Never the Bride –review part 2

Never the Bride
by C. McKay and R. Gutteridge

BIG FAT SPOILER ALERT: this entire review is full of SPOILERS. Read only if you want the book to be spoiled or if you have already read it. If you missed it, part 1 of this review is spoiler-free.

I wanted a story where a woman learned to be content in God, and ended up not being married, because honestly romance and marriage is emphasized entirely too much in the Christian community. I ordered this story with the express hope that it would not be a temporal romance, but an everlasting spiritual romance with God. The book synopsis asks “Can she turn over her pen and trust someone [God] to craft a love story beyond her wildest dreams?” and for a brief moment in the book it seemed the love story would indeed be with God, but then she got married to some random guy God had been trying to set her up with the entire story!

Which leads to complaint #2: “the one.” The story gives the impression that there is one person out there God has created specifically for you if you are simply willing to allow Him to lead your life. The problem I take with this spiritual fool’s gold is that romantic people will use it as an excuse to marry some lame wad they have no business being in a relationship with, or they will be on an eternal quest for the Holy Grail of Perfect Spouse. It is also used as an excuse by “Christians” to divorce the person they are currently married to, because “s/he wasn’t The One God intended for me to marry.” Then there is also the fact that it makes it seem like there is something wrong with those singles who have been so for decades, trying to find someone worth marrying. I have heard the complaints of some Godly singles who say they are sick of people telling them “Get right with God, and He will send you The One.” God can send you a spouse whether you are holy or not. He doesn’t need you to be holy and perfect in order for Him, an All-Powerful Being, to do whatever He pleases.

Romance stories are all well and good when people know they are fiction and people know there is no deeper spiritual meaning to it, but when a spiritual lesson is added to a story, more care should be taken to make sure unfounded and harmful clichés aren’t propagated.

(By the way, this explains the complaint I had about God being an author of confusion in part 1 of this review. God is trying to set Jessie up with some random dude, and so when He made Himself corporal, He took on the appearance of the dude He is trying to set Jessie up with. As a result, when Jessie sees the dude, she thinks it is God, and reacts to him as such. It creates confusion that an omniscient God would obviously have known would ensue. It is chaotic, and not something God would do.)

Ultimately, the lessons Jessie learned were sound ones, to a point. God does make a point of telling Jessie her marriage won’t be perfect and that He is only sharing her with her new husband (which, if one spends too much time dwelling on God “sharing” us, it can actually create a headache). The manner in which she learned the lessons was highly questionable, and not very scriptural. If McKay and Gutteridge are as good of story-writers as I suppose they might be, I imagine they could have just as easily created a scripturally sound story without sacrificing the truth of who God is.

I was left with the sense that Jessie’s character was a bit stupid, but she wasn’t a devote follower of Christ (hadn’t been to church in 14 years, and didn’t spend much time studying her Bible to glean a better understanding of God), so I suppose stupid can be labeled as ignorant.

*I acquired this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers*

Never The Bride -review part 1

Never the Bride
by Cheryl McKay and Rene Gutteridge

The story is a humorous one about Jessie, a 34-year-old 11-times-over bridesmaid with an obsession to get married. She keeps journals (a closet-full) detailing her desires for marriage, engagements, and everything thereof, but has not found Mr. Right yet. Her most notable romance is a non-romance crush she has had on a lifelong friend, Blake, who of course knows not a thing of her romantic feelings for him. Amidst her romantic obsessing, God steps in, quite literally, to try to direct Jessie in His plans for her life. It becomes a big question of whether Jessie will be able to surrender her life and obsessive tendencies to God and have faith that the Ruler of the Universe knows what He is doing.

So I ordered this book with exceedingly low expectations because there was a specific ending I wanted, but I was almost positive the ending I wanted would not be the ending I got (note to self: don’t read a book if you are only willing to accept 1 particular ending).

That being said, I will start with what I liked about the book. I must say I finished the book in one sitting, which shows it was an intriguing book. Even though I wanted to hate the book, I found myself smiling in amusement at many parts. I am sure Jessie’s character was also relatable to some people (I’m not particularly obsessed with marriage except to joke with friends about going “husband shopping,” so I can’t quite relate).

