Tag Archives: Christian fiction

Review: A Face Illumined

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A Face Illumined

In A Face Illumined by Edward Payson Roe, Harold Van Berg is an artist attending a concert when he sees a striking young woman in the audience. He thinks her almost perfect face is so beautiful that he would love to paint it. But as he observes her, he finds that she is shallow and flirtatious. He’s disturbed that such beauty is ruined by her demeanor.

He overhears that she and her mother are going to a certain resort for the next few weeks. He decides to take his painting gear and go to the same resort. He wants to see if he can possibly awaken “thought, with womanly character and intelligence” in her.

He attempts his project first of all by expressing silent disapproval, which the girl, Ida, senses immediately. Rankled by his judgment, she determines to get back at him. But she realizes her usual way of handling men won’t work with him.

Then a pretty, sweet, kind teacher named Jenny comes to the resort. Isa sees how Harold, as well as others, respond to Jenny. She hears Jenny’s praises sung. She believes Harold is falling in love with Jenny. In fact, he seems to have forgotten Ida altogether.

Ida realizes her faults, but not knowing how to be any way other than what she is, she’s driven to despair and almost tragedy. Fortunately, a kind older man in a garden points her to One who loves her and can change her.

And Harold is stunned along the way to discover some of his own imperfections. “His confidence in his own sagacity received the severest shock it had ever experienced” (p. 203).

Edward Payson Roe was a Presbyterian pastor in the 1800s who also wrote fiction and horticulture books. I first read and loved He Fell In Love with His Wife by him when a friend mentioned it. I found some of his other books free for the Kindle app, but just got around to this one.

Of course, the language is old-fashioned. Some of the sentences are excessively long. I like to read books from this era partly so as not to lose the ability to.

The plot might seem a little odd in our day. We would notice that someone seems shallow, but I don’t think many of us would set ourselves a mission to try to improve that person n the way Harold did.

But setting all that aside, this ended up being a tender, lovely story.

Some of the quotes I marked:

He was less versed in human nature than art, and did not recognize in the forced and obtrusive gayety the effort to stifle the voice of an aroused conscience  (p. 31, Kindle app). 

Beauty without mind is like salad without dressing (p. 55).

The number of those who rise above their circumstances with a cheery courage are but few (p. 71).

A genuine man, such as she had not seen or at least not recognized before, had stepped out before the gilt and tinsel, and the miserable shams were seen in contrast in their rightful character (p. 106).

What a heaven it would be to look up into the eyes of a man I could trust, and who honored me (p. 120).

What an unknown mystery each life is, even to the lives nearest to it! (p. 150).

Mr. Mayhew was a tired, busy man, who visited at his own home rather than lived there (p. 154).

Was she not seeking to make her life an altar on which she laid as a gift to others the best treasures of her woman’s soul? (p. 160).

It is a fearful thing to permit a child to grow up ignorant of God, and of the sacred principles of duty which should be inwrought in the conscience, and enforced by the most vital considerations of well-being, both for this world and the world to come (p. 180).

When the storm was loudest and most terrible, his hand was on the helm, and now I am entering the quiet harbor (p. 194).

It was our imperfection and wickedness that brought Christ to our rescue, and yet you have been made to believe that your chief claim upon our Divine Friend is a hopeless barrier against you! (p. 210).

The hopeless fools are those who never find themselves out (p. 245).

Roe says in his preface that seeing a “beautiful but discordant face” at a concert some years earlier became this story, though he doesn’t know that person’s fate. Also, “The old garden, and the aged man who grew young within it, are not creations, but sacred memories.” He writes his earnest wish is “That the book may tend to ennoble other faces than that of Ida.”

Review: The Bitter End Birding Society

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The Bitter End Birding Society

In Amanda Cox’s newest novel, The Bitter End Birding Society, Bitter End is a small town in eastern Tennessee with a variety of legends about how it got its name.

Ana Leigh Watkins, the most recent newcomer to Bitter End, plans to spend the summer helping her great aunt Cora sort through her belongings in preparation for selling her house and moving to a retirement community. In reality, Ana needs time away to recuperate from her year of teaching kindergarten. She’s regarded as a hero for confronting a school shooter who entered her classroom. But she remembers the fear in the young man’s eyes and feels she escalated a situation that could have been resolved peacefully. She can’t forgive herself for the young man’s fate and the trauma caused to her students. The praise she receives only weighs her down further.

