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2014 Favorites (E-book)

1/3/2015

Favorite E-books From 2014

Here is a list of Tell Tale Book Reviews' favorite E-books read and reviewed in 2014.
They are in not listed in any particular order.
You can find all of these reviews and many more by visiting our Book Review List page,
HERE

A Question Of Destiny

The Movement Of Kings

Tears Of The Sea

First Kisses

Dawnlight

Agent With A History

Awakening

Gatehaven

The following e-books were read and enjoyed in 2014.
Look for reviews coming soon.

A Carol For Kent

Love Amid The Ashes

We are excited to start reading and reviewing in the
new year and hope you will be joining us for...

2015 image from freedigitalphotos.net

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Book Review - The Movement Of Kings by Nadine C. Keels

3/25/2014

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Genre:
Epic/Fantasy

The Movement Of Kings
The Movement Of Crowns book 3
by Nadine C. Keels

-From Amazon.com-

The order of things, the nature of succession,
and a nation that must march on...

At a time of political and cultural uncertainty, the charge of the Eubeltic Realm has been passed over to a young monarch known for his intelligence, agility, and brooding ways, as well as the "way" he has with vibrant ladies at court. Can this inexperienced king handle the current rise of domestic and colonial crises, the bereavement of his family, and his curious attraction to a councilman's unassuming daughter, or is everything in his untried hands on the verge of falling apart?

This trilogy of novellas has come as a surprise to me. I'm not usually a huge reader of fantasy/epic fiction, usually sticking with Narnia and Middlearth, but I have sincerely enjoyed and looked forward to reading each of these stories. I am very sorry to be saying goodbye to the peoples of Diachona and Munda.

This is the story of a young man, scarcely older than a boy really, who must navigate the muddy waters of local and foreign politics when he is rather abruptly thrust into the job of king. Mourning the loss of the previous monarch, he must rise above his grief for the sake of his family and his people. Between an epidemic and citizens talking of rebellion will he be able to court and win the girl he loves?
In many ways The Movement Of Kings is a wonderful coming-of-age story. I enjoyed watching the young Alexander growing, changing, and maturing in his role as king and as a man. He genuinely desires to do what it right for all of his people even when they are determined to make that difficult. Alexander is a GOOD king weighed down by the expectations of others – expectations he isn't sure he can live up to – but with the help of his father and several wise friends he goes on the journey toward becoming a GREAT king.

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This Book earned a 4 Bark rating.

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Nadine C. Keels

Visit Nadine's Website
HERE

As I said before, I am sorry to be saying goodbye to my Diachonian and Mundayne friends so I'm glad that I can open my Kindle app and revisit them in the future. The story is both simple and easy to read yet complex and detailed in the political arena and geography. I am very impressed with the thought and detail that Nadine C. Keels has put into every aspect, from the political structure to gowns and hairstyles, from geography to state traditions, in each of the books in this series.

Lots of politics, some danger, definitely romance, make this short book a good and satisfying read.

Tell Tale Book Reviews gives The Movement Of Kings by Nadine C. Keels a 4 Bark rating.

File Size: 980 KB
Print Length: 116 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1494448807
ASIN: B00HHDS0R8

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Book Interview - The Movement Of Rings by Nadine C. Keels

3/2/2014

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The Movement Of Rings
The Movement Of Crowns book 2
by Nadine C. Keels

File Size: 1109 KB
Print Length: 132 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1491040912
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
ASIN: B00F0SMZU0

A time to remember what lies
deeper than one's fears...

The Mundayne empire has seen years of prosperity under the rule of King Aud, a man of war known the world over for his ruthlessness. Naona, a high-spirited imperial servant who holds Aud's favor, occupies herself with pulling pranks on her peers around the king's estate, but the time for laughter spoils when the citizens of Munda begin to oppose increasing taxation. After meeting the princess of Diachona, Naona finds herself having to choose between maintaining loyalty to her king and becoming a personal ally of another nation. With the rise of unrest in Munda, can Naona's heart survive intact: intact enough, even, for an unforeseen chance at love with a foreign man?

Read Our Review

Interview with Nadine C. Keels about her book
The Movement Of Rings

#1. What was the inspiration for this, the second, book?
I didn't originally plan on making The Movement of Crowns a series, and the first book can indeed stand alone. Still, one afternoon in the spring of 2013, while I was arranging books on my shelf at home--(yes, I still read paper and hardbacks!)--the thought of the "other side" of the Crowns story and a new protagonist came to me, pretty much all at once. That had never happened to me before with any of my books, and I knew I had to write a sequel, the first sequel I would ever write. Out came The Movement of Rings.

