California Books

What an excellent book!

Great characters, pitch-perfect dialogue and a fascinating plot that keeps you guessing until the last chapter. Straw has the nuances and attitudes of modern Hollywood down cold and describes Los Angeles with a lovingly jaded eye that LA residents (like me) will really appreciate.

So if you're in the mood for a great read, some belly laughs and a peek into the twisted funhouse that is Hollywood, look no further and pull the trigger on "The Trigger Episode!"

I really enjoyed The Trigger Episode. First of all, I love the genre and have a sense that only the best make it look easy. Tom Straw does that with great style. Nothing came out the way I thought (or feared) It would,i was completely at the mercy of the storyteller. A good mystery is a joy to read most particularly when the author draws interesting characters, which Tom Straw does, but they are also FUNNY. I laughed aloud, not something I do in a book very often, The social commentary is priceless and the TV world is accurately represented (it is an area I am well accustomed to) and there is a lot of fun to be had there as well. Straw is a terrific up and comer in the novel field, his sit-com training had served him well. I can't wait to see what's next. I hope it will be Hardwick and Meredith teaming up again.

At times The Trigger Episode reminded me of Carl Hiaasen's books, but the action in this one takes place in and around Hollywood and not South Florida. Also, in my opinion Mr. Straw is funnier. There are many very funny passages, but there are also some that are very "oh, man, what's going to happen next!?" Tom Straw is a Hollywood veteran, so it's no surprise that he has that milieu cold. The dialogue definitely rings true... and did I mention that it's funny?

Sure Tom Straw is a veteran TV writer; and now he's an accomplished mystery writer. This book will appeal to all readers of both mystery and general fiction. The story is laser-focussed, the dialogue is spot-on authentic and the overall experience of reading this book is a sense of time well spent. A satisfying and accomplished book that will turn you into a fan and make you hungry for Mr. Straw's next book.

I just finished this book while on vacation. I couldn't put it down. This guy can really write. I always buy books by Micheal Connelly, James Ellroy, Jonathan Kellerman, and I am putting Tom Straw on that list. Hardwicke is a hardboiled character with a twist. characters are great, the writing is top notch, and it kept me guessing until the end. i am hoping for a sequel soon.
Put this one on your list, summer reading or whatever.

For anybody going on bike tours this is a humbling book to read, and hard to put down. You can't help but root for two 18 year old boys who don't know enough not to make the trip. It also has special meaning for anyone who has ever driven all or parts of I-5 from San Francisco to Seattle. In 1909 it was possible to stay on the best road between California and Washington, and still get lost. Finally you get a feel for what life was like when my grandfather was alive. The postcards the two boys sent to their parents show buildings still standing today, but life was so much different. A good read.

If you enjoy reading about cycling and living this is a great book. I've read every touring and cycling book you can imagine, but this is the best! It really gives you a new perspective on how we ride today when you look at what these two boys had to endure at the turn of the century when roads did not exists as we know today. A truly well written adventure, great venacular dialogue, credible and yet an incredible story.

This book is an amazingly well-written story of the adventures of two young men bicycling from Santa Rosa, California to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909. You are drawn into the narrative until, before you know it, you find yourself riding along with them on their trip, tasting the dust, feeling their occasional pain, and even enjoying a piece of pie with them... and then you realize that, like an Ansel Adams photograph, you have been drawn into an illusion of a reality long past. And, smiling, you dive back into the book and continue pedaling.

I bought this book thinking it would be an interesting adventure tale. It is that but so much more. The writing is poetic and heart warming. An absolutely wonderful little book!!

I first bought the book because of its Vashon Island connection, being a lifelong islander myself. But I quickly decided it's one of the best bicycle touring stories in my library -- the boys come alive in the writing, no dreary list of statistics and mileposts, just two boys becoming men on their ride north to Seattle. Puts a whole new perspective on that ride for anyone who has cycled the Pacific Coast route in modern times.

From the outset (No Human Involved) Barbara Seranella has delivered consistently splendid books, populated by completely believable, affectingly human characters. Munch Mancini is a wonderfully unique creation, a haunted yet determined young woman who refuses, ever, to play victim to the ghosts of her past. What is particularly gratifying in this series is that we get to see Munch grow very believably through time. With her street-smart philosphy and innate survival skills, her heart and her humor, she is unlike any other heroine in any other series. Unfinished Business is heartfelt, good-humored, and intelligent. Writing with insight and authority, with seamless research, and such genuine caring for her characters that the reader, too, must care for them, Seranella deserves a place on the national best-seller lists.

