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Please note: if you arrived here by searching for a review of CJ Darlington’s Thicker Than Blood, or were sent here by following a link- in other words, if you’re not a regular reader of this blog, there is a little something that you should know before proceeding.  I am an aspiring author, and most of my readers are also aspiring novelists. We tend to read books differently than the average reader. And, in deference to my readership, I tend to review books from a writer’s point of view. In addition to this, the author has been a good friend of mine for about 15 years. Because of this, I know a lot of backstory, a lot of her personal history, and I also know some of what’s coming in the following books of the series. This does color my review a bit, and since it all factored into how I read the novel, I can’t leave it out entirely. This may or may not give you the information that you are looking for, but if you decide to stick around I certainly hope that you’ll find it helpful.

Thicker Than Blood by C.J. Darlington is a story about a pair of estranged sisters. Their parents died in a car accident when they were just teens. One went to live with an elderly relative, and then grew up to become a rancher, starting off as a field hand and working (and investing) her way into full partnership. The other ran away from her pain, ended up making some hard decisions, some bad decisions, and more or less mucking up her life.

The twist comes when Christy (the messed up sister) tries to rectify one of those old bad decisions and it puts her life in danger. She ends up escaping into the loving arms of her sister, though the reunion is anything but hugs and kisses.

Thicker Than Blood by CJ Darlington is a book about relationships. Relationships between sisters, between close family friends, between those of us who are totally messed up and God.

Now, it’s a common misperception that is founded in truth  that Christian books are nothing but sermons in thin polyester disguise. This is very true of many older Christian fiction books, and even currently of some particular genres and publishing companies. This is certainly not true of all of them, and most of the Christian fiction I read certainly doesn’t fit that category.  It’s also a hard line for truly talented Christian writers to walk. Many feel that it would be a betrayal of their faith to NOT put in a sermon or two, and others fear that allowing any shred of their personal beliefs to shine through might spoil the story or limit their market. For many others it’s simply a part of the story since it’s a part of them.  I bring this up, because there is a bit of overt Christianity in Thicker Than Blood. I can’t call it preaching, because it’s not. It’s something that’s kind of hard to explain, but in my opinion it was handled very well- not detracting from the story but adding to it. Your opinion may differ.

A common complaint that I heard about Thicker Than Blood by CJ Darlington is that there wasn’t enough romance. And this is true, in my opinion, but since I actually know CJ, I was personally surprised to find as much in it as I did!  Of course, I know who the main character ends up with in the next book, but honestly, I couldn’t help pulling for a certain different character. *sigh*

There are a few sensitive spots for a some people. If you’re vehemently Pro Choice, this book will probably irk you. There is also a physically abusive man in the book (the one that the main character-Christy- is running away from). This might be a little sensitive for some, although if you can handle it, CJ wrote that character really well. I mean really, really well. I’m not sure if it’s a compliment or not, but I actually think the abusive ex-boyfriend (Vince) was the best fleshed out character in the whole book. I’ve told her before that she should be a suspense writer (Thicker Than Blood is simply labeled as “Contemporary”), and his character just proves it. Although, maybe that would be more suited to a thriller. Not sure.  What I do know is that if you struggle with writing genuine, realistic baddies, you’ll want to pick up a copy of this book as a study guide. If you’re anti-Christian, just ignore the parts that irritate you and study his character.

I echo the sentiments of the many other reviews and comments that I’ve seen on my friend’s book- it’s really, really good. Maybe I’m biased, but with so many others saying the same thing, I think it probably doesn’t matter.  I noticed a missed opportunity to add a little more suspense to a section of the novel- a rare first edition Ernest Hemmingway plays a large part in the plot- if a part of the reveal had been left out till later, the suspense would have been raised for the next chapter or two. It’s not a big deal, but it could have made a big difference in the pacing of the book.

Also, I noticed, as did another reviewer, that most of the internal thought scenes were basically digesting the action that had happened in the previous scenes. No new information seemed to come out of those, and as a result, I felt as though the space was being wasted. I didn’t get to know the characters any better than I had through watching them act. I would have enjoyed a little more time spent learning about the secondary characters instead in the same space.

As far as I’m concerned, CJ’s debut novel is really strong, with a great story, no cardboard characters, and some really great insider info on the rare book trade (it’s her day job). Even though it’s not in the genres that I normally read (chick lit and fantasy), I did find it rather hard to put down at night. My mother said the same, and even told me that at one point she had to put it down over night before continuing because she found a Vince scene too intense to read before trying to sleep. She also told me that she’s planning to buy a copy for a friend of hers because she’s afraid that if she lends it, she won’t get it back.  She also found it amusing that Christy’s drug of choice was sherry.  Very amusing. I think she spent about 10 minutes giggling about Christy drinking sherry to me.  Yeah, mom’s cute.

