jesus in the story of Ben Hur. I'm curious as to what Patrick Carr, a fantastic world builder and character writer, will do with the story of the magi. You can check out the book (available for pre-order) here.

Top 3 Books of 2018 (Lizzie)

Do you ever think about a book and know you read it but can't quite remember what year it was you read it? Well, I'm pretty sure I read these books this year and not last year. If I wasn't sure when I read it, or if it was a short story, I omitted it to make the choosing easier. My list focuses on the fantasy books I read, since this is a fantasy blog. However, I couldn't help but mention some of the other full-length books I loved.

Top 3 Fantasy Books Read in 2018

1. The Restorer (Sword of Lyric)

With adventure, relatable characters, great spiritual truths, and a fascinating fantasy world, this was an unexpected gem. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series, which I bought as a Christmas gift to myself. You can read my review of it here.

2. Tinsel in a Tangle by Laurie Germaine

I loved this book when I came across it in a writing critique group and even remembered to hunt for it years later to see if it had been published. A contemporary YA with a twist, the twist being that the main character is a Christmas elf (well, mostly an elf) living in a fairly modern town (Santa's workshop and elves can have phones and snow mobiles too, after all), it's a delightful, funny romance. Laurie Germaine was a guest on our blog earlier this year. You can read her post here.

3. Masque

Resourceful and witty heroine, strong hero, humor, cleverness, murder, mystery, wonderful British language, and a Beauty and the Beauty-style love curse, Masque was a delightful read. It reminded me of Jen Turano's Ladies of Distinction series, only with an intriguing world of magic rather than the intriguing, though equally foreign, world of 1880s Park 5th Avenue. Masque also gets an award for one of my favorite covers of 2019!

Top Non-fantasy Books of 2018

In no particular order, here are some of my other favorite reads from this year.

1. Where We Belong by Lynn Austin I absolutely loved this historical fiction about the adventures of two sister who educate themselves and travel in a time when that was frowned upon. With romance, exotic locations (Egypt and a monastery in Sinai), and ancient Biblical texts, I loved the history and the characters.

2. and 3. The Silent Songbird by Melanie Dickerston and More than Meets the Eye by Karen Witemeyer Two thoroughly enjoyable books by two of favorite historical romance authors.

4.  No God but One: Allah or Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi My only non-fiction book on the list, I actually read this one twice, which isn't something I do too often. I learned a lot from Qureshi's studies into his former faith of Islam and the faith his research led him to embrace: Christianity. It taught me a lot about who the Christian God is and how he is a God of love and relationship.








5. The Tainted Coin by Mel Starr Another fantastic medieval murder mystery in the Hugh de Singleton Chronicles, only this time with buried treasure and kidnapped ladies to add to the adventure.

Have you read any of these books? Do any spark your interest? What were your favorite reads of 2018?

Book review: The Restorer by Sharon Hinck (Lizzie)

A friend and critique partner recommended The Restorer by Sharon Hinck, first book in The Sword of Lyric series, to me several years ago. I read the first few pages, thought it wasn't for me, and didn't touch it again for three years. Last week, I decided to give it another try--after all, Susan Donetti's other recommendations have all been hits. I picked up where I left off, and within five minutes I was hooked!

The Restorer is a bit different than most of the books we review here; it's about a tired, 40-ish, soccer mom, and there's no young couple romance, only romance rekindled within long-time marriages. But different can be good, and this was definitely a good book.

Susan Mitchell thinks she's an ordinary soccer mom, tired, and she wants God to use her in some way--possibly as a counselor at a drug rehab center. But then she's sucked into another world and finds herself possessed of a sword, remarkable hearing and sight, and miraculous self-healing abilities. And about that latter ability, certain people think there's no better way of proving that one than by slicing her with a knife and watching her heal. It'd be annoying to Susan if it weren't so frightening, for that ability marks her as the Restorer, the person (usually a warrior Guardian) the One sends to help his people when they're in trouble. That wasn't the way of being useful she had anticipated.

Not only must she adapt to a foreign culture (with a strange mix of technology and simplicity), deal with "guests" who poison minds, tackle corrupt rulers, and lead people back to the Verses, she has to learn how to fight. And find her way home. Because she ends up dead like the last Restorer.

Despite me not being a soccer mom, I related very well to Susan and loved many of the secondary characters as well, especially Mark (her husband, who was a shocking secret), Tristan, and Keiran. The settings and the different cultures within the collection of tribes making up the nation Susan is sent to save are very interesting and well-drawn. Susan's story is in some ways parallel to the story of Deborah in Judges, and I enjoyed that connection and the spiritual aspect of the story.

Have you read The Restorer? Do you like books about married couples or stick with books about young singles?