My one small quibble is the anachronistic reference to carpal tunnel syndrome which, in the early 80s, was almost unheard-of--certainly it wasn't common at a time when computers were not occupying desk space in almost every home. That said, I can only applaud the author and wait eagerly for the next book.

Being a debut mystery writer who splits his time between the Palm Springs area and the Southern California Orange Coast, I found myself instantly linked in the minds of many booksellers and book readers with another mystery writer, Barbara Seranella, who splits her time in a similar fashion. Having been a devoted reader of Munch Mancini since her debut, I was pleased by the comparison. Having recently read Ms. Seranella's latest novel, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, I couldn't be more pleased.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS continues the adventures of Munch Mancini, one of the stronest female protagonists in contemporary mystery fiction. Munch, automobile mechanic and limousine driver, finds herself entangled in a murder and a rape-torture, and she tries to help her long-time friend Mace St. John investigate the crimes. Along the way, Munch is threatened and becomes concerned with the safety of her adopted daughter. She also must sort out her feelings concerning her current romantic interest.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS is an excellent book. Barbara Seranella keeps her plot moving like a speeding locomotive. She continues developing original characters in unique ways. She captures in prose the Southern California lifestyle like few other writers working the turf today.

I recommend UNFINISHED BUSINESS without any reservations. I am ecstatic that a geographical coincidence has gotten my work linked to hers. Read UNFINISHED BUSINESS today!

I love all these novels; sorry I read faster than Seranella writes.

In the first Munch Mancini novel, NO HUMAN INVOLVED, author Barbara Seranella's hero was an ex-Bad Girl on the wean from drugs and sexual promiscuity while holding down a job as an auto mechanic. Of course, she was also a murder suspect, but everybody has a bad day now and then. Now, almost eight years later, Munch is the Repairs Manager in the auto shop, has her own off-hours limousine service, is devoted to her 7-year old adopted daughter, Asia, and has a serious crush on the homicide detective, Mace St. John, who was on her case years before. Besides being a best friend to Munch, Mace is comfortably married. Oh, well, even a turned-around life has its bummers.

Lest one conclude that Munch has had her ticket punched on the Metrolink train to the suburb named Middle-Class Boredom, UNFINISHED BUSINESS has her being stalked by a vicious rapist who's MO is to torture and kill using electricity. Even more exciting, she's helping secret heartthrob St. John solve the case! It doesn't get better than this.

In a wider sense, the best part of any Munch thriller is observing Mancini evolve. The "mystery" angle of each book is fairly standard stuff though, admittedly, that in UNFINISHED BUSINESS has a nice twist and a half at the end. But what will make me continue to read more of Seranella's offerings is to see down what path the author takes our hero. Munch is a very sympathetic and likable protagonist. Will she ultimately take Mrs. St. John's place in Mace's bed in his converted railroad car? Will she eventually start-up her own Beamer dealership on the Westside? What will be Mom's reaction when Asia becomes old enough to ask questions about drugs, boys, carburetors, or aromatherapy? And what sort of sickos will ooze from underneath those L.A. freeway underpasses to add zest to their lives?

Munch, you go, girl!

Munch Mancini is back and stronger than ever. She has a quiet, efficient, hard-earned calm about her these days. This fourth adventure left me breathless. Not from a quick, tremendous climax but from a buildup of action from the first pages of the book. Slowly the tension of figuring out a case that tied in to multiple cases and who did it and why fueled the pages of this expertly written crime novel with excitement and anticipation.

Munch still has her limousine service and is working as the "lady mechanic" at the Brentwood gas station. She has the opportunity to meet and help out Diane Bergman, newly widowed head of the Bergman Cancer Center. She's volunteered to drive home anyone needing it from the charity fundraiser. When Diane Bergman is murdered and left dead on the side of the freeway a few days later, Detective Mace St. John is assigned to the case. It is Munch who identifies the rich socialite from the photo of the scene where the victim was found with scorch marks on her body and eyes taped shut with duct tape.

Shortly afterward, taking an opportunity to help her fellow woman, Munch helps deliver Meals-on-Wheels to a rape victim still suffering from the trauma's effects a month later. Talking with Robin and with St. John and meeting a rape counselor teaches Munch a lot about what rape really is and what the effects are. Munch still struggles with issues from her childhood, some of which are brought up now. She has enough distance from those earlier years to see through clearer eyes now what really happened then.

