Fiction Friday #17 - Mind-numbing or Enthralling

I know many people who LOVE Jane Austen. I also know some people who HATE Jane Austen. I fall into the first category, but I will say that my enjoyment of Jane Austen's book is not all equal. I loved reading Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, while I would describe my feeling toward Emma and Mansfield Park as indifference. Mansfield Park is my most recent Jane Austen experience, and it was not all that pleasant. It came on the heels of Persuasion, which you may remember, I thoroughly enjoyed! So the expectation was high. I was halfway through Mansfield Park before I was even able to enjoy the story. However, it redeemed itself a bit by having an ending that I didn't expect. Austen spent most of the second half of the book pushing the main characters toward one ending and then managed to meander to a completely different end in the last few chapters. So I would give it an A+ for being able to surprise me but a D for being able to grab my attention. It was only because of my sheer determination to read all of Jane Austen's novels that I was able to keep myself reading.Next up was an author who is fairly new to the Christian/Inspirational fiction world. I follow Bethany House Publishers on Facebook and they were recently posting about one of their authors, Dani Pettrey, who just released a book last month. I checked out her website and was intrigued, so I hunted down the books that make up her Alaskan Courage series at the library and dove in. I knew that Dani's books are often classified as Inspirational/Adventure/Romance, but I did NOT expect the intense books I read! It was quite the surprise. The Alaskan Courage books center on five siblings   the McKenna's   who live in Alaska and completely love Alaska adventure sports and somehow manage to get tangled up in dangerous and mysterious situations. Cole is a fantastic diver, Gage is the kayak-lover, Kayden is a master rock climber, Reef is a snowboarder, and Piper is the adventurous "kid-sister" who holds them together as they run their family business that takes tourists out into the Alaskan country and run their town's Search and Rescue missions. The character's are funny, interesting, and unique. The stories are gripping, surprising, and encouraging. One of the best parts was reading about the amazing Alaskan scenery. Travel to Alaska is now officially on my bucket list (specifically small-town Alaska, where I can experience some of the awesome wilderness of the great state). I wish there were more. They were such well crafted stories. I'm not saying the romance part lead to an unexpected ending, because that part was certainly predictable, but the mysterious (and often dangerous) circumstances that the characters got wrapped up in were all very different and hard to figure out. I definitely enjoyed them and look forward to more Dani Pettrey books in the future!As if reading these suspenseful, adventurous books wasn't hard enough on my stress level, at some point last week I realized that Lynette Eason has a couple series I have never read before. My first experience with Lynette's books was the Women of Justice series, which I wrote about here and here. Intense doesn't even begin to describe her writing. I was recently at Lifeway Christian Stores to pick up a book for a class I'm doing through church and noticed that Lynette has at least two other series I hadn't read yet. So naturally, I immediately borrowed her Deadly Reunions series from the library (I will eventually own them) and got lost in the insanely suspenseful stories she's written.Three friends, Alexia, Serena, and Jillian, were thrilled to be done with high school and ready to move on from their hometown when on the night of their graduation a frantic and terrified Jillian says she saw something horrible and disappears. Ten years later, Alexia and Serena are getting ready for their ten year reunion when their lives are suddenly threatened because someone is after Jillian. Finding out what Jillian knows is the key to stopping the attacks, but Alexia and Serena have no idea where she is or what she knows. Their struggle against an unknown enemy is terrifying and life-threatening as the man responsible is very powerful and very connected. The three women find themselves surrounded by friends and family in law enforcement who are desperately trying to save them. These books have great characters and fascinating stories, but there comes a point where I wondered how much more I could take and how much more could happen to a character and still have them come out the other end alright. Even though they get to be a bit too intense after a while, I would still recommend reading them. Just be aware that you may end up a little more paranoid.Sidenote: I got a retweet from Lynette Eason after giving a shout-out to her intense, stress filled books. That was pretty exciting.After a week and a half of Dani Pettrey and Lynette Eason novels, I now feel the need to read something lighter, funnier, and happier (but more enjoyable than Mansfield Park)!! I'm off to find a happy medium! Happy Friday everybody!!