Death Be Not Proud

Be advised if you are contemplating reading Death Be Not Proud by C.F. Dunn, make sure you read Mortal Fire, the first book in the Secret of the Journal Series first, otherwise you will be quite confused at where this one picks up in the story. First and foremost, this is supposed to be a Christian title, and I would strongly caution readers that there is more behind the cover than what we are led to believe. There is some profanity throughout the story and the premise leaves one to question just how "Christian" based this storyline truly is. I would label this series, a paranormal romance over anything with a "Christian" label that would offend most readers who are expecting that genre than what this one delivers.

Without giving too much of the plot away, this novel picks up where Mortal Fire left off. It follows the complexity of a relationship between Professor Emma D'Eresby and Dr. Matthew Lynes. This story picks up with Emma being in the process of recovering from a terrible accident which we are never told what happen. Apparently it had something to do with Matthew and now Emma is dealing with coming to terms with the aftermath of her long healing with involves broken ribs, a stitched up arm and a broken arm along with a sense of ongoing depression that has her wondering just what great secret Matthew is hiding. It seems that he has an amazing ability of healing, super human strength, and is incredibly fast. Not only that the relationship between the two is more than strained. Matthew believes Emma should try and forget him, that he will only bring more pain and hurt her way, and Emma has apparently fallen in love with him.

In order to discover the secrets to Matthew's super human abilities, she ventures back home to England using a journal her grandfather compiled. It leads her to discover that Matthew is actually about four hundred years old and soon she wonders just what he really is. The story is long and drawn out as Emma finds source after source to validate her claims and what she learns through her grandfather's journal. Starting to sound vaguely familiar? (Think Twilight!) The novel finally gets around to Emma confronting Matthew about his past and why the hidden secrets. Their relationship soon moves beyond what most would consider healthy with Matthew at times, becoming violent and threatening to Emma. Yet she has lost her heart and possibly her soul to Matthew and she vows to stick by him no matter what she learns.

I received Death Be Not Proud by C.F. Dunn compliments of Kregel Publications for my honest review and did not receive any compensation for a favorable review. I would honestly rate this one 3.5 out of 5 stars just based on the overall length of this one to get through the points of Emma's research and discovery of Matthew's secret. For me it simply moved too slow, and had me rereading pages over and over to gain an understanding of where this one was headed. Yet to be fair, I did not read Mortal Fire to see where this novel began so I can't tell how it would blend together after reading the first novel in this series. I can however question the validity of this being a "Christian" based book just due to the violent nature of the character Matthew is, his actions and the language between Emma and Matthew is more than what I would call a family friendly book. This would do extremely well in the secular market for Paranormal Romances that are flooding the bookshelves.

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Death Be Not Proud by C. F. Dunn

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• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Lion Fiction (July 1, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1782640347
• ISBN-13: 978-1782640349
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1 inches