Determined to help Robin, Munch pursues the investigation with Detective St. John and discovers similarities between Robin's attack and Diane Bergman's death. As they begin to piece together the puzzle, a man with a disguised voice begins calling Munch - the same man who is terrorizing Robin with calls and threats to return. He gets word to Munch via her adopted daughter that he knows everything about Munch and that she cannot hide from him. When St. John goes out on sick leave, Munch is left on her own to figure out who this man is, where he is hiding, and how he can know so much about her.

This novel was particularly evenly paced, deftly increasing in intensity. Ultimately Munch discovers the motive behind the death of her friend through some gutsy moves of her own. She has really made great strides from her days as addict and more and is coming into herself beautifully. She has not only survived her own traumas of growing up with Flower George as a father, but she is surpassing his influence on her life.

Miranda "Munch" Mancini is one lady mechanic I'd like to know better.

Pam Ward has weaved a tale about a girl name Trudy that is set on getting revenge on her ex boyfriend Lil Steve. She comes up with a plan to get her out the hood and at the same time pay him back for giving her a bad name.

I couldn't put this book down once I started it! This author is so detailed that you feel as though you are one of the characters!

I read alot of books, but this one so far is my FAVORITE! I took this book everywhere with me and every chance I got I read it, but at the same time I tried not to read too much because I didn't want it to end. Trust me, this book is that good!!!

There are alot of characters in this story, but you'll have no problem keeping up with them. I can't wait to read her second book thats due out this month, Bad Girls Burn Slow.

I had a girlfriend suggets this book to me and I was surprised to find so many well written male characters inside. The male dialogue in " Want Some Get Some" really discribes how men think. Who is this woman Pam Ward and how did she get so much information on us. I can't wait to see what she will do next.

I like how you're inside the words immediately. The characters excite and scare. Little Steve is righteous in his beliefs. Trudy struggles in her journey of revenge and gets some on the way. The club where everyone eventually winds up is phantasmagoria of life. The pace is hectic and heartfelt. I enjoyed it in the fast lane on the 101.

I always glance inside a book to read a few paragraphs before making a purchase - just to get a feel of it. Well, let me tell you, I was hooked on this one before I even walked out of the store! In a story with so many characters, it could be easy to lose track of them - but not here. The author paints each detail with such expertise that you feel like you're in the story - watching from the sidelines and sweating with them in the L.A. heat.

This story is raw and it's street. It's also refreshing that Trudy wasn't living "ghetto fabulous" which has become too common a lifestyle in today's urban fiction. She wasn't regarded as street royalty, driving around in the latest cars, and dripping in diamonds (so bored with those stories). She's a girl who is trying to make her way out the best way that she knows how; getting even with a hustler who did her wrong is just gravy!

I loved this gritty tale and can't wait to hear more from this author!

Street tale novelists better move over and make room for this gritty and edgy debut novel by Pam Ward! Want Some, Get Some is an urban tale that centers around Trudy aka Trudy with the Booty, a twenty year-old woman who knows that the streets of South Central LA are not all that life has to offer and wants out of living her daily nightmare.

Life has truly dealt Trudy a funky deck of cards. Her slick and shady ex-boyfriend, Lil Steve, hustled her into a relationship and making a sex tape only to turn around and sell it around the neighborhood, leaving her to face constant ridicule and unwanted sexual advances. Trudy's mother, Joan, turns her back on her only child and kicks her out of the house, leaving her to face life on the streets, living in seedy apartments and with even more seedier people. Joan tries to use the excuse of the tape as the reason for kicking Trudy out, but it is really her own personal motives that she puts first instead of her daughter. Trudy finds the only thing that keeps her sane is singing on stage at Dee's Parlor, a rundown juke joint that serves as a true black hole for all the shady players, hustlers, ballers, and shot callers.

Trudy knows that revenge is truly best served cold so she drums up a bank heist plan to not only get out of her nightmare but get back at Lil Steve. Working at Dee's Parlor surrounded by some of the best of the best in the underworld gives her a perfect opportunity to put this plan into action. The only thing Trudy did not think about was that everyone has something that they want and will do whatever it takes to get it.