#2. How long did it take to finish writing this book?
About three months. I found the process intense and thrilling! It was a challenge, again, being my first sequel. I had to make sure all of the Rings times and events were mapped out correctly in my head, to correlate with Crowns.

#3. Do you have favorite character(s) in this book?
It's never easy to pick a favorite! I will say that all of the Mundayne characters were a pleasure to write and translate for. Outside of the story Eminence that I included in Love & Eminence: A Suite of Stories, the Crowns story as a whole has been my first time venturing into "foreign" lands in my fiction, imagining times and customs quite removed from American culture.

#4. What do you hope your readers will take away with them when they read this book?
As with all of my books, I want my readers to take away a sense of hope from Rings, but also a simple self-evaluation: "How do I regard and treat human beings who are different from me?" (Whatever "different" may be.)

#5. What made you choose to set this story outside of Diachona?
Along with my all-at-once inspiration about the "other side" of the Crowns story came a sense of risk for me. Not a bad risk, or even a frightening risk, but still a step outside of my comfort zone. Sometimes we have unconscious veils in our minds, veils separating us from what we think we won't, can't, shouldn't, or don't deserve to know, discover, or understand. This may sound strange, but I had a feeling like that about Munda. Princess Constance had been to that country, and I hadn't. I knew Constance had more knowledge about Munda than I did, and I was initially content to let it remain so. However, when the "other side" of the story came to me, it was like a veil was lifting, like, "Wait a minute. I can know and understand the Mundayne people more, can't I? What will happen if I risk stepping over onto their soil?" After all, the "other side" of a story, of history, is never the "other" side to the people who are there, living life on that side. The human story entwines everyone in God's ultimate plot.

#6. How did you name your characters?
Naming my protagonist for Rings was interesting, since in the first scenes I drafted for The Movement of Crowns over a decade ago, Constance's name was "Naona," a variation of the name of a woman I know well. "Constance" turned out to fit my princess character better, but when I decided to write a sequel, the name "Naona" came back to me, and I used it this time. Originally, very few of the other characters in Rings had actual names, which gave the story more of a "folklore" feel, but as names began to play a bigger role in the development of the story, I had to come up with names that would fit in Munda and wouldn't sound like English. While it's more than likely that Diachonians also pronounce and spell their names a little differently than we English speakers/readers do, I wanted to make sure there was still a distinction between Diachonian and Mundayne names, to maintain the sense of two different cultures and languages.

#7. Tell us something funny, sad, embarrassing, whatever, that happened involving this book.
Including a crown on The Movement of Crowns cover wasn't hard, but truth be told, trying to fit a "ring" of some sort on The Movement of Rings cover wasn't working out. I went ahead and used the national seal I designed (which is actually Diachona's seal--including a shell to represent their important sea, but none of this being vital knowledge to understand the story), and to compensate for there being no ring on the Rings cover, I added "circles" of light to speak to the "rings" theme. I do wonder sometimes how many readers, upon first observation, will notice that Rings doesn't have that article of jewelry pictured, but personally, it's my favorite book cover out of those I've designed thus far.

Bonus. Share with us a thought, Bible verse, whatever is on your mind/heart.

"But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which
happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel"
Philippians 1:12 KJV

God uses everything in our lives, the good and the bad, and makes something beautiful out of all of it. The sooner a person realizes that that's what's happening, the sooner he or she can fall in sync with that beauty and take whatever happens to help further the Gospel.

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Nadine C. Keels

Connect With Nadine Online:

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Facebook
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Nadine. A French name, meaning, "hope."
Spreading hope to her readers and audiences, author, editor, and speaker Nadine C. Keels of Seattle, Washington is well-known for The Song of Nadine, the powerful lyrical poetry seen in four of her several books, heard in her dynamic spoken word presentations on local and national platforms, and found on her spoken word album, Hope. Lyricized. Drawing from her lifelong passion for highly enjoyable and transformational fiction, Nadine has written Love & Eminence: A Suite of Stories as well as two novels and a novella, Love Unfeigned. In response to inquiries from other aspiring authors, Nadine put together a simple reference entitled Write Your Genius, Genius!: A Rather Quick Guide to Book Writing. Being the founder of Prismatic Prospects, a communication company based in Seattle, Nadine has served as editor and co-editor for a number of titles, and it is her aim to be a proven wellspring of inspiration for creativity and innovation in the marketplace.

