A Colorful Reading Challenge

A Colorful Reading Challenge is being hosted over at Lost in Books.

The point of the challenge is to read 9 books with 9 different colors in the title. Six colors are required, while the last 3 can be your choice. Books may be overlapped with other challenges. At least 6 of the books should be new to you (doesn't matter which 6).

The challenge runs from Jan 1, 2009 to Dec 31, 2009.

The required six colors are: blue, red, white, black, silver, gold and then you can pick 3 more options.

Red - The Red Siren by M.L. Tyndall

Blue

White

Black - Black Water - Joyce Carol Oates

Silver

Gold

Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates (Book Review)

Title: Black Water

Author: Joyce Carol Oates

Genre: Fiction

First sentence: The rented Toyota, driven with such impatient exuberance by The Senator, was speeding along the unpaved, unnamed road, taking the turns in giddy skidding slides, and then, with no warning, somehow the car had gone off the road and had overturned in black rushing water, listing to its passenger's side, rapidly sinking. (Wow, that has to be the longest first sentence!)

Joyce Carol Oates has taken the Chappaquiddick incident and evolved it into this bold novel set in the 1990's. For me, it did not bring the focus on the tragedy of the car crash and innocent death, but rather on how quickly your mind covers ground and how many different thoughts you can have in the space of a few moments. In the time that Kelly has, as the car is filling up with black water, we visit most of her life, but mostly the last few years.

She does remember a memory as a little girl with her grandpa, but it seems as if she is reliving all those moments - those choices - that brought led her to being in The Senator's car at that particular moment. "She was the one he had chosen."

I have had two near death experiences, where I actually stopped breathing, and I can vividly remember those things that I was thinking right before I went out, and it wasn't anything like Kelly was thinking - but at the time, I did not think that dying was a possibility. I believe this is because when we are young, we tend to believe that we are immortal. So Kelly, being in her 20's, kept hanging on to the hope that there was someone coming to get her out of the car - she even thought she saw them through the windshield, or felt them pulling on the door handle.

I can't say that I enjoyed this book - due to it's nature, but is was definitely thought provoking and wonderfully written!

The Red Siren by M.L. Tyndall (Book Review)

Title: The Red Siren (Charles Towne Belles/Book 1)

Author: M.L. Tyndall

Genre: Christian fiction/Romance

Publisher: Barbour Publishing Inc.

Available: January 2009

First sentence: This was Dajon Waite's last chance.

I thought twice about giving you more than the first sentence - but I want you to read the book! So now you are thinking... last chance for what? Love? Life? the Lottery? (ok.. so that last one is a little corny.. I was going for some alliteration.. )

The Red Siren is the name of a pirate ship, and also the lady pirate that commands her. She has a dual identity as the daughter, Faith (1 of 4) of an Admiral by day - and the captain of the Red Siren whenever there is a ship to plunder.

After her father married off her older sister Charity to a vile man, and Faith's mother died, Faith vowed to protect her 2 remaining sisters Hope and Grace from the same fate. She feels that she needs to acquire enough wealth, so that they will not need to rely on men to take care of them. So Faith becomes a pirate.

One of her first conquests is a ship captained by Dajon Waite. Not only does she take all of his goods, but his ship as well. This changes the course of Dajon's life and puts them back on a collision course 5 years into the future.

Can Faith save herself and her 2 sisters from Charity's fate? When Dajon reenters her life, as a captain in the British Royal Navy, will he be forced to arrest her for being a pirate? Or can the God-fearing Dajon Waite help the faithless Faith Westcott rediscover the God she thought had abandoned her?

I really liked the way the author named the daughter's Charity, Faith, Grace and Hope. We don't learn a lot about Charity in this book - just that she has been married to someone the other sisters do not like (for good reason.. ). Faith is the main character in The Red Siren, and is the one that has lost her faith. Grace is full of God's grace and does much to help the less fortunate. Hope is the youngest, and though she has been through some terrible travesties, she still has hope that there is love for her - either the love she is yearning for from her father, or from Lord Falkland.

I enjoyed reading The Red Siren - it grabbed me quick, kept up the pace throughout the book and wrapped the main story up nicely, but also left a hanger for the second book - The Blue Enchantress coming in the fall of 2009! For a peek at the cover of the Blue Enchantress - visit the author's blog here.

Come back on Monday, Jan 19 for the First Wild Card Tour!