A Delirious Summer

Rating:
Summary: Better than the first!
Review: Apart from its rather dull title, A Delirious Summer is a great read! I enjoyed Flabbergasted, the first in this trilogy, but this second installment is much better in terms of character development, plot, and spiritual depth. The characters are still quirky and fun, but you also get more insight into their relationships with each other and with God.
Favorite line from the book: "Everywhere I looked, God was using the least qualified." Amen to that!

Rating:
Summary: I thoroughly enjoyed this book
Review: As much as I enjoyed the first book, this sequel is even better. The plot builds and so do the characters. The only drawback is that I can't wait to read the conclusion in the third novel. I anxiously await.

Rating:
Summary: I thoroughly enjoyed this book
Review: As much as I enjoyed the first book, this sequel is even better. The plot builds and so do the characters. The only drawback is that I can't wait to read the conclusion in the third novel. I anxiously await.

Rating:
Summary: Another Serving of Relational Gumbo
Review: Blackston splashed onto the scene last year with his highly entertaining "Flabbergasted." He introduced lad lit to a readership inundated with the chick lit counterpart. I welcomed the fresh touch and witty insights of the story.

Just in time for summer, Blackston serves up a second helping of relational gumbo. The novel may appear to be Christian dating ala mode, but it aims to be much more. This time, Jay remains in the jungles of Ecuador, while his friend and teacher, Neil, accepts a challenge to spend his own furlough in the tangled web of S. Carolina's singles scene. Along the way, he meets new friends, potential flames, and fresh insight into God's working in every aspect of his life.

Fans of the first book will enjoy visiting again with Darcy and Alexis. They'll enjoy the brief moments on a fishing boat, and the more stretching experiences of jungle work. Although the narrative seems to try too hard in some places, it's always fun and warm. Don't be surprised if you laugh out loud in spots. Don't be shocked if it lifts your spirits along the way.

Rating:
Summary: Another Serving of Relational Gumbo
Review: Blackston splashed onto the scene last year with his highly entertaining "Flabbergasted." He introduced lad lit to a readership inundated with the chick lit counterpart. I welcomed the fresh touch and witty insights of the story.

Just in time for summer, Blackston serves up a second helping of relational gumbo. The novel may appear to be Christian dating ala mode, but it aims to be much more. This time, Jay remains in the jungles of Ecuador, while his friend and teacher, Neil, accepts a challenge to spend his own furlough in the tangled web of S. Carolina's singles scene. Along the way, he meets new friends, potential flames, and fresh insight into God's working in every aspect of his life.

Fans of the first book will enjoy visiting again with Darcy and Alexis. They'll enjoy the brief moments on a fishing boat, and the more stretching experiences of jungle work. Although the narrative seems to try too hard in some places, it's always fun and warm. Don't be surprised if you laugh out loud in spots. Don't be shocked if it lifts your spirits along the way.

Rating:
Summary: Fast moving and funny-great entertainment
Review: Harmonica playing Neil Rucker is a Spanish language teacher who clambers onto roofs when he has the need for serious discussions with the Almighty. Neil has a most vexing problem-he has gone dateless for seven months, one week and one day. His furlough, and return to the States, is soon and he has one goal: female companionship. So when his worst student, Jay Jarvis, exchanges 'I know where available females live' information for bonus points on a test he is failing, Neil is on his way. He's heading for Greenville, South Carolina and the Ladies of the Quest. The Ladies are young, single, and in search of husbands. In order to accomplish their goals, they have taken to 'church hopscotch'-different groups of Ladies rotate to different churches-according to their schedule-to see where the most desirable guys are attending. Reports are made weekly, databases are kept up to date, and everyone is informed of the latest rankings via weekly email updates. The Ladies have their Quest; Neil has his. His summer turns zany as he gets to know his roommate Steve, leadfoot Darcy and her lime green, Cadillac convertable Sherbet, Lydia-the one of many rules, free-spirited Alexis, charter boat owners Preacher Smoak and Maurice, flamboyant Quilla and 81 year old Beatrice Dean, gardener, landscaper and practioner of her own version of church hopscotch. His mentor Jose of Mexico City, keeps Neil's head on straight by his words of wisdom and tangelos-his preferred prop for object lessons.

"A Delirious Summer" is a funny, entertaining book that is hard to put down once you start.