Pam Ward writing is very blunt and not for the faint of heart. There are plenty of characters in this novel that might confuse you at first but as the story progresses all of them intertwine to create one firecracker of a novel. Not only is there plenty of action and suspense, but there is also a hint of romance. Readers might need to buckle their seat belts and hold onto their seats, because this novel will take you on an intense ride that you will surely not forget!


Reviewed by Angelique
APOOO BookClub

I loved reading Phyllis's story; it provoked every emotion in me.

She tells her story of separation from her family and living in a strange country with strange people in a very insightful manner with perceptions very mature for a young girl. Throughout her ordeal she grows through lifes' stages well adjusted and content despite experiencing dire circumstances. The love that stretched across the miles held her steady to refute bitter scars and rebellion.

The thoughtful retelling of her youth made me laugh as I had recalled similar attitudes growing up but in much different circumstances.
Her spunk as a teen in San Francisco is high spirited and joyful. The written teasing with her father, so many miles away, .... is truely endearing and inspiring. Her deep love and longing for family back in Europe emanates from the pages. And the answers to her life long questions made me sob.

Phyllis writes her wonderful story of courage and inspiration. Young and adult readers will enjoy her heartfelt story.

Imagine yourself in an old attic. A dusty trunk beckons from the corner and you crawl over to it, aware that the attic and the trunk don't belong to you. But your curiosity overpowers your propriety and you open it to discover it brimming with intimate letters and photographs of a family from a time and place foreign to your own. Such is the wealth of experience awaiting you in Phyllis Mattson's memoir of her childhood surviving the Nazi holocaust.
She sets the scene - Vienna just before Nazi takeover - and introduces us to her humble, but proud Jewish family. As a child she witnesses the march of Nazis into Vienna and hears the "Christkiller" chants. A dark cloud of fear settles over her family and friends as parents begin desperate efforts to get their children out of Austria on a Kindertransport - to the safety of Britain or the US. Through letters and photographs, we wake with Phyllis to the terrors of Kristallnacht, as her family is dragged from their apartment by Hitler's SS. When her father is taken to prison the real horror starts. Her mother frantically pleads with relatives in San Francisco to take Phyllis in and, when they agree, mother and daughter part at the train station, never to see each other again. Phyllis arrives in New York and struggles to learn a new name, a new language, a new country, leaving behind all her traditions. Five days alone on a train, unable to communicate to anyone, finally brings her to San Francisco.
Only letters bind this extended family across oceans and time and Phyllis makes you eager to turn the page, read the next words from father, mother, friends and relatives, and her own letters. In a quiet child's voice you hear the resilience of the human spirit, to not just survive, but to thrive in a new home of challenges.
With a teacher's objectivity, Phyllis recalls world-shattering political events through her own ten year-old eyes. She frequently admits her adult memories either clash with her own written words as a child, or don't exist at all. Her own awareness that she has psychologically buried memories makes the child's letters even more poignant.
I strongly recommend this book to any student of WWII, but I believe all freedom-loving people would be touched by this story of survival and the bond of family.

As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of Auswitz and Buchanwald, remembering those who perished and survived the Holocaust, Phyllis Mattson's memior becomes all the more important. This book is a must-read for our youth, who need to learn about the atrocities of WW II, not from a dull history text, but from the memories of a girl their own age, in her own voice. History comes alive in Mattson's personal story of separation, loss and survival. A compelling read for adults, also, this book not only offers a poignant personal war story, but also serves as a larger symbol of the personal effects of war on the innocent. I can see this book being used in high school and college history classes across the country.

I have known Phyllis for about a year, have heard her speak to middle and high school students several times, and thought I knew what would be in the book.

I was wrong.

This is a story of a young girl growing up in the most unstable of times. It is written with truth and honesty, and makes Phyllis a three-dimensional person to the reader. I highly recommend it!

You wouldn't expect a war story to leave you smiling, but that is what Phyllis Mattson's "War Orphan in San Francisco" does. It is a surprisingly upbeat story of 10-year-old "stateless" Felicitas Finkel sent to safety in the U.S. by her parents in Austria in WWII. It is drawn from letters and a few photos kept for years in a box in the garage, a box like many of us probably have in a corner somewhere, with stories too sad or scary to bring out very often--but when we do, we find stories of adventure, bravery, growth, dreams, and all the joys of life mixed in with the sad, scary parts.

As an English teacher, I am interested in letters. They record events and feelings and reflect our growth. They catalog our special story and place us in the world. They are evidence that we lived.

