T. Davis Bunn

From the description of Davis Bunn’s Burden of Proof, I was not expecting a speculative (complicated) time travel element. I slogged through the scientific portions of the book.

Ethan is unlikable at the start, but as he investigates his brother’s death and undergoes his own growth, he becomes more tolerable. However, Bunn misses an opportunity to share the hope we have in Jesus even when life is dark and doesn’t turn out the way we envisioned.

Disclosure statement: I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book and was not required to write a positive or negative review. All opinions are my own.… (mere)

I liked this, but it seemed to drag endlessly at times.
The story is set just after Jesus was crucified and rose again. It involves Leah, a relative of Pilate's, whose family has fallen into disgrace, so she works for Pilate's wife, Procula. Leah's grandmother was Jewish, but Leah was raised as a Roman and only remembers some of the stories her grandmother told her of her faith and way of life. Alban, a centurion of Pilate's, wants to marry Leah so he can rise in Pilate's estimation because he knows that she is a relative of Pilate's. Meanwhile, Procula has been having awful headaches and just knows it has something to do with what happened to Jesus. Pilate is eager to discover what happened to Jesus - and he tasks Alban with this discovery. There are many people who want to convince Alban that the disciples stole Jesus' body - and some of the disciples are included in the action of the story. So are some of the women mentioned in the Bible - Mary Magdalene, in particular. Alban wants to uncover the truth. Leah meets Mary and is given an introduction to the heritage she shares with her grandmother. It was a good story that included a lot of internal struggle for both main characters, but the scenes written for Alban dragged and dragged. Also, his sudden desire to be a good husband to Leah (after it was made clear in the beginning that this marriage was only a career move) was never really explained. It happened before he really dealt with much internal struggle over what he believed, so it didn't really make sense.
I'm glad I finished it - it had a satisfying ending - but it was a clunky read at times - too many times, thus the 3 star rating.… (mere)

I started this series (of standalone novels?) six years ago when I read Book Two, Firefly Cove. Although I understand the marketing standpoint, I never cared for the promotional comparisons of Davis Bunn's work in this series with the work of Nicholas Sparks. Despite, oh, the love story vein and the Miramar Bay book covers that could be appropriate for Sparks's work, Bunn is his own kind of writer.

Now two books into this contemporary fiction series, I can tell it was written by someone who also writes suspense and speculative fiction. This novel in particular has a significant suspense thread.

As for the love story, this isn't a genre romance novel where the romantic couple would spend many to most of the scenes together, and their relationship would develop on-page with a lot of interaction and dialogue and what have you. Instead, the love story here is more implicit. I felt like the greater part of it lives in the plot almost from the background—in the way that a film camera may not spend much time on direct shots of the sun, but its light is there in many of the film's scenes. If that makes sense.

Now, there were a couple of moments when I got frustrated with Connor and Sylvie. Sometimes, after characters in a novel have spent however many somber scenes wrapped up in their regrets, I wish they would, well, start to get over themselves faster.

But my frustration was little in comparison with the ease of reading and the unfolding beauty of this story. I doubt it'll be another six years before I get to the third book in the series.… (mere)