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Book Review - The Movement Of Rings by Nadine C. Keels

12/31/2013

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Genre:
Epic Fantasy

The Movement Of Rings
The Movement of Crowns book 2
by Nadine C. Keels

-From Amazon-

A time to remember what lies deeper than one’s fears…
The Mundayne empire has seen years of prosperity under the rule of King Aud, a man of war known the world over for his ruthlessness. Naona, a high-spirited imperial servant who holds Aud’s favor, occupies herself with pulling pranks on her peers around the king’s estate, but the time for laughter spoils when the citizens of Munda begin to oppose increasing taxation. After meeting the princess of Diachona, Naona finds herself having to choose between maintaining loyalty to her king and becoming a personal ally of another nation. With the rise of unrest in Munda, can Naona’s heart survive intact: intact enough, even, for an unforeseen chance at love with a foreign man?

This book was different than its predecessor, more dramatic, a little darker but with the same story of love and hope.

Even more of a political adventure than the previous book in this series. The Movement Of Rings tells the story of what can happen when a king's greed for other lands causes him to tax his people into rebellion. Only one girl can help her country now, where does her loyalty lie, with the king or with the people? Naona has many choices to make and many dangers to brave, can she see her country through some of its darkest hours and survive long enough to help rebuild?
I loved the details that Nadine C. Keels put into the politics, traditions, and daily life of the monarchy and citizens of Munda.
The book is relatively short and I was amazed at what the author managed to pack into those pages.

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Nadine C. Keels

Visit Nadine's Website
HERE

Both Naona and the man she loves are flawed characters with their own fears and prejudices. Both will have to work hard to overcome them and Naona has some secrets that may tear their love apart or get her killed, maybe even both. The romance has the right amount of tension, at times leaving you wondering will they or won't they?

Once again, family plays an important role. Naona's family is loving and supportive of their daughter. Peace-loving but willing to step up and do difficult things when their families need protected and their country needs them.

It's not often that I like a second book as much as or more than the first but I think that is just what happened with The Movement Of Rings. Both books were wonderful, and I am looking forward to sometime reading the third and final book, The Movement Of Kings.

Thought provoking, interesting, detailed, and fascinating, this book is an excellent read! Do not miss any of the books in the Movement Of Crowns series!

Tell Tale Book Reviews gives The Movement Of Rings by Nadine C. Keels a 4.5 Bark rating.

File Size: 1109 KB
Print Length: 132 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1491040912
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
ASIN: B00F0SMZU0

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Book Interview - The Movement Of Crowns by Nadine C. Keels

11/9/2013

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The Movement Of Crowns
Movement Of Crowns book 1
by Nadine C. Keels

At the point when kingdoms’ ideas of humanity differ…

The nation of Diachona is celebrating the twentieth birthday and rite of passage for Constance, the Diachonian king’s daughter and heir. Yet, the pause for festivity doesn’t erase collective doubts about Constance’s aspiration for a place with the men on the National Council, nor does it eliminate fears roused by oppressive threats from a neighboring, powerful empire. Amid increasing rumors of war and personal misgivings about her own future, Constance deems this an inopportune time to be falling in love with one Commander Alexander. Will Providence keep them all through international tensions and the changing of times, or is Diachona watching its territory in vain?

Interview with Nadine C. Keels about her book
The Movement Of Crowns

#1. What was the inspiration for The Movement of Crowns?
I began drafting scenes for The Movement of Crowns while I was a high school senior, inspired by the thought that although my generation was young, we weren’t precluded from aiming toward greatness. It’s taken some years of growth, as a human being and as a writer, for me to be able to convey the story as I see it.

#2. How long did it take to finish writing this book?
Aside from my initial scribblings as a teenager and one additional scene I wrote and let sit by itself while I worked on some other stories, it took about two or three months for me to write out the first completed Crowns draft. It was the final story I wrote for Love & Eminence: A Suite of Stories during the summer of 2012. When the idea to expand the story into a series came to me in the spring of 2013, I decided to republish Crowns in its own separate volume, in anticipation of its sequel, The Movement of Rings.

#3. Do you have favorite character(s) in The Movement of Crowns?
Oh, my! That might be like trying to pick out a favorite from among my children! I will say that the characters I had in my head the longest were Staid and Constance. I started drafting the marketplace scene for the two of them during some of my extra time at a lunch period in high school.

#4. What do you hope your readers will take away with them when they read this book?
I want readers to know that their destiny is a perfect fit for them, and they can walk deeper into it step by step, never throwing their hope away. Sometimes we count ourselves out of our own dreams because we're so closely acquainted with our weaknesses and mistakes, which don't seem compatible with our dreams, but it's the foolish things of the world that God uses to confound the wise, the weak things He uses to confound the strong. His strength is made perfect, not in our strength, but in our weakness.