Ana gets adopted by a stray dog. While taking him for a walk one day, she runs into a neighbor with a group of birdwatchers who invite her to join them. She learns her aunt is bitter enemies with the head of the bird-watching group. As Ana gently investigates further, she discovers a story over sixty years old of a moonshiner’s daughter, Viola, who falls in love with a preacher’s son. The tragedies that befell them are still having repercussions.

The narrative switches back and forth between Ana’s and Viola’s points of view.

I just discovered Amanda a few years ago and have read all of her books except a novella. I’ve loved every one. The stories are well-written and the characters are easy to identify and empathize with and root for. Their situations tug on the heartstrings, but gentle humor is laced throughout as well. Grace and redemption are underlying themes.

Some of the quotes that stood out to me:

I thought I could fit everything into tidy boxes and sort right from wrong. But now I see that sometimes a saint acts like a sinner. And sometimes a sinner acts like a saint.

Those lines can seem pretty blurry sometimes. One can look just like the other from the outside. I’d say that the difference comes down to the heart. A lost sheep wants to come home but can’t for some reason. Something is getting in their way. But a prodigal is running in the opposite direction on purpose. You can’t make someone come home if they don’t want to. 

It was a mystery how some trinkets and knickknacks were alive with meaning and memory while others were soulless souvenirs. 

Did he know that what he needed for his pain was healing, not an anesthetic? The numbness he felt was not a cure. Anesthesia was not the sort of thing a body could live on.

Healing was an ongoing journey without a fixed destination.

Sometimes things don’t come to a tidy conclusion. Words are left unsaid. Things are left undone. But this life is not the end. . . . . Our present circumstances, our perceived failures, they are not final.

I loved that the birding society visited the Seven Islands State Birding Park, which I have been to.

I listened to the audiobook read by Rachel Botchan, who had a distracting habit of taking a breath in odd places. But otherwise, I enjoyed her narration.

The audiobook does not include the author’s notes, but Amanda has linked to a few interviews she did about this book here, and I found another one here.

Review: Where We Belong

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Where We Belong

In Lynn Austin’s novel, Where We Belong, sisters Rebecca and Flora Hawes are traveling across the Sinai Desert on camels.

That’s particularly unusual for 1892. But neither sister is a conventional Victorian woman.

Rebecca was often bored in school as a child, thirsting for adventure. She convinced Flora to go with her to the train station and shipping line to amass information to persuade their father to take them on a trip overseas. He listened to their reasoning and planned a trip for the following summer. Rebecca found she had an affinity for languages, learning French and a little Italian for the trip. Later she added Greek so she could read Homer in his native tongue and Arabic for another trip.

She thought each journey would get the traveling and adventure bug out of her system. Instead, each journey made her want to travel more. Her father had always urged his daughters to find God’s purpose for their lives. But what could God do with a woman who loved travel, adventure, and learning and had enough wealth to finance any journey she wanted to undertake? The answer came in a surprising way.

Flora was a little more pliable and gracious than Rebecca. Flora didn’t usually initiate adventures, but she could be talked into going and always enjoyed them. She, too, struggled with assessing God’s plan for her life and almost let herself be molded into someone else’s plan for her. But then God’s leading became clear.

Each woman’s story is told in a series of flashbacks, always returning to their current desert trek. Their mother died shortly after Flora was born. They live through a meddling aspiring stepmother, the death of their father, and the Great Chicago Fire. A chance purchase of an ancient manuscript in Cairo turns out to be from an early copy of Scripture, fueling Rebecca’s desire to find more. With the recent publication of Darwin’s book and the tide of scientific discovery turning against the Bible’s truths. Rebecca feels that finding proof of such old copies of Scripture will help prove its validity and reliability. Along the way, she finds a much more personal reason for her quest.

The story is divided into five parts, each told from a different point of view: first Rebecca’s, then Flora’s, then Soren’s and Kate’s, two troubled young people that the sisters help, then back to Rebecca’s. At first Soren’s and Rebecca’s stories just seemed added on, but they did end up blending well with the overarching narrative.

Themes include the nature of Christianity, the Bible’s veracity and reliability, the responsibility of privilege, compassion for the less fortunate, being your own unique person, and finding your purpose in the world and the family of God.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Mary Beth Light, speeding the rate up to 1.2 since the recording was a bit slow.

