Tag: Amanda Dykes

Book Review | All the Lost Places by Amanda Dykes

All the Lost Places is a dual timeline novel made more complex by the fact the past timeline (1807) is partly quotes from a series of children’s books and partly narrative, with a very blurred line between what is part of the fictional stories and what is part of this story.

In the past timeline, baby Sebastien is rescued from the canals of Venice and raised by a ragtag bunch of adults – a lacemaker, a glassblower, a fisherman, and a printer. But Sebastien longs to knjow who he is.

In the more recent timeline (1907), Daniel Goodman knjows exactly who he is: a convicted theif who has served his prison sentence and now wants to make right with all his victims, including his mother. He takes a job as an artist and translator, which sends him to Venice, Italy, to draw the buildings and find and translate the final volume of a series of stories. The reader joins Daniel in his journey to sort fact from fiction as he translates the books and searches for the missing ending.

I loved the setting. The author brings Venice to life, skillfully mixing the story with the city’s history in an ongoing mix of literal and figurative, a literary writing style that felt more lyrical than most novels I read.

Unfortunately, I found the writing style and the complexity of the plot affected my appreciation of the story. I sometimes found myself losing the story and having to flick back a few pages to remind myself of what was supposed to be happening.

I do read fast, so perhaps that’s on me rather than on the book. My conclusion is that All the Lost Places is a book to read slowly and carefully, not one to rush through in an effort to find out whodunit or will the guy get the girl.

Recommended for readers looking for novels with international settings, and for fans of Rachel McMillan, Nicole Deese, and other authors who write rich prose in a literary style.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Amanda Dykes

Amanda Dykes is the author of Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale, the critically-acclaimed bicycle story that invited readers together to fund bicycles for missionaries in Asia. A former English teacher, she has a soft spot for classic literature and happy endings. She is a drinker of tea, a dweller of Truth, and a spinner of hope-filled tales, grateful for the grace of a God who loves extravagantly.

Find Amanda Dykes online at:

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About All the Lost Places

When all of Venice is unmasked, one man’s identity remains a mystery . . .
1807

When a baby is discovered floating in a basket along the quiet canals of Venice, a guild of artisans takes him in and raises him as a son, skilled in each of their trades. Although the boy, Sebastien Trovato, has wrestled with questions of his origins, it isn’t until a woman washes ashore on his lagoon island that answers begin to emerge. In hunting down his story, Sebastien must make a choice that could alter not just his own future, but also that of the beloved floating city.

1904

Daniel Goodman is given a fresh start in life as the century turns. Hoping to redeem a past laden with regrets, he is sent on an assignment from California to Venice to procure and translate a rare book. There, he discovers a city of colliding hope and decay, much like his own life, and a mystery wrapped in the pages of that filigree-covered volume. With the help of Vittoria, a bookshop keeper, Daniel finds himself in a web of shadows, secrets, and discoveries carefully kept within the stones and canals of the ancient city . . . and in the mystery of the man whose story the book does not finish: Sebastien Trovato.

Find All the Lost Places online at:

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I never imagined then that it would be my breaking place, too. Nor how beautiful the breaking would be.

Book Review | Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes

Whose Waves are These is a dual timeline novel, telling two related stories of the Bliss family.

In 1944, Robert Bliss watches as his twin brother marries, then is called up to serve in World War II. In 2001, Annie Bliss is called back to Ansel-on-the-Sea, Maine, but she doesn’t know why. All she knows is that her father and her great-uncle have been estranged for years, so it must be important.

Robert’s story progresses from 1944 to the present.

In the process, we see what happened to his brother in the war, what happened after the war, and brings us (slowly) to Robert’s present—2001. Annie’s story is about her journey back to Ansel-on-the-Sea and her attempt to discover the source of the amnity between Robert and her father.

Annie’s section of the story was written in first person, and Robert’s was written in third person—an unusual and often difficult combination for authors to write successfully. Both stories are written in present tense. I usually find present tense works best in a story that’s set in the present, so thought present tense was an unusual and perhaps a brave choice by the author.

It’s a testament to her writing skill that the combination works.

Yes, the writing was excellent. Well, if you don’t mind first person, and if you don’t mind present tense. I was a little uncertain at first, but was soon drawn in by the power of Robert’s story … and by the mystery of Jeremiah Fletcher.

Whose Waves These Are is a difficult novel to describe.

It has a strong voice, strong writing, strong characters, and a dual-level plot that offers lots of questions and answers them all. Yes, there were a couple of scenes towards the end which I’m not sure worked as well, but overall it’s an excellent first novel. Recommended.

Thanks to Bethany House Publishers and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Amanda Dykes

Amanda Dykes is the author of Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale, the critically-acclaimed bicycle story that invited readers together to fund bicycles for missionaries in Asia. A former English teacher, she has a soft spot for classic literature and happy endings. She is a drinker of tea, a dweller of Truth, and a spinner of hope-filled tales, grateful for the grace of a God who loves extravagantly.

Find Amanda Dykes online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

About Whose Waves These Are

In the wake of WWII, a grieving fisherman submits a poem to a local newspaper: a rallying cry for hope, purpose . . . and rocks. Send me a rock for the person you lost, and I will build something life-giving. When the poem spreads farther than he ever intended, Robert Bliss’s humble words change the tide of a nation. Boxes of rocks inundate the tiny, coastal Maine town, and he sets his calloused hands to work, but the building halts when tragedy strikes.

Decades later, Annie Bliss is summoned back to Ansel-by-the-Sea when she learns her Great-Uncle Robert, the man who became her refuge during the hardest summer of her youth, is now the one in need of help. What she didn’t anticipate was finding a wall of heavy boxes hiding in his home. Long-ago memories of stone ruins on a nearby island trigger her curiosity, igniting a fire in her anthropologist soul to uncover answers.

She joins forces with the handsome and mysterious harbor postman, and all her hopes of mending the decades-old chasm in her family seem to point back to the ruins. But with Robert failing fast, her search for answers battles against time, a foe as relentless as the ever-crashing waves upon the sea.

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