As I sit at my computer writing email that is delivered instantly, I appreciate the time and effort people spent writing letters to maintain ties. They wrote during war when paper and pencil were difficult to get, going from edge to edge on pages of thin paper, knowing that the messages might take weeks or months to arrive, and might arrive with pieces cut out, or not arrive at all. They wrote because the connections were important to them. And they are important today because they record the world as it was, with the dailiness and details of how people survived, and suggest where we might go next.

Felicitas / Phyllis's mother told her not to cry, to be brave, and to "write to me and Papa weekly, giving all the details." Phyllis's letter writing started in 1940, when she arrived in San Francisco, and continued through 1946, when her father was finally able to join her in San Francisco. Her mother's letters stopped in 1942, and the reader feels 12-year-old Phyllis avoiding the obvious conclusion, stepping around the larger-world facts, and continuing to write to her Papa, "giving all the details," while avoiding the big picture.

Reflections by the adult Phyllis are wonderfully insightful. The adult wonders why she and her father never mentioned the lack of letters from her mother. Even years later, things hinted in the letters remained unresolved. Sometimes the letters give the bare bones of what was happening, and details are filled in by Phyllis today; sometimes, there is nothing beyond the letter. In her first year, Phyllis went from speaking no English to speaking, reading, and writing English and her mother, in a letter, implored her to not forget her German. Today, Phyllis has published articles and a technical book in English yet had to get a German translator for her treasured letters written in German.

The family always signed their letters with endearments--love, hugs, lots of kisses, millions and millions of hugs; yet other everyday feelings are side-by-side in the letters, as when her father wrote:
"... Much as I like reading your letters, however there is always something in it that I do not like. For instance in today's letter the language used by you ... is shocking... All my love and heaps of kisses from your Daddy."

Interaction at a distance is not perfect but as the saying goes, it beats the alternative. Letters were better than nothing at all. They buoyed the young girl alone in San Francisco as she moved in and out of foster homes. As the adult Phyllis observes, her early success in moving on alone led her eventually to new experiences all over the world. "War Orphan in San Francisco" is a reflection of and tribute to the human spirit finding and upholding values in life, building bridges in hard times, through one of mankind's oldest ways of communication. It will make you want to sit right down and write a letter.

Like Mr. Klein, I too grew up in Southern California and am familiar with the many locations, in their present incarnation, in which this wonderful story takes place. The book raised a curtain on the past and allowed me to step into the Southern California where my grandparents stepped off the train from Boston, full of excitement and anxious to make a new life in this promising paradise at the edge of America.

Even if you are not a native Californian, you'll enjoy this book which, in addition to the well researched historical insight, is a great yarn.

Well done Mr. Klein and thank you!

Think of Fitzgerald's economy of language combined with the folk wit of Twain and you have a hint of the fresh, clear writing of RE Klein. This well-researched novel is about the Los Angeles area from 1892 to 1959--specifically the birth and death of two of the most famous family recreation spots: Mt. Lowe and the Venice Canals. But, it's the characters that make our hearts ache for the musical grace of those times. Lyman Bright ages from ten to seventy-seven with an enthusiasm for adventure, providing a narrative filled with images so tight and lyrical they make each page spin. Through him we meet his family, friends and locals. From the mystical Luana and bossy Emmaline to the comic boogey man, Dratch, terrorizing Lyman with tall tales of villainous deeds-along with Tung Fisher, who always holds both ends of the conversation in a Bronx dialect--everyone is grand company. For this reason, I keep Mt. Lowe on my bedside reading table to visit again and again.

The Way to Mount Lowe was a wonderful and intriguing read -- I literally could not put it down. And, I was so disappointed when I turned the last page. I yearned for more. This epic tale of a young boy's journey through adulthood, and the adventures he encounters while growning up in the beginnings of the southern Californian metropolis really intrigued my whole being as an adventurer and southern California native. I learned so much about the places I grew up near and around, and never knew that much about. Some of this is pure fiction -- and I loved every minute of it! Not to spoil the tale, but the whole imagery created by Klein with the mere thought of someone coming up with a "tar suit," which would enable one to permeate the depths of this gooey wonderland at La Brea is fantastic (one of my favorite sections.) And the Venice Canals -- ahhhh, the Venice Canals - again, wonderful fictional/historical imagery. Thank you for this tantalizing creation. A must read for all southern Californias and those who would like to grasp a more through understanding of the place we call home. Bravo!!!