I found a good many of the interactions with God to be compelling, and now have a desire to go read the Bible on the beach (the one time living in FL is actually a convenience). Call me sentimental, but the idea of a romance with God totally does it for me (romance in a strictly platonic sense, if that isn’t too paradoxical of a statement). The character growth in the story was rather well-presented, and made it more than two-dimensional. Over all, it was a well-crafted, light piece of work with some spiritual lessons that were appreciated.

Preexisting bias for a particular ending in place, I give the story 1/5 stars for spiritual satisfaction, and 4/5 for an otherwise engaging piece of work.

I have all sort of spoiler-worthy complaints about that story, but I will save those for part 2 of this review. I have 2 non-spoiler-worthy complaints instead.

The one that isn't spiritually related first (save the best for last?):
First part that really peeved me is when God (in the novel) said “Things never happen the same way twice,” which is in fact a direct quote from Prince Caspian (the movie). It certainly doesn’t come from scripture, since scripture says there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9), and God is quite willing to do things the same way. So not only did she quote Prince Caspian (the movie), without referencing it, as if she is trying to pass the quote off as some original line she came up with, but she felt the need to quote Chronicles of Narnia, but didn’t even make the effort to actually quote something CS Lewis wrote, but quoted flipping HOLLYWOOD! That’s like a major biting of one’s thumb at CS Lewis there (because Shakespearian insults are so much better than modern ones). Seeing as how CS Lewis is my favorite author, I was not pleased.

This would have been a little less bothersome if a simple reference to where the quote came from had been made. A simple “‘Things never happen the same way twice,’ God said. I smiled in amusement over his stealing a quote from a movie” (the story is told in first-person narrative). Anything!

Spiritual complaint:
The characterization of God at parts throughout the story really bugged me. At times, He had something wise to say, and I appreciated that, or when He would point out a character flaw of Jessie that particularly hit home with me (like when she flat out told God she’d rather spend time with someone else). However, and that is a big however, I really disdained how God was characterized as making Jessie’s life confusing –this becomes apparent the further you get into the story. He would ask her to do things, and when she did them, sometimes it led to results that left Jessie in a position of having been confused. The Bible tells us God is not an author of confusion, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33), and if a character of God is written that would lead even the most holy of Christians, let alone a Christian such as Jessie, into scenarios that lead to chaos and confusion, then that is not a true representation of who God is.

I am all for authors taking poetic license in a story, within reason, and that is why the idea of God turning corporal for a person in a story did not bother me: poetic license. I just think too much poetic license was taken at the sake of sacrificing God’s true character. Personally, I would rather a book that only sells 200 copies and stays true to Who God is than a story that sells 200 thousand copies but takes the liberty of crafting God into a character mold unfitting of Who He truly is. God is not a product to be shaped and molded into what you like simply so you can sell more books.

That being said, I’ll make a separate post detailing all the spoilers that detail what truly made me rate the book a 1/5 spiritually. As is, this is an obscenely long blog post as is.

*I acquired this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers*

The Ale Boy's Feast -review

The Ale Boy's Feast by Jeffrey Overstreet
Book #4 (White Strand) in The Auralia Thread Series

The final book in the Auralia Thread series, I have been looking forward to reading this for a while. I was not disappointed by what I read.

Cal-raven is still missing, and so a select group of House Abascar citizens decide to make the perilous journey to search for the mythic city Cal-Raven had been searching for without him. Back in the Cent Regus undergrounds, the ale boy has found a river even further below the Cent REgus compound. Feeling a new source of hope, the Ale Boy feels compelled to help the rest of the prisoners escape through this hidden river. Far away, Scharr Ben Fray is making plans of his own at his childhood home as he acquires a dragon to carry him away on mysterious plans.

The story draws long-standing mysteries to an end, and destinies are achieved in this final tale of Auralia’s Threads. The great thing about this series is that it appeals to a wide age-range of readers. I started the series while in High School, and now have finally finished it. And my little brother, who is in middle school, enjoys the series as well. It was an intriguing tale from start to finish, and the finish was just as spectacular as the start.

