SIR BENTLY, by Chuch Black

This second installment in Chuck Black’s Knights of Arrethtrae series tells the tale of Sir Bentley, an honorable knight who abandons all to seek the truth of the Prince. Eirwyn, a mysterious young woman who brings food to the poor, teaches Bentley the power of compassion to overcome evil. Together, they save the people of Holbrook from poverty and despair.

Sir Bentley’s quest for the truth of the Prince finds him battling Shadow Warriors, a powerful lord, and a terrifying creature. Will greed destroy Holbrook? Or can Bentley and the mysterious Eirwyn restore prosperity to the kingdom through the compassion of the Prince? Intended for family read-alouds and Christian teens, this fantastic story will entertain and edify parents and kids alike.

Author Bio:

Chuck Black, a former F-16 fighter pilot and tactical communications engineer, is the author of eight novels, including the popular Kingdom series. He has received praise from parents across the country for his unique approach to telling biblical truths. His passion in life is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and to love his wife, Andrea, and their six children. He lives with his family in North Dakota.

My Review:

I found SIR BENTLEY, by Chuck Black, to be an incredibly interesting story. SIR BENTLEY follows the life of a young nobleman as he is knighted to an adventurous tale to fight for the oppressed in the village of Holbrook. On the way Sir Bentley realizes that he must make a choice between the oath he gave as a knight and the oath he has given to the King. As I understand the other tales of this series normally follow the poor who follow the King and act as his knights, but here we find a nobleman, a rich man's son following the King. I'm not going to spoil everything for you and give up the plot or anything, but you will find that this book is well-written, properly geared towards young adult males, and filled with Biblical applications.

The parallels made in this work are Scripturally sound, but perhaps more importantly is the ease in which it engages the reader. My ownly "negative" concerning this book was the inclusion of a work book at the end, sort of a chapter by chapter lessons from Scripture found in the book. In my opinion this reduces the novel to that of a text book. I hope people don't turn away from it because of this. Simply don't read this end section, unless you like text books, or if you wish to use SIR BENTLEY as a study guide for a young adult group in your church. This seems to be more of a "teacher's copy" in that sense. Nevertheless the story carries itself well, without the prodding of questions at the end (some of which may even be obscure). For those wishing to utilize this book as a study guide a practical questioning of "Does this remind you of anything in the Bible?" would suffice.

I truly enjoyed reading this book. It recognizes the need for young men to look up to heroes who are worthy of that, and to become heroes themselves, as they follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. I encourage all young people to read this book. I can promise you that it is a book you will truly enjoy.

You can purchase this book online at:
Random House

Christian Books

Barnes & Noble

and Amazon

Also, you can read more about the Knights of Arrethtrae at HERE

And get to know more about Chuck Black HERE














For more great reviews be sure to stop by CFRB the first full week of each month for some of the best fiction you'll ever read. The Christian Fiction Review Blog is dedicated to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ through promoting quality fiction from a Christian worldview. We've been at it for over 2 years and some of the books toured there truly belong on the NY Times Bestsellers' List. Soon, I hope they make it. The stories are sharp. The characters are realistic. The message is usually tucked away in the weave of the plot, unless you're reading my books where I tend to be a little more forthright. Plus, there's something for everyone, from romance to horror, historical fiction to suspense and mystery, from fantasy to science fiction, and more, it's all there. And you never know when one of the members or the author is going to do a book giveaway, so be sure to visit us at http://cfrblog.blogspot.com Hope to see you around. David Brollier, author of THE 3RD COVENANT and co-founder of the Christian Fiction Review Blog.

VENGEANCE, by Donna Dawson

It's time for VENGEANCE, no not the action, the book by Donna Dawson. All this week CFRB will be touring this book. Today I'd like to set the stage for you. Imagine a boy who watches his father die slowly of a terrible sickness. Imagine thirty years later an FBI agent on his first vacation in a long time. Imagine this vacation is in part a cruise to and from his destination of Hawaii. Now imagine that the little boy who has grown up decides to avenge himself of his father's death. Let's take this a step further, the people he wants to have revenge on just happen to be aboard the same ship as our FBI agent. Who writes like this? Donna Dawson does. She tantalizes you with a couple small chapters to set the stage, then goes to the agent's vacation cruise and launches you into a world of suspense, intregue and so many other things I'm surprised she managed it at all. Tom Clancy was once asked what is the difference between fiction and real life. He said, "Fiction has to make sense." Now as much as I admire Clancy I'd have to say Dawson comes as close to not making a lot of sense because there are so many things all going on all at once, just like real life. Yet this is fiction...or is it? Perhaps there's a story out there that she got her teeth into and decided to fictionalize it, but however she did it, she did it with gusto.

I hope she won't get mad at me for a couple mild spoilers in that paragraph, but you just have to understand the complexity of this story, and I haven't even mentioned Dr. Holding or Cassandra yet. This is a totally different story running along side the main story. In fact, when you begin to break things down you find that there is the boy's story, the agent's story (in about 2 or 3 different trails), Cassandra's story, Dr. Julia Holding's story, Special Agent in Charge St. Kitt's story, and more. More meaning, Tip and Nam and a few others you'll meet along the way. These are people who have their own reason for being between the covers of this book and they don't always coincide with the others. Some have nothing to do with any of the others, and yet Donna Dawson makes it all seem so natural, so real, so incredibly normal...even if it is abnormally complex. When you read VENGEANCE you are going to be submerged into a world that will stimulate all your senses.

After reading a lot of fantasy and science fiction of late it felt good to get back to the mystery/suspense genre, especially when it was done so well. Check out the following CFRB places. Chances are you'll find out more than I'm giving you here.



Now that you have all those links, some of which may not have current information, but you'll enjoy them just the same, it's time to get out some important information.

First I bet you'd like to visit Donna's site. You can find that HERE

To purchase her book you can go to:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

or Target