Having read and enjoyed THE HISTORY OF OUR WORLD BEYOND THE WAVE, I decided to look into R. E. Klein's other novel, THE WAY TO MT. LOWE. What I found was a charming history of Southern California from the 1890s through the 1950s seen from the point of view of one Lyman Bright.

A native of Indiana, Bright moves to Los Angeles with his family in 1892. As a 10-year-old, he was astounded by a new trolley line ascending thousands of feet to Mount Lowe, where there were hotels, restaurants, and other tourist amenities -- not to mention a phenomenal view in those pre-smog days extending south and west toward the Pacific and offshore to Santa Catalina Island.

Bright, his family, and friends exemplify the boom days and bust days of L.A. After the Mt. Lowe project ended in bankruptcy, Bright's attention was drawn by the canals of Venice, a community developed by Abbot Kinney, after whom a street in present-day Venice has been named.

Although I have not climbed Mt. Lowe myself -- though I could tell that Mr. Klein has -- I have frequently walked along what remains of those same Venice canals, now being re-gentrified after decades of neglect. As a native of Southern California, Klein saw it all, registers all the joys and disappointments, only to come to this summary of the whole experience in the last chapter: "A flawless record of stupendous achievements ending in extinction."

As Lyman ages and the chapters toward the end of the book get shorter and shorter, he takes to the famous Red Cars that once connected the outlying towns of the Los Angeles area, only to be killed off by the automobile. He aimlessly travels from place to place, soaking in what's left of what he loved.

If you do not know or care much about Los Angeles, this book will probably not do much for you. You will lack the frame of reference required to see where everything takes place. (There is, however, a handy map on the back of the paperback edition.)

But if you know and love Los Angeles as I do, having lived here for over 40 years myself, it is easy to be swept away by author's enthusiasm. His characters are lightly sketched in, but then the main character is Los Angeles itself, especially in its moments of glory represented by Mt. Lowe, Venice, and the Red cars. Lyman and his friends represent the city in its spectacular growth and, at times, disappointing deterioration.

Mister Klein presents us with a strange book. It is a book to read twice straight away: once for entertainment and the the second time to indulge in thought.
It is more than an autobiography of our narrator, Lyman Bright, who takes us on a tour of southern California, and in particular, Los Angeles from 1892 to 1959, it is a description of how a community can eat itself and the people within it and still come shining through.
This book - a most readable volume in short chapters - comprises so many facets: California history, and for those readers who have never been there it is a superb introduction; mini-biographies of the famous - not least Professor Lowe; the supernatural and fantasy are here as well as religion (mainstream and otherwise); love, relationships, life and death compound the story while friendships are important to Lyman; this is the story of a community growing perhaps too quickly - even the movie industry seems to outpace itself!
But throughout, the magnetism of Mount Lowe draws Lyman Bright to its heights - even in his old age.
There are fascinating insights into Los Angeleno life: why, for instance, fifty years ago was the public transport system so good and no so poor?
One thing that non-Californians wil be surprised about is Lyman's descriptions of the weather thereabout - doesn't the sun always shine in California???!!!
And running throughout the book is the malevolent seam of anthracite that is DRATCH.
Read! Enjoy!

Far Hills has joined the list of my all time favorite books. If you're looking for romance, spirituality, adventure, and suspense, this is the novel for you. With well-crafted characters that stay with you long after reading the final word on the last page, and an uplifting testimony to God's grace, mercy, and love, Ms. Noble has written a moving and gripping story, one that I will read again and again.

I first read Diane Noble's writing when I read Promise Me the Dawn under the name of Amanda MacLean. Ms. Noble is an excellent author. She does an excellent job of finding new areas to write Christian Fiction about. I enjoyed this book's characters and their search for the love that God has for them. This book has an excellent message of waiting upon God's timing, even if difficult situations. I look forward to the next two sequels and seeing what lays ahead for the characters.

Diane Noble is quickly becoming my favorite author due to this recent book "When the Far Hills Bloom." I found it to be a book that holds your attention and you don't want to put it down. The emphasis on committment was very uplifting. I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

What a wonderful story. It has so many twists and turns and is full of adventure. I couldn't put it down once I started it. It's a story you hate to see come to a close. I am looking forward to the next book in the series. IT'S GREAT! Great work Diane.

It's 1860s California and the Byrne family is about to lose their home, Rancho de la Paloma because they have had to use all available finances to fight to prove its boundaries. Aislin Byrne has been friends with Jamie Dearbourne from the neighboring rancho all her life and it was always believe they would marry, so when he asks for her hand just before he leaves to go fight in the Civil War, no one is surprised. But when word comes of Jamie's death, it seems it will be necessary for Aislin to marry Jamie's brother, Spence, in order to help save both their ranchos. Then, when word comes that Jamie might not be dead after all, Aislin joins in the search and will be honor-bound to marry him even though she has found it is Spence she really loves. Aislin's father doesn't realize that his supposed friend, Hugh Dearbourne, father to Jamie and Spence is actually sabotaging his efforts to save his home and everything he has worked so hard to achieve. Jamie and Spence soon join forces to break and deliver wild mustangs to the army in order to save the rancho and in doing so, attempt to find out the truth about Jamie as well.

This is an outstanding novel, superbly crafted and richly textured with may surprising twists and turns. Published by Bantam's Christian/Inspirational imprint, Waterbrook Press, this novel will appeal to historical romance readers everywhere. Although the character's beliefs are quite evident, they never overpower the story, and simply help motivate Aislin, Spence, and others to keep going even though the going gets tough. Diane Noble is one of the best writers of "inspirational" romance today. Her thoroughly researched, compelling stories are worthy of a wider audience than they will receive simply marketed as "inspirational" novels. This book shouldn't simply be read by the "Christian" audience as the beliefs expressed by the characters are universal. I understand its the first of a trilogy, but this one certainly stands on its own.

It was a used book but was in good shape.
the book was send really fast.

Read this book before you read "Rain of Gold". "Wild Steps of Heaven" is a short read and actually the paternal part of the family story. I wish Villasenor had included the info in Wild Steps of Heaven" in "Rain of Gold". Both books are a wonderful patchwork of history,and genuine family integrity. Excellent summer read!

In times of hardship heroes are needed and none moreso than in Mexico as revolution rages. The Villasenor family patriarch, an exiled red-haired Spaniard, has married an Indian woman. The first ten years of the marriage are a time of great love and passion, and the children born first are fair and favor Don Juan Villasenor. Later children are dark like their mother. One of the dark ones, Jose, from age 12 must live in the barn because he defied his father and gentled a stallion to rescue his baby brother holding onto the leg rather than shoot the horse. In his exile and solitude a hero begins his training with Grandfather Don Pio Castro who knows Jose understands the power of love and gentleness. This will be the son who defends la familia during the revolution from the soldiers who time and again attach the village. The colonel commanding the troops more particularly desires Jose's true love Mariposa and destroys her. Ultimately, the younger brother Juan (author Villasenor's father) begins to show heroic tendencies himself and will be the one to defend his mother and the remaining family against the colonel. Villasenor moves the tale along with a powerful, songlike cadence. Notable characters are the giant cousins, Basilio and Agustin, who strip naked and race the lightning and then Halley's comet on January 17, 1910, a night of magic and love, the day before el colonel begins shooting up the home village, el paraiso de Los Altos de Jalisco. Each chapter begins with epigrams featuring "Great Father Sun" that provide a sense of power from above, as in "the heavens smile . . . as all around him the gods and serpents did battle." When the final epigram tells us "and out of these children of the earth and of the stars would now come a glorious new gente in all their wonder and fire," we realize that while we have been traveling through an exciting story with more twists and turns than fiction, we also have been participating in something approximating a creation myth. Highly recommended is Villasenor's first tale of the family Villasenor, Rain of Gold.

I first read "Wild Steps of Heaven" while I was in college. I have never been one who was able to finish a full book, but I couldn't get enough of this one. And once I was through with it I had to go out and find more books by Victor Villaseñor. He makes everything seem magical but at the same time believeable. It is like the ultimate adult fairy tale. Each character has so much life. The story is one that you just want to follow, you want it to keep going. Even the sad and painful stories shine with beauty as Villaseñor tells them. This is my absolute favorite book and I highly recommend it. You won't understand until you read it.

This is a wonderful book. This book is about a family living during the Mexican Revolution.His writing just takes into this magical world and even though you know that he has made a little piece of history into this great big piece of fiction, he does it so as a matter-of -fact that you just can't believe that it's not true.