After a long journey starting from the revealing of Auralia’s colors leading to the ends presented in this final tale, the characters have grown and evolved. They did not grow stagnant and unchanging by this, The Ale Boy’s Feast, the final tale. To anyone that has been a loyal follower to the series, I am saying now you will not be disappointed with the finish. To anyone just stumbling upon the series, do start from the beginning (Auralia’s Colors). It is a good series.

*I acquired this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers*

Tandem -review

Tandem by Tracey Bateman
Stand-alone sequel to Thirsty

All is not right in Abbey Hill, MO (did that sound properly cliché?). Six months after an enigmatic killing-spree stopped by the alleged death of the killer (death by house burning down atop of you), Lauryn McBride is selling the estate of a Marcus Chisom who was unfortunately killed in the fire six months prior. While cataloguing the belongings of the estate, Lauryn finds a bundle of old letters. Luckily she is able to locate the family to whom the letters were postmarked from and she mails them to the family member in New Orleans, an Amede Dastillon. Amede thinks these letters can serve as a key to finding her missing sister, so she travels up to Abbey Hill to gather more information from Lauryn. One dark and twisty event after another leaves Amede and Lauryn scrambling for answers faster than they will come in. Only the turning of the page can tell if these two women will find the answers they are looking for before it is too late.

So, I rather liked Tandem for the first 3/4 of the book. It was intriguing, the writing style was well done, and the plot line was not cliché. The story was mysterious enough to be entertaining, but not so mysterious to be annoying. The characters were developed nicely, even if there were quite a few of them.

What I really liked about Lauryn is the fact that Bateman was able to show us a real girl struggling with a father who had Alzheimer’s. This was an important part of the plot development, and I appreciated that Bateman was able to express clearly the emotions Lauryn was feeling

I was disappointed when I discovered there was a slight love interest in the story between Lauryn and an old crush. It was definitely not a romance book, and the romance was definitely not the focus of the story. Regardless, I chose this book for the express reason that I wanted a break from romance novels, so even the slight mini-plot of romance was too much for me. Granted, there was nothing wrong with the love interest. I personally could have done without it is all.

My main problem with the story came toward the end when Lauryn's life became beyond hectic. It seemed a bit unrealistic for so many things to happen to her so fast, and I couldn't quite see the point of all the events happening (yes, that is vague, but I do not wish to give any spoilers). It also seemed like too much was happening in the story. There was the minor love interest, the dad with Alzheimer’s, Amede trying to find her sister, Amede's personal struggles, animal carcasses showing up on the road, and other dark and twisty occurrences.

I felt a bit bogged down, but since the plot was an intriguing one, I was able to overlook these minor shortcomings. I could handle a sensory overload as long as the story itself was good, which it was.

Weirdest thing was that I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers, so I was expecting some sort of thriller or paranormal book with a Christian theme (because they're Christian publishers). Instead this was a good novel that happened to have Christian characters in it. It didn't bother me, though. It was simply weird, like taking a sip of Coke thinking you're drinking Pepsi. While they're both good drinks, it's always surprising to get something other than what you're expecting.

To wrap it all up, because this review is all over the place, I liked the book. I would recommend it to others to read.

Love on Assignment -Review

Love on Assignment -by Cara Lynn James

This is a romance story about Charlotte Hale in the beginning of the 19th century. Charlotte Hale takes an undercover assignment as a reporter at a Professor Daniel Wilmoth's home to try and discover any sordid information about him that can be published in order to ruin his reputation. Charlotte takes a job as Daniel's governess for his two children so that she might spy on him, and while working for him she finds her faith in Christ growing and her feelings for Daniel blossoming into something romantic. As her feelings change, Charlotte finds herself presented with the dilemma of fulfilling her job and ruining Daniel or failing as an undercover reporter so that she might protect Daniel against her boss's unscrupulous scheming.

Over all, I was not a fan of the story. I felt as if the story dragged on at a lagging pace, and it made it less than enjoyable to read. The story may have better served as a novella instead of a novel, because all of the important bits of the story could have easily been condensed into one. If it had been a novella, I think I might have liked the story well enough.