I saw that the novel was based on two real-life sisters, but the audiobook didn’t include the author’s notes, and my library didn’t have the book for me to look up that information. I didn’t find much information online except for a reference to twin sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson, who also traveled, spoke many languages, and found one of the earliest copies of the gospels at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt. It looks like the novel included many details of the sisters lives but changed some, making them sisters rather than twins, describing different men from their real-life husbands, and detailing different charitable work than what’s listed.

I enjoyed the book and the trajectory of the characters’ lives.

Review: Wildwood Creek

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Wildwood Creek

Wildwood Creek is the fourth and final book in Lisa Wingate’s Shores of Moses Lake series. Unlike the others, this is a dual-timeline story.

In the 1850s, Bonnie Rose O’Brien and her family were captured by the Comanche. Her parents were killed, and Bonnie Rose and her younger sister, Maggie May, were held captive for years. Upon their deliverance, Bonnie feels soiled and shameful, even though nothing that happened to her was her fault. When the missionaries she’s staying with recommend her for a teaching position in the wilderness, she sees it as a chance to start over.

In 1861, a man named Harland Delavan is starting a new community called Wildwood to search for gold in Texas. He hires Bonnie as well as others to fill the town’s needs. But he rules with an iron hand. Soon individuals and then whole families disappear without explanation. Rumors and myths spread like wildfire, creating legends that linger through the centuries.

In 2014, Allie Kirkland is following in her father’s footsteps. He was a film director, and her earliest memories involve being with him on set. When he died, Allie’s life was never the same. Her mother remarried a lawyer, and they both urged Allie to work in his firm and major in law. Allie feels she doesn’t fit in with her step-siblings and half-siblings.

When Allie learns of a summer internship for a reality TV show, she jumps at the opportunity and is hired. A famous filmmaker wants to recreate the town of Wildwood near Moses Lake Texas, and have actors represent the townspeople and live as they did while exploring the mysteries of what could have happened to them.

Before long, mysterious things begin to happen in this Wildwood, too. Allie feels a kinship with the young teacher, Bonnie Rose. Can she find out what happened before it’s too late?

It was fun to see some of the characters from the previous books again. That’s one nice thing about reading a series one right after the other–I recognized people I might not have otherwise. I think there’s enough explanation in each book that they could be read alone, but they do build on each other.

Each of the Moses Lake books involves someone whose plans are upended in some way, causing them to reconnect with a faith they’ve neglected. Each story also contains some level of mystery and the importance of community.

Reading four books of one author in succession also brings to light an author’s quirks. I think in every book, someone is said to “flash an eye tooth” at someone. I’d never heard that phrase before–I suppose it’s an idiom for a wide grin.

I listened to the audiobook, which had two different women reading Bonnie Rose’s and Allie’s sections: Morgan Hallett and Heather O’Neill. Then I checked the ebook out via Libby to look at some passages there.

I think this book is the best of the four. My only disappointment is that I was looking forward to the author’s notes about her inspiration for this series and whether any of the details or characters were based in fact, yet there were none. At the end of the third book, the author says her husband, like one of the main characters there, got an unexpected job offer in a small Texas town. So I imagine many of the details of the Moses Lake community came from that experience. I did find a guest blog post from Lisa about the book here and an interview here.

Review: Firefly Island

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Firefly Island

Firefly Island is the third of four novels in Lisa Wingate’s Shores of Moses Lake series. This story doesn’t start there, however.

Mallory Hale is a congressional staffer in Washington, D. C. following in the footsteps of her lobbyist father, when she unexpectedly meets Daniel Webster Everson, a biochemist working for the USDA. After a whirlwind romance, Daniel is offered a job in tiny Moses Lake, Texas. He asks Mallory to marry him and move to Moses Lake with him and his four-year-old son, Nick.

Mallory agrees. She’s not sure kind of job a congressional staffer can find there, but she can’t live without Daniel and Nick.

A series of mishaps begins their married life in less than fairy-tale happily ever afters. The house provided with Daniel’s job has not been lived in and is infested with vermin. Daniel’s new boss, Jack, is taciturn and erratic. The small community seems to eye Jack warily.

Suddenly thrust into a new marriage, motherhood, and setting, Mallory struggles. She finds friendship with her cowgirl neighbor, Al, and a young teacher, Keren.