Rating:
Summary: Disagree with reviewer
Review: I absolutely loved this book and the main reason I loved it was because Ray Blackston portrayed Christians as real and not cardboard cut outs that slightly resemble other human beings. So many Non Christians think of Christian men as as a third gender. Men who don't have lustful thoughts or sexual feelngs at all. John Mort is completely out of touch with reality in his review and what I appreciated so much about Mr. Blackston's novel is that the guys in it were real and had real feelings just like everyone else, but because of their faith, they are able (sometimes) to take a deep breath and gain control of the situation. That doesn't mean that the thoughts aren't there, but rather that they allow God to be in control of them.
Also, I am a single Christian woman in the south and I can can relate to the scenes where women jump churches looking for a date. I am not saying it's right, I am only saying that it does happen. Everyone in southern towns know which church has the best singles group, the best youth group, etc...
This novel is a great read that is even better written than the first one. Kudos to Mr. Blackston for writing a novel that honestly portrays Christians and the crazy and unpredictable environment in which they live, especially the ones in the south.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a Christian novel worth reading
Review: I have been in the writing/editing field for 10 years, five of which I spent as the editor of a monthly Christian magazine. During that time, many novels from Christian publishing houses crossed my desk for review. Unfortunately, many were characterized by very poor writing, flat and/or stereotypical characters and predictable plots. If I wasn't disillusioned by and disappointed in the Christian fiction market before, I definately was by the end of those five years.

When a book club I'm in selected Flabergasted (Blackston's first novel), I was dubious. That was one time I'm glad I was wrong! It didn't take me long to read A Delirious Summer, which I enjoyed even more. Both books are fun reading, humorous and full of one-liners worth quoting. Blackston can not only write (he exhibits good craft for a first-time novelist), he also tells a good story and his narrators' thought and prayer lives are closer to that of real-life Christians than in most novels I've read from Christian publishing houses.

Kudos to Blackston--and to his publisher for picking up these novels. If the Christian market wants to be relevant and respectful to its readers, it needs to publish more novels like Blackston's. I hope to see more novels like these--and more from Blackston, whom the Christian publishing market most likely won't be able to contain much longer.

Rating:
Summary: Loved It
Review: I loved this book even better than the first one. I took it to read during my vacation at the beach and it was the perfect beach read. I was so disappointed when I was done because I missed the characters. I thoght this book developed them a little more than the first one, so that was great. I hope the author keeps going so we can find out what happens to these peopel!

Rating:
Summary: Fast, funny and quirky --- the ideal beach book
Review: Ray Blackston's first novel told the story of one-time stockbroker Jay Jarvis and missionary Allie Kyle, whose charms led Jay first to her side, then to the Lord, and finally to the jungles of Ecuador to join her mission site. Intertwined with their slow love story was the tale of church-hopping single South Carolingians, all loosely led on a beach vacation by surfer dude Ransom and his toothsome wife Jamie (the only couple in either book allowed more than chaste kisses). Blackston now has a second novel out, A DELIRIOUS SUMMER, and as promised, many of the same characters appear again in this book.

Jay and Allie are not center stage this time, although they do figure prominently in the book's second half (more on that shortly). This time around (the story here takes place the following summer), the protagonist is Neil Rucker, a missionary on furlough from Ecuador, where one of the least-promising students in his Spanish class was Jay Jarvis. Neil, who doesn't quite believe he's a missionary because he "just teaches," is both footloose and an orphan; he isn't quite sure where he should land once on the more familiar ground of the United States. Jay, whose instincts are better than his language skills, convinces Neil to try Greenville, SC and sets him up with a church singles group --- Steve as his roommate, Darcy of the lime-green Cadillac convertible and Alexis of the silver piercings as his "bait." (Several characters and Blackston are really into fishing, so it's no surprise that male-female goings-on in this book sometimes feel like a session with lures, tackle and reels.)

Blackston has brought his inimitable and delightful humor back to this novel. While most of the action revolves around the Presbyterians, no denomination is left unskewered. For example, a Methodist service is described as "a sermon and some hymns and some protocol," an Episcopalian service as "a sermon and some hymns and some ceremony," and a Pentecostal service as "a sermon and some hymns and some aerobics." Blackston doesn't take religious trappings too seriously, and neither do the Ladies of the Quest, Greenville's young single women trolling for potential husbands: they will attend any church so long as the single male pickings are good. When they're not, these supposedly innocent maidens move on to the next --- and the next, and the next (you might get Jell-O salad with the Baptists, croissants with the Episcopalians, and pudding with the Lutherans --- it really is potluck in Greenville).

The plot goes something like this: Neil takes his furlough in Greenville, begins to meet and greet the various young ladies of the Quest, and bonds with his fellows in the singles group. They take another beach vacation, which involves a long, hot trip in Darcy's Caddy and some annoyances along the way that bond Neil and Alexis, who recognize each other as kindred spirits. Neil also bonds with the frick-and-frack team of Maurice and Asbury on the latter's boat, and take an unforgettable fishing trip that serves mainly to introduce some characters who will aid Jay and Allie's Ecuadorian mission during a hard time.

If I don't spend a great deal of time on the story, that's because it seems less important than Blackston's detailed, unique characters --- and because what seems most important about these characters is that they build community. Whether they're in a South American city, the rainforest, on a beach or in a parish hall, they take each other as they are and find ways to love each other. What could be more Christian --- no matter what denominational stripes are donned --- than that?

--- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick