Friday, June 25, 2010

Rooms: A Novel by James Rubart

                         THUMPER AWARD


Title: Rooms: A Novel
Author: James Rupart
Genre: Christian Fiction
Rating: DNF
Publishers Date: 4/01/11
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: B&H Books
ISBN: 0805448888
FTC Disclosure: This book was obtained, free of charge, through Net Galley in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks to B&H Publishing for providing me the chance to read and review it.



On a rainy spring day in Seattle, young software tycoon Micah Taylor receives a cryptic, twenty-five-year-old letter from a great uncle he never knew. It claims a home awaits him on the Oregon coast that will turn his world inside out. Suspecting a prank, Micah arrives at Cannon Beach to discover a stunning brand new nine-thousand square foot house. And after meeting Sarah Sabin at a nearby ice cream shop, he has two reasons to visit the beach every weekend.
When bizarre things start happening in the rooms of the home, Micah suspects they have some connection to his enigmatic new friend, Rick, the town mechanic. But Rick will only say the house is spiritual. This unnerves Micah because his faith slipped away like the tide years ago, and he wants to keep it that way. But as he slowly discovers, the home isn’t just spiritual, it’s a physical manifestation of his soul, which God uses to heal Micah’s darkest wounds and lead him into an astonishing new destiny.

Read probably the first 150 pages of this book and was really getting into it, when all of a sudden the paranormal that I thought I was reading evolved into Christian fiction. Now don't get me wrong, I on occasion do read CF, but this wasn't promoted as CF on Net Gallery. I selected the book thinking it was one thing and it was actually another. The blurb I read was as follows-

 Debut author and professional marketer Rubart has created a suspenseful tale in the vein of Ted Dekker's House, in which inexplicable happenings take over and direct a character's life. Twenty-five-year-old Micah Taylor receives a mysterious letter from a great-uncle he never knew informing him of a home built for him by said uncle. His interest piqued, Micah, a wealthy software company owner, takes off for the Oregon coast to visit his newly acquired 9,000-square-foot house. What he finds is a shape-shifting, mind-boggling revisiting of his past that jeopardizes his future. With only a handful of letters as his guide, Micah tries to summon up the courage to face old wounds that somehow are connected to various rooms in the house itself. As soon as Taylor opens one door, in floods a sea of memories that he must choose to face or run from.

Does that say Christian Fiction to you?  Sounds more like a fantasy or paranormal than CF. Even though this was free, my time was spent reading a book that I probably wouldn't have picked up and I don't like the bait and switch. After reading the Amazon reviews, I realized that apparently others were sucked in the same way, which is sad because all the 1 star ratings that the mislead gave it made it an average 3 star book rather than the 4 or even 5 star rating that it might have otherwise had. Looks like whoever decided not to be totally upfront on the genre of the book should have read their Bible verses more. 

4 comments:

  1. YA Book Giveaway at: http://kateevangelistarandr.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lol, I loved your review. It does seem to be a little off but I like the sound of it.

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  3. You're right - it doesn't say Christian fiction at all. Very bad marketing on someone's part.

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  4. Love your honest review here. I would lean more toward paranormal than Christian fiction. I finished a really good one in fact by author Cheryl Dellasega, called, "The Testings of Devotion." What I liked about this one is that the authors brings you into the world of angels as warriors in an informative and exciting way. You should check it out!

    ReplyDelete

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