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Sue (5 KP) rated Jasmine in Books

Aug 13, 2018

Recently divorced Jasmine feels like she has failed everyone; her husband, her kids, and herself. Her ex-husband left her for a younger model, her daughter blames her for the divorce & won’t speak to her, and her son broke his leg as a call for attention.

While making a new friend, a mistake made at a women’s shelter leaves Jasmine in danger and doubting her safety. She seeks the help and guidance of her bible study group the Planted. As she finds a new job and perspective in life, Jasmine is brought closer to God and those she loves.

This is the fifth book in the Christian suspense series, Planted Flowers. As with the other books in the Planted series, this is more than just a book of mystery and romance. The underlining story has to do with finding faith, strength, understanding, and support while gaining a deeper relationship with God and his teachings.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Kudos

David McK (3623 KP) rated Stormchild in Books

Oct 19, 2025

As an author, Bernard Cornwell is probably better known for writing historical fiction: the Sharpe series (set during the Napoleonic Wars), say, or the Uhtred of Bebbanburg series (in and around the time of Alfred the Great).

What is not so well, known, however, are his more contemporaneous 'Sailing thrillers'.

Of which there are currently five (Wildtrack, Sea Lord, Crackdown, Stormchild and Scoundrel)
with this being the fourth published in that, totally unconnected to each other, series and also coincidentally the fourth I read (I've yet to read Crackdown).

In this one, published during the early 1990s, Cornwell's hero of the novel is a man who, following the death of his wife in an explosion at sea (itself following the death of his son in a bombing in Northern Ireland) is trying to track down his long-lost daughter, who was last seen sailing away from him to join a cult of what-proves-to-be extremist environmentalist.

Bold choice.

Making the environmentalists the baddies.

To be clear, they're portrayed here - or, at least, the (fictional) cult that she has joined - more as extremists than environmentalists.

Like I suspect many others, I found this to be an enjoyable enough read but not up to the standards of his Cornwell's usual historical fiction works. Which the man himself acknowledges on his own website: "I enjoyed writing the thrillers, but suspect I am happier writing historical novels ..."