Camp-tastic

I read these on our family camp trip earlier this week (before the 48 Hour Reading Challenge) and wanted to post about them on their own.  Let's see what I can remember from that long ago.

Time thief by Katie MacAlister.  I had completely forgotten but I have absolutely read this one before, although I do not have a note to that effect anywhere in the blog as best as I can tell.  It didn't seem familiar but as soon as I cracked the cover the first night, rolled up in my sleeping bag, there was definite deja vu.  I read a few pages, skipped ahead, didn't recognize the new part, skipped back, became more convinced, skipped farther ahead, and finally said out loud, "I'm pretty sure I've read this before."  My husband helpfully responded, "yeah, you did; I recognized the cover."

As I remember, the main female character is annoyingly chipper, the main male character is annoyingly secretive and dark, and the story wasn't great-- it didn't feel like these two were fated or destined, or even a particularly good fit.

Having refreshed my memory about this, I'm happy to delete the sequel from my TBR list.

Flight of the sparrow by Amy Belding Brown.  I came across this while making a read-alike list for a patron and it caught my eye.  I actually would have most likely put it down within the first few pages-- there were a few things that annoyed me just enough-- but I was waiting for a doctor's appointment and had nothing else with me.  By the time I was out, I was kind of hooked on the character.

Annoyances:  present tense (gah).  The inclusion of details/ history was not seamless and had some repetitiveness.  The story could have gone deeper, and I'm not sure how completely historically accurate the main character's ideas and reactions are (or if she was made more modern so the reader would be able to identify with her more).  Most of the supporting characters were pretty thin, including the main character's husband.  Depth from his character would have added quite a bit to the story.

The family camping trip, by the way, was at the Dosewalips State Park outside Brinnon.  I highly recommend this park.