Most of the time, I read books that create an opportunity for growth and give me things to think about. But occasionally, I feel the need to throw a fictional novel or two into the mix and simply enjoy a good story. That is what I have done for the past couple of weeks, and especially so with this book, Formula Of Deception, by Carrie Stuart Parks. I have only read a couple of her books, this one and When Death Draws Near, which I reviewed in the fall of 2016. And so far, I have enjoyed them both.

Formula Of Deception is a story set in Alaska in modern times, but with a family secret that has been lurking under the surface since World War II. Murphy Anderson is trying to survive life after the death of her twin sister, and is having trouble getting her feet underneath her. When she falls into the opportunity to use her artistic skills as a forensic artist, she stumbles upon a secret that has been buried for more than half a century.

As she discovers more and more, she falls deeper into the grip of a family determined to keep the truth hidden, and begins to question her own sanity in the process. With several plot twists and turns that will catch you off guard, the story that Murphy Anderson unravels will keep you riveted to the point that you won’t be able to put this book down.

Recently, I have enjoyed reading several books by a new author to me, James Markert. This week, I was able to read another of his novels, What Blooms From Dust. I really enjoyed the previous two novels from Markert, All Things Bright And Strange and The Angels’ Share. But this one was a bit different.

In the end, this one may be my favorite of them all; it just took a while to get to that point. I even considered giving up on trying to finish it, but am really glad I stuck it out.

What Blooms From Dust is a story set in the Dust Bowl era of western Oklahoma in the mid-1930s. It begins when a man named Jeremiah Goodbye escapes from prison after nearly dying in the electric chair. With the flip of a coin, he returns to his hometown in the panhandle of Oklahoma, where there are a lot of secrets, mysteries, and tensions, especially among his own family, and even the whole town.

What happens while he is there is nothing short of miraculous. And the town needs a miracle, especially after years of relentless dust storms and drought. Jeremiah learns something about his family, and the town learns something about Jeremiah, and they all learn something about love and kindness.

For the first half of What Blooms From Dust, the story plodded along at a miserable pace, and I found it extremely boring, almost to the point of giving up. But as tensions began to rise, the plot began to pick up, and by the end of the book, I was thoroughly intrigued. Again, it might just be my favorite of all his works that I have read.

I am always on the lookout for a good story to read. Though most of my reading lies in the area of nonfiction topics of interest, a good fictional story is always welcome. And that’s what I found in Charles Martin’s book Send Down The Rain – I found a good story.

I was surprised almost immediately at the storyline. Without giving too much away, the main characters are all in the later stages of life, not old by any means, but no longer young. The story begins when they were young kids, and there are some flashbacks that help to explain the beginnings of the story, but the majority of the book rests in the present day, with characters in the mid- to late-sixties.

I don’t know why, but that surprised me. Thinking about it, I’m sure I have read other novels with similarly aged characters, but I can’t really point to one specifically. After my initial surprise, I dug deeper into the story and was fully immersed before the first few pages were turned. Those kids, the ones who were young when the story started, are now adults, lives lived all over the place, with joys and tragedies, wars and careers, and the scars of life to show for it.

And then life brings them all back together and seems to give them a second chance… Or does it?