"On an Island Teetering
at the Brink of Anarchy,
Daria Finds Hope
Among People of The Way."
Storyline -Daria is without home or employment. Chased from Rhodes, she has little choice but to accept the offer of a strange, yet charming, man, Lucas, to go to Ephesus and be his Persian tutor. But his demeanor changes upon their arrival to the city and she sees there is something dark stirring inside him. Slowly, she begins to uncover the mysteries of his wife's death and his need for vengeance, but ghosts from her past has followed her to Ephesus. As the city struggles with fraction with sorcerers, being faithful to the goddess Artemis, and the new fraction of believers of One God who call themselves Christians lead by a man named Paul, both Daria and Lucas will have to choose their way. But darkness is on their heels, waiting to take not only their souls, but lives as well.
Author - Tracy Higley
Publisher - Thomas Nelson
Age Group - 16 or 17 and up
Content - *May Contain Spoilers* The characters regularly run across Sorcerers and one tries magic. Lucas is filled with guilt and the desire for revenge but slowly sees the error of his ways. Daria tries to use her mind to make decisions but grows in relying on God after she meets the Christians. Paul and the other Christians speak of God's love and desire for everyone to turn to Him.
Personal Opinion -While twists and turns travel through this novel in the plot and the characters, Tracy Higley draws beautiful messages of God's love for us into its core. Daria and Lucas were true to life characters with genuine struggles. The plot was detailed and complex, a danger to an unskilled author but Tracy pulls it all together with no loop holes. Beginning the book in Rhodes was fun because that was were the last book of Tracy's I read left off. It kinda brought the two together yet this book still can be read as a stand alone. I didn't see many of the plot twists coming and, despite its length, never bored with bits of new information given at perfect intervals to keep me interested and coming to understand better what was haunting Lucas and Daria. My favorite part was how much was got to know and spend time with Paul and the Christians. It made the changes in Lucas and Daria more believable because I got to see how their lives slowly change because of what they were learning. The book is a bit dark at times but that is because of the sorcerer subject matter, which is never detailed by is still creepy (at least for me). Tracy's books always do a great job in creating 3D characters and engage plots and So Shines the Night is no exception.
Video -
Mini Author Interview - As part of the Caravan blog tour, I was able to ask Tracy some questions. Enjoy!
What made you interested in writing ancient history fiction?
I’m not sure! It evolved in my mind, and I suppose it was the tie-in to biblical history, to the time period which informed my faith and held so many stories I already knew and loved. But I’ve never been content to look at Scripture through the single historical lens of the Judea. I’ve always wanted to see the Old and New Testament periods through the eyes of the world outside the Jewish people, from the pagan perspective.
How do you do your research?
It’s a multi-tiered approach, with very basic research at first (sometimes even juvenile non-fiction), to get a high-level view, then going deeper into the specific days/years I’ll be writing about, and then getting a broad view of the daily life and culture through dusty textbooks. All of this goes into my “notebook” and inspires specific plots and scenes. As I am actually writing the first draft, I often leave placeholders where more specific research is needed, like an XX where a number or detail should go. At the end, I go back and find all those placeholders and research the details, often online where it’s much easier to search for very specific information.
Can you share anything about your future projects?
The best way to get a sense of what I’m working on now would be to visit this page: http://tracyhigley.com/books/work-in-progress/ Although, don’t hold me to all those thoughts about the book I haven’t started yet – who knows where that will go!
Make sure to enter the giveaway Tracy is hosting during the blog tour by going here. Be sure to enter my giveaway too at the bottom of this review.
Buy - Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ChristianBook, Publisher,
Links - Petra: City in Stone - Review
Isle of Shadows - Review
Giveaway - Enter to win not on So Shines the Night but Isle of Shadows too!
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CHECK OUT TRACY'S GIVEAWAY TOO!
READ THROUGH THE MINI AUTHOR INTERVIEW TO FIND THE LINK!
Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from the publisher through Booksneeze.com.
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Sounds like a cool book!
ReplyDeleteI would love to visit Jerusalem. There's so many years of history and culture to experience. It seems like the sort of place you could keep exploring and finding new things for a long time.