Mallory is suspicious of Jack. Rumors circulate about his possible involvement in the disappearance of his wife and son. He’s secretive to the point of paranoia about his business. When his politician older son, with whom he has not been involved with in years, comes to visit, more details don’t add up. Jacks’ old cabin on Firefly Island is supposedly deserted, yet there are strange boats moored there. Mallory’s search for information leads to tie-ins with her old job. Can Mallory find out what’s going on and bring it to light before a disaster happens?

If I had read this book first in the series, I probably would not have continued. It starts out like a romance novel with what seems to me a lot of silliness (does anyone say hubba hubba any more?) Though there are no explicit scenes, there are more references to the couple’s physical relationship than I care for. Then the plot seems to drag in the middle.

But the latter half of the novel comes together nicely with mystery and intrigue. I enjoyed the interactions with characters from the first two books.

Besides the adjustments with a new marriage and the mystery behind her husband’s boss, Mallory deals with interactions with the more disadvantaged section of Moses Lake. Mallory has been raised the sheltered youngest daughter of a comfortable family. When she takes Nick to a children’s activity and sees a lot of unkempt kids, she worries about lice and bad attitudes. But over time she gets to know the kids and their needs, sees them differently, and looks for ways to help. “Was I really so entrenched in the world I’d been raised in, so set in my ways that I couldn’t look beyond the surface of another person and see a human being? Was I that shallow?” (p. 214).

I also thought this was a sweet line after an encounter with Nick: “Watching him skitter away, I felt the process of loving and parting and holding on and letting go that would be our future together, his and mine” (p. 203).

So, while this wasn’t my favorite of Lisa’s books, I gained from it.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss)

How to Find Good Christian Fiction

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How to find good Christian fiction

Someone asked me recently how to find good Christian fiction. I thought I’d expand on that conversation here.

I wince when people say there is no good Christian fiction. I’ve been reading Christian fiction for around 45 years. Yes, there’s good and bad, just as there is in any genre. But for the most part, my life has been enriched and edified by my Christian fiction reading.

I wrote a very long post here about reasons to read Christian fiction. On top of all the other reasons to read generally–to learn, grow, expand our horizons, gain empathy by seeing other people’s situations and viewpoints, and so much more–Christian fiction contains the missing element: learning to look to God for help, to conform our lives to His will.

The best way to find good Christian fiction is to ask recommendations from someone you trust. I think my early forays into Christian fiction were from books loaned to me by friends. I remember one older lady in the church we attended when we were first married who was a big fan of Christian fiction and loaned out her books.

Another helpful source is Christian book bloggers. This isn’t foolproof: I’ve been burned a few times by such recommendations. But by trial and error, you can find some whose tastes are similar to yours.

Book reviews on Amazon, GoodReads, or Christian blogs are helpful. Reviews can be somewhat confusing, because I’ve seen rave reviews for books I hated and scathing reviews of books I’ve loved. But if you look at what people praise and criticize about the book, that can give you clues.

If I am looking into a new author, I look at the one- and two-star reviews of their books. If there’s some kind of problem, it’s usually mentioned there.

Another good source is the library. Our library happens to have a good section of Christian fiction. They don’t always have the latest releases, but they have more than enough to keep me busy. You can take a few books to a table and leaf through them, or check them out to try at home. Then you haven’t invested money that you’ll regret if the books aren’t to your liking.

Kindle sales are also a good way to try a new author. I don’t mind taking a chance for a dollar or two. I haven’t returned enough Kindle books to know what Amazon’s policy for returning books is for sure, but I think they have a window of time where you can return an ebook if you don’t like it.

If by “good Christian fiction” you mean something totally in line with all your beliefs and preferences, that’s going to be a little harder. You’re going to run into different preferences among Christians, among your friends, in your church, anywhere where you interact with other people. The key is to know what you believe and why and then exercise discernment.

For instance, say you don’t believe in Christians drinking alcohol, but the characters in your book do. There are probably people in your church who do as well. You would likely still interact with them and be friends with them, unless they really pushed the issue and tried to get you to drink.

I’ve handled different preferences in Christian books the same way. I can overlook the difference–unless the author seems to be making a point of emphasizing whatever the difference is.

One of the highlights of my college experience was a lecture by Dr. Ron Horton in Literary Criticism class on Objectionable Elements in Literature. One point he brought out was to look at how the element was handled.

For instance, most would agree that adultery is wrong. Some would not read a book in which a character committed adultery. But we see people who committed adultery in the Bible.

