The Newsmakers by Lis Wiehl

The book started out very good and I thought that it might be her best yet, but it didn’t last long. Unfortunately, once again the author’s politics is displayed in an odd way. Through the character of Greg Underwood she describes the actions of American soldiers in the Iraq war as “wanton killing of civilians, the rapes” and goes on and on about how they slaughtered children and babies.

Written in the annoying present tense, the storyline is far from believable. Erica is a young alcoholic mother trying to get her life in order and starting a new career. She immediately becomes a media star because someone is setting her up with great news stories. The story is more like a teenager’s fantasy, but if you don’t mine lack of realism, it is a light, fast read. Some of the situations and the famous name-dropping is cringe-worthy.

I am not sure why this is published by a Christian publisher. There was nothing in it that dealt with faith, modesty, purity, or other themes expected from a Christian book.


 I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program

The Canary List by Sigmund Brouwer

Jamie Piper is a twelve-year-old foster child that has an unusual ability to sense evil.  She turns to Crockett for help but things spiral out of control.

The beginning of the book was interesting but it slowed down and dragged a bit. I was frustrated with the character of Crockett Grey. He found himself in situations beyond his control, but he seemed to just stumble through them. His life events just kept getting worse and worse, but he reacted to them as a simpleton.  

Overall it was an interesting subject and was worth the read. It was just not my favorite book by Sigmund Brouwer.