That is, of course, except for the fatal flaw. As I expressed earlier, I am not a fan of romance novels where either the male or female character must become a stronger Christian in order for the romance to work out (the only novel I've ever read where this worked at all was Redeeming Love). I did not like that Charlotte went from a poor Christian to a good Christian for the sake of romance. I do not mind people being saved in books, but I think it should be done for some other purpose other than a successful romance.

I don't particularly enjoy giving bad reviews, because I realize it is very hard to write stories, so who am I to critique another person's labor of love? And so I will say that this book will probably be enjoyed by a great many people. I just happen to not be one of the people that enjoyed the book. Not my cup of tea, I suppose.

An Amish Love -Review

I really cannot fathom why I got this book. I already know I am not a fan of Amish romance novels, so it was a bit of a silly idea for me to request this book from booksneeze. Whatever the silly reasoning, I got the book and so I had to read the three novellas within. Oh, what a chore. While I am sure, these three authors (B. Wiseman, K. Fuller, K. Long) are decent novelists in their own right, I was biased from the start because of my predisposition to dislike Amish romance novels. Thankfully, I was able to become passingly enthralled by the story line of some of the stories.

A Marriage of the Heart -Kelly Long

Kelly Long's novella was a romance about Abigail Kauffman and Joseph Lambert. Abigail Kauffman seems to be a naive girl who wants to escape her Amish town, and so tricks Joseph Lambert into a marriage with her right in the beginning of the story. We are left with the two in a loveless marriage where the reader is left wondering if everything will turn out all sunshine and roses. (Not to give any spoilers, but it's a romance novel, so I wasn't really wondering how the story would end. It's about like Disney, yeah?).

It was not until the climax of the story that I felt drawn in at all. I won't reveal anything, but I did find myself a little bit satisfied by the little injection of reality into the story that pushed it over the edge from being one-dimensional to something a bit more. I rather liked Joseph Lambert by the end of the story.

Overall, I imagine a woman who is a fan of Amish romance stories would have given this one a 3/5. Since I'm not a fan, I'm thinking a 1.5/5 or a 2/5.

Healing Hearts -Beth Wiseman

Healing Hearts is about the return of a husband, Naaman Lapp, who left his family for near on a year with no legitimate explanation, and now his wife, Levina, and his family must learn to accept his return. His wife has grown closer to God whilst he was gone and she has become a stronger woman, but forgiveness does not come easy to a husband of 31 years that left for nearly a year. Hurt goes deep with that sort of thing.

While I think this could have been a brilliant story, the fact that it is a novella completely ruins it for me. Even as an Amish story, I can tell I would have probably loved it just because it is an intriguing story idea. The major failing in this story is that I feel like I came in on the middle. The story starts with Naaman's return home, and the reader must go from there. This makes it hard to sympathize or empathize with any of the characters in the beginning, because they are all new to me. I have never experienced abandonment by a family member, so in order for me to feel emotional about it, I need to live it out through someone else's eyes. However, I cannot, because I only get the second half of the story.

However, the second half of the story given to me was full of enough character development to redeem the story from a possible 1 star rating. I found the struggle of trying to renew trust and the development between Naaman and Levina quaint, if a bit nauseating. The plot twist with Larry was annoying to me, since I'm not big on meddling (unless we're dealing with Emma, in which case meddling makes the story amazing). Personally, I would have liked the story if it started from before Naaman left and centered solely around Naaman and his son, Adam. Everything else was a bit distracting to me. I give it a 2.5/5

What the Heart Sees -Kathleen Fuller

Right away, we have a blind Amish girl. I feel as if I've read such a story before, back when I actually liked reading Amish romance. Something by Beverly Lewis, I believe. Ellie Chump also lost her sight in a car accident, except in this novel she was actually in a car and not a wagon, and it's not hysterical blindness. It's blindness caused by a head injury. Five years after the accident, an estranged Christopher Miller returns, and he and Ellie run into each other (not literally. figuratively). While Ellie seems to have healed from her accident 5 years past, Christopher is still in emotional pain. We are left wondering if Ellie can help heal Christopher's heartache whilst possibly falling in love at the same time.

