Freedom First, Peace Later by Jeanette Hewitt

War Changes Lives

Jeanette Hewitt writes her poignant novel about the IRA (Irish Republican Army) by developing six characters that reside in Crossmaglen, a village in Northern Ireland.

Stu is an inexperienced British soldier, Barry is an undercover (double) agent, Bronwyn is Barry’s fraternal twin and she is a brave, outspoken bartender, Rosina is Bronwyn’s best friend, and is the complete opposite of Bronwyn. Danny is 100% IRA, and Connor was the secret boyfriend of Rosina, but ends up marrying Bronwyn.

These six characters and their families try to survive the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that fought a guerrilla war against British rule in Ireland. The war went on for over twenty years.

We see what war does to individuals and families. War changes people. Living with racism, bombs, and death everyday takes its toll.

There was hatred between the Catholics and Protestants, so much so that just walking on the wrong side of town was taking your life in your hands. The violent rituals were common, men were beaten to a pulp, kneecapped and crippled, and women were beaten and raped.

Stu, Barry, Bronwyn, Rosina, Danny, Connor, and their families live through hell and are subjected to all the violence at one time or another. Lives are lost. Lives are changed. Families are split up, some abandoned their own family members, and the drama is intense.

Everyone had to make life changing decisions to survive. Did everyone make it? You will have to read Freedom First, Peace Later, to find out who survived.

Jeanette Hewitt describes the setting vividly. Her characters are very different yet well developed.  Freedom First, Peace Later has such a great flow that when I started the story I finished it and never noticed how long it took. I never put the book down.

As far as format, I would have preferred a table of contents.

I recommend Freedom First, Peace Later by Jeanette Hewitt to readers who enjoy learning history through a good novel.

Light & Dark: The Awakening of the Mageknight by Daniel Fife

Dragons and Shadows!

Did a popular card game of middle school students come to life? The game was called ‘Knights.’ The middle school students who played the game were Danny, Doug, Matt, Alonso, and Chris. Of course when they played the game of Knights it was just a perfectly innocent card game. Until one day . . .

The boys started playing Knights over the summer. It was a game based on using fantasy creatures and knights of legend to ultimately defeat opposing players.  The basis of the game was to confront the forces of neutral, good, and evil against one another. The three groups were Light, Gray, and Dark.

When the summer was over, Danny and all his best buddies were looking forward to their last year of middle school. Everything was the same until, yup, you guessed it, a really hot girl! Her name was Sabrina. And yup, you guessed it, much to Danny’s surprise, she knew about the card game, Knights. So Danny had the biggest crush on her for her beauty and the fact she played the game, Knights.

This is where the story, Light & Dark: The Awakening of the Mageknight, really began with the fantasy adventures. When Danny was confronted by the school bully, he took him down, but can’t figure out how he did it. Of course later he finds out it was Sabrina who helped him. But how? How can a little tiny girl break the nose of a big bully without being seen?  Here was the story’s first fantasy adventure. And oh, there were many more to come if you read this wonderful book by Daniel Fife.

Sabrina had a nice family. I didn’t say normal, but I did say nice. What exactly do I mean? Is Sabrina a real person? Is she a dragon? Is she a shadow? Are her parent’s real people? Danny finds out when he meets Sabrina after school one day. He saw a fight between two creatures, a dragon and a shadow. Sabrina became one of these creatures, but which one? Normal humans don’t have the ability to see these creatures, but Danny did! So Sabrina explained why to Danny.

Being shocked for a few days was in order, wouldn’t you say? However, because Danny possessed this rare ability, he decided he wanted to fight the forces of darkness with Sabrina, and her parents. He wanted to become a Knight of the Light.

Come to find out all his buddies possessed the same rare ability. So they all joined Danny to fight the forces of darkness. They attended a summer school in Florida called the White Rock Academy of Illumination. Of course none of the parents knew what this school was really about. They thought it was just an innocent fun summer school adventure.

Here there was magic on a magical ship. With danger lurking a wizard named Navi helped navigate, so they arrived safely and began their training to become knights. They learned how to fight along with learning the history of the Shadows.

Not all the teachers were on the up and up. Danny thought some in the Order of Light were betrayers. He felt he had a strong ability to become the Mageknight, so Danny used all his new knowledge he was trained for to see if he was right. Was he? Does he become the Mageknight?

This was a great fantasy adventure story all ages will enjoy. We see Danny and his friends, including Sabrina; grow up from immature middle school students to mature thinking students ready for high school.

If you want any of the questions answered here in my review, you must read the beautifully written book, Light & Dark:  The Awakening of the Mageknight by Daniel Fife. You won’t be disappointed!

Nimpentoad by Henry Herz

 

Subtle lessons beautifully taught!

Nimpentoad is a beautifully written and illustrated fantasy adventure book for children. It is a subtle way to teach lessons about friendship, trust, courage, and thinking through situations. Herz also includes manners and trying new vegetables! I bet children actually eat vegetables after reading this story.

Nimpentoad is a Nibling and he lives in Grunwald Forest. There are many other creatures that live in the forest, some are nice and some are not. Niblings are very small and because of this they are picked on a lot every day in the forest.

Finally, Nimpentoad has had enough bullying. He comes up with a plan to travel with all the other Niblings to live with Goofus the Giant. His plan is to help the Giant do all the things he can’t because he is too big. So children also learn being small has advantages, especially after seeing the Nibling’s being bullied for so long because they were small.

It’s a hard journey traveling through the forest and meeting up with all the other creatures who bully them. It took them five days, traveling a mile a day. This is where they all have to trust Nimpentoad and work together through the unexpected problems that come up.

I recommend Nimpentoad for ages five and up. Even adults will appreciate the humor.

It was written by Henry Herz and his two sons, Josh and Harrison, who are in elementary school. I think this is worthy of sharing with the children who read Nimpentoad.

Conditioned Response (Phoenician Series #2) by Marjorie F. Baldwin

Phoenicians co-existing with humans

The relationship between the Phoenicians and humans for 400 years is the story behind Conditioned Response. The Phoenicians, or humanoids, obtained power to store and project energy and used that to control life on their planet. When humans left Earth and lived on the Phoenicians planet, it wasn’t the best of circumstances to say the least.

The main character, Shayla, is a Phoenician who lived against her will with humans for thirteen years. She and fellow members of a Council wanted to start a revolution and overthrow the society. Which society would that have been for Shayla, the Phoenicians or the humans?

It is difficult to form an opinion about the Phoenicians and the humans.  They both have a caste system where certain people are treated like garbage and both planets are equally politically corrupt.

As the characters are developed, we learned some reasons for their bad behaviors, which helped sway an opinion to like or dislike a character. It helped to understand their background. There are numerous characters, and I would have liked previous knowledge earlier in the book that described them more in depth. I thought a list and a one or two sentence description in the beginning would have been a good idea.

There were many situations with Shayla and her bodyguard, Raif. It involved plenty of sexual tension between the two. This is a must for every good story.

I don’t claim to be a sci-fi fan; however, my review may shed light on that very fact. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Conditioned Response, but as a story in general, I would have liked an introduction. A set up would have been a helpful aid to the newly sci-fi reader.

The setting seemed like one or two little rooms. There were two planets involved, but never any mention or description to any traveling that took place.

The story did have lots of twists and turns, mysteries, unusual experiences, and sexual innuendo.  It is also a story you can think about and I imagine it could be a discussion starter for how we treat society today.