#5. What made you choose a fantasy setting for this story?
I've loved historical fiction since I was about twelve years old, and I might've tried my hand at writing it, except the places, people, and events that come out of my head are too fictional to be bound to concrete history. So, I went ahead and let this story take place in Diakŏnia. It would have been great if I could have written all the dialogue in another language entirely, since Diachonians don't speak English, but that would have required me to know or invent another language. And then, of course, there would come the difficulty of readers understanding it, and all... (*Giggle*) Anyway, I opted for a completely fantastical setting, minus the element of magic that "fantasy fiction" often connotes, and I've taken to calling it Epic (heroic, majestic) Fiction.

#6. How did you name your characters?
Constance had a different name when I drafted her first few scenes (only one of which made it into the final draft--the marketplace scene), but a discerning reader will know, by the end of the book, specifically why her parents would have named her Constance. As far as other specific names, I named Staid for his steadiness of character, and Grace is named to represent grace itself, for the space it gives you to discover and become yourself.

#7. Tell us something funny, sad, embarrassing, whatever, that happened involving this book.
When I drafted the first scenes of Crowns as a teenager, the story was titled And So, They Ran. Perhaps two or three of the original "running" scenes didn't make it into the book, and the title accordingly began to fall flat. Thank God for the power of second thoughts! "The movement of crowns, of scepters, of rings" is a line from "His Order of Things," one of the spoken word pieces on my poetry album, Hope. Lyricized., and (whew!) it wound up providing me with a much stronger and fitting name for my novella and the series that would stem from it.

Bonus. Share with us a thought, Bible verse, whatever is on your mind/heart.

“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps”
Proverbs 16:9 KJV

Even when our plans don’t turn out just as we’d like, we can know that we're still heading through and toward what’s ultimately good for us as people who love a God Who means for everything to work together for our good.

Check out our review of this book
HERE

Nadine C. Keels

Connect With Nadine Online:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

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E-BOOK
File Size: 276 KB
ASIN: B00F0SI07M

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Paperback: 116 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (September 18, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1484935527
ISBN-13: 978-1484935521

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Book Review - The Movement Of Crowns by Nadine C. Keels

9/23/2013

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Genre:
Fantasy

The Movement Of Crowns
Movement Of Crowns book 1
by Nadine C. Keels

-From Amazon.com-

At the point when kingdoms’ ideas of humanity differ…
The nation of Diachona is celebrating the twentieth birthday and rite of passage for Constance, the Diachonian king’s daughter and heir. Yet, the pause for festivity doesn’t erase collective doubts about Constance’s aspiration for a place with the men on the National Council, nor does it eliminate fears roused by oppressive threats from a neighboring, powerful empire. Amid increasing rumors of war and personal misgivings about her own future, Constance deems this an inopportune time to be falling in love with one Commander Alexander. Will Providence keep them all through international tensions and the changing of times, or is Diachona watching its territory in vain?

This short book shares quite a story...

Since I read only a few books each year using the Kindle App on my laptop I kind of figured I would start this book and leisurely read it while doing other things. Yep, that was the plan. Didn't quite work out that way though. Instead I started it in the afternoon and finished that night. This book had a way of pulling you in... maybe it was a little bit of magic...

The Movement Of Crowns is a lovely cross-stitch of threads. It is not only a sweet love story, but also a nice piece of political fiction, and the story of a princess growing up and finding her place.
The story flows smoothly; some events are expected but there are also some surprises. In many ways a simple but very enjoyable story, it is perfect for a relaxing evening.

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This Book earned a 4 Bark rating.

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Nadine C. Keels

Visit Nadine's Website
HERE

The royal family of Diachona is amazing! After a family tragedy the Queen falls into a state of unawareness, taking no part in what goes on around her. Not only does the King still love and care for his wife but he refuses to put her away and find another one. Constance, also, frequently visits her mother and talks to her, hoping that she may some day rejoin palace life. I really enjoyed the interaction between the King and Constance. He is loving, supportive, and does his best to prepare her for her future role. The King wants what is best for his daughter and his kingdom as well. She, in turn, not only listens to and respects him but does her best to live up to the example he has set.

There is much to admire in the heroine. Constance simply wishes to do what is right for her kingdom, her family, and herself, pretty much in that order. She is intelligent, educated, and wants to use that to better the kingdom, even if the Council isn't quite ready for her take on a role traditionally held by a prince. She is kind and lovely, catching the eye of more than one suitor in this story.

So, if you like to sit down for a couple of hours and finish a good story. If you like a book that isn't quite traditional fantasy. If you like story that isn't overtly Christian but teaches Biblical principals and a love of family. Well, The Movement Of Crowns just might be the book for you. This reader is looking forward to sometime reading the next book, The Movement Of Rings.

Tell Tale Book Reviews gives The Movement Of Crowns by Nadine C. Keels a 4 Bark rating.