I though this was a rather decent story. Cliche, yes, but then most romance novels are, so who am I to complain since I still enjoy reading them? There is a spiritual lesson of forgiveness to be learned in this story -now that I think of it, I think forgiveness is an element in all of the stories. I wonder if that was coincidental. The story was well-written, and I found myself intrigued despite the Amishness of it.

I think women who like Amish novels would have given this a 4/5 or 4.5/5. I give it a 3/5.

~~

Funny thing I did not realize until I was halfway finished with the final novella in the book was that all three stories took place in the same community, and characters from each story was mentioned in the other two. On that note, it is important you read the three stories in the order they appear in the book, since you will stumble across spoilers if you don't read them in order.

(In case I was unclear in the beginning, I received this book from booksneeze.com)

Life Without Limits -review

I requested (and received) Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers for free because his story seemed like it might be a very inspiring and captivating read. It was indeed inspiring. I was not disappointed in that respect.

The story of Nick Vujicic is probably a well-known one. A man born without limbs, except for a small malformed foot. He overcame these limits (hence the title "Life without limits. I think "limits" was a play on the word "limbs." If so, I got a good chuckle out of the pun) in order to become an inspirational speaker. More than becoming an inspirational speaker, it seems Vujicic leads a very busy life. He has gone surfing before, he can swim. It's all rather amazing.

In his story, Nick Vujicic tells many short anecdotes from his life and follows up on these anecdotes with little inspirational blurps about how "If I can do this, then you can be happy/hopeful/successful/etc too." ... yeah, it sounds better in his own words. I really liked the way he would go from personal anecdote to inspirational paragraph. It helped to make his point. Instead of him just saying "You should be happy," he actually explained how despite his circumstances he found things to be happy for, and in a like manner we can find things to be happy for too.

Because his story is so amazing, and the messages he is trying to share with the world are so helpful and wonderful, I almost feel bad with the critique I am about to give. I am not critiquing his message, though. His message is quite good. My only issue with his book is that some of the inspirational messages he provided in the book sounded very cliche. I would have preferred he came up with an original way to make his point instead of using cliche phrases like "Anything is possible." However, he made up for such cliche phrases with amusing phrases like "So walk with me, the man with no arms and no legs, into a future filled with hope!"

Over all, I loved the message Nick Vujicic is trying to spread around the world. Personally, the book was slow-going for me since I'm not a fan of non-fiction, but I still thought it was good. It was hard for me to get into the story at first, since I'm not a huge non-fiction fan, but once I got into it, I was captivated -despite some of the cliche phrases. I'd recommend others read it.

[as an aside: a branch-off from this review can be found on this blog post where I talk about hope: Living With Hope]

The Clouds Roll Away -review

The Clouds Roll Away is a mystery novel by Sibella Giorello based in Richmond, Virginia. The novel is about forensic geologist, Raleigh Harmon, who must work to solve burgeoning racial crimes focused on an African American rap artist. While trying to solve the mystery of who is committing the hate crimes, Raleigh must also deal with her temperamental mother, catty boss, rich and ever-present ex-boyfriend, and new tenant in her childhood home.

I found The Clouds Roll Away to be a slightly difficult read at first because there seemed to be a great deal of missing information, until I realized about halfway through the book that it was the third book in a series, so I was missing some important background information. In order to truly appreciate the book, it seems necessary that one invest in the first two books of the series to get the background information to make sense of the third book. This was a slight disappointment for me since I have not read the first two books.

Lack of knowledge aside, I did not find the novel to my liking as far as mystery novels go because it seemed like a novel where the first 300 hundred pages are mediocrity leading up to the short climax and conclusion in the last 20 pages. A climax toward the end of a novel is acceptable of course, but only as long as the rest of the story is interesting enough to be captivating. Instead I felt like I was trudging through the story just so I could finish it instead of leaving a book half-read.

*I acquired this book from the site booksneeze.com*