I suspect that the fact that her book has just gone into its third printing (remember, it was only released at the end of December), and the fact that Amazon has actually raised its listed price by almost $1 means that other people quite like it too! Check out some more reviews of Thicker than Blood, then buy a copy, or come back here and leave a comment. If you’d like to win an autographed copy, put in your comment that you’d like to win a copy (Travis can’t enter because he already won a copy when I posted about TTB before- though it hasn’t been sent because I haven’t had a chance to get CJ to autograph it yet- but I should have that on Saturday- sorry it took so long Travis!). To win, you must leave a comment stating that you want it, have a blog or website where you will mention the book (you don’t have to review it, but you do have to at least say “Hey, I won this book over at Vixen’s blog!” though a review would be appreciated. You also have to live in the continental USA cuz I’m cheap, and leave a valid email address (the one you use to leave a comment is fine) so that I can contact you and get your mailing address if you win. Entries end some time around 11:59pm Thursday, March 11, 2010, give or take a few minutes either way. I’ll try to announce the winner that Friday, but I tend to be lazy and sometimes things happen to prevent me from actually doing anything that I should be doing. But, I’ll still notify the winner so I can get their mailing addy.

Aaaaaaand, I think that’s it! I really wish I could write a better review than that, but my writing brain just hasn’t been functioning lately.

So, I was taking a shower (you know anything that starts out that way is going to be interesting, but pointless) and I got to thinking about one of my favorite cheesy movies- Mrs. Winterbourne. For why I was thinking about Mrs. Winterbourne, check below where I start a paragraph with ***.

So, anyway, I was thinking about Mrs. Winterbourne and the fact that Ricki Lake is a really lousy actress, and how if the movie were made today it would probably have Nia Vardalos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding in Ricki Lake’s part.  So I was thinking about that and it occured to me that she can’t help being funny. This in itself is not bad, but I don’t think it would work with Brendan Fraser’s hotness bumbling humor. She’d totally upstage him. But then I realized that they wouldn’t use Brendan Fraser, they’d likely choose Matthew McConaughey. And that would suck, because Matthew McConaughey is neither hot or funny (sorry Matt, but the truth hurts).

So then you have the humor/drama parts totally switched and TOTALLY out of sync. The great thing about Mrs. Winterbourne is that if you don’t have the right sense of humor, the movie is a total snoozefest. You up the quality of the acting, humor, or drama, and it totally throws the whole thing off and it becomes another loser of a movie that DOESN’T have its devoted fans. Like Monster-in-Law.

Is there a point to this post? Absolutely not. Well, maybe you could say that it’s a good thing that classics are classics and to be grateful that they were made when they were and not to mess with them? Or maybe “timing is everything”. But most likely “Lori has lousy taste in movies”. I could probably come up with something really insightful and tie it into novel writing, but honestly? That’d be too much work, and I have a brand new Wii to play with. Yay!

***OK, so the reason I was thinking about Mrs. Winterbourne is that I was thinking about cars- specifically how Lexus and BMW are actually in the Buick class and not the Cadillac class even though most people get that mixed up. Well, my favorite line from that movie was as the chauffeur opens the door to the family’s Rolls Royce, she looks in and says something like “Wow, a Rolls Royce! This is like the Cadillac of automobiles!”. The chauffeur looks at her and calmly says “No, madame, the Cadillac is the Cadillac of automobiles. This is a Rolls Royce.” And from there my brain traveled on.

My husband and I do not celebrate Valentine’s day. We’ve both disliked the holiday since before we met (in fact, a friend and I used to get together over Valentine’s day weekend and make hearts out of black construction paper and write “Happy February 14th” in white out on them). However, we both have a kind of guilty feeling on the day if we DON’T get each other SOMETHING even though we both agreed that it’s stupid.

I’ve heard the suggestion that Movado Watches make great Valentines gifts for those who think in riddles (Love that lasts a lifetime, love for all time, etc), which is actually pretty traditional. Just think of the Victorians and their fan language, or the language of flowers, and so on. Lovers have always sent secret messages to each other in these types of ways, and BlueDial.com makes it easy by including free 2nd day shipping to the continental US and free sizing with each watch sold.

To hubs, however, the ultimate in classiness is a Cassio watch, and I don’t wear watches. There’s one Seiko watch that I think I’d like, but I still can’t see me wearing it. I’m perfectly happy with my Christmas Mickey Mouse watch and my Nightmare Before Christmas watch. I rarely even wear bracelets, and I make those!

No, if I ever feel the need to wear a watch, I’ll probably just make one.