What’s essential is how the author handles adultery. Is it presented as acceptable or written in a way that promotes lust? Or, like the story of David and Bathsheba, are we spared sordid details and shown clear consequences.

Or take the whole issue of violence. War stories, murder mysteries, police dramas, and such are all going to contain violence. The Bible has a lot of violent, even gory scenes, too. But the Bible never presents violence as gratuitous. It’s not written to promote or feed into someone’s lust for violence.

Some of us are going to be sensitive to various areas, and we shouldn’t violate our conscience. For instance, I don’t want anything to do with horror or the occult, even if the “good guys” win in the end. I read a Christian fiction book once that contained extensive detail of an occult ritual. The author was not promoting the occult: he was warning against it. But that scene bothered me immensely. I didn’t need to know the details involved in those rituals. When the Bible mentions these things, it doesn’t go into enough detail to pique curiosity.

Likewise, I pretty much don’t want to know anything about a character’s sexual life. Yes, God created sex and it’s a wonderful part of life. But it’s not a spectator sport. I don’t want to know the details of a character’s intimate life any more than my friends’ or neighbors’. Most Christian fiction authors are not going to be explicit in this area, but there are a few I don’t read because I felt they crossed the line.

I hope this has been of some help. You can search in the box at the upper right hand corner above for particular books and authors I might have reviewed. Or you can email me if you have a question about one, and I’ll be glad to help if I can.

Do you have any other tips for finding good Christian fiction?
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Other posts here about Christian fiction:

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Review: Blue Moon Bay

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Blue Moon Bay

Blue Moon Bay is the second novel is Lisa Wingate’s Shores of Moses Lake series, contemporary fiction set in a small town in Texas. The first was Larkspur Cove (linked to my review).

In Blue Moon Bay, Heather Hampton is an architect working in Seattle. Her father was from Moses Lake, but the family only lived there a short time when Heather was in her teens. She felt like an outcast at school and protested the family’s presence in Moses Lake by dressing somewhat Goth-style. Her mother wasn’t very popular in Moses Lake, either, since she stole away a hometown guy.

When Heather’s father died, Heather, her mother, and brother moved away as soon as they could. Heather never wanted to look back.

Now her firm is about to negotiate a big deal for an industrial plant in Moses Lake, with the sale of the family’s land as part of the deal. Heather’s two older great uncles (called the “Uncs”), have plans to move to live with one of their sons. Heather thinks this is the ideal solution to provide for the family, settle the land, and close the door to Moses Lake forever–as well as look good to her boss.

Everything is set, only awaiting her mother’s signature on the documents.

But her mother doesn’t show up for the appointment.

When Heather calls her mother, she gets vague references about considering another offer, which is total news to Heather. And what’s weirder is that her mom is actually in Moses Lake with Heather’s brother, Clay.

Since Heather can’t get any clear details on the phone, she decides to fly to Moses Lake. After a series of mishaps, she finally gets there. But she still can’t get any answers from anyone. And, mysteriously, Blaine Underwood, the handsome football hero of her high school days, is somehow involved.

I know a story needs conflict to have any kind of plot. But the kind of conflict here frustrated me. It’s supposed to, though–the main character is frustrated as well. Heather is more like her father, and her mother and brother are like each other. Her free-spirited mother gives ambiguous answers, getting Heather nowhere in figuring out what’s going on. The Uncs and Clay and Blaine are not much help, either.

Nevertheless, the story wraps up nicely in the end, including some edge-of-your-seat action. Then the reason for the lack of details becomes clear.

A subplot involves the Uncs’ former housekeeper, Ruth, the one person whom Heather had loved when she lived in Moses Lake. Ruth now has cancer, and Heather visits her several times, learning more of her Mennonite history and how she came to the US from Germany as a child. I had thought this was just an interesting side trail, but it ties into the main plot.

Like the first book in the series, this one opens each chapter with “Wall of Wisdom” quotes left by visitors at the Waterbird Bait and Grocery. Some characters from the first book show up there as well as in the story.

Even though I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the first, I did like how it came together in the end.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss)

Review: Larkspur Cove

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Larkspur Cove

Larkspur Cove is the first of Lisa Wingate’s Shores of Moses Lake series.

Andrea Henderson has moved into her parents’ lake house in Texas with her teenage son after her husband’s betrayal and abandonment. She’s found a job as a social worker and wants to make a new start for herself and her son.

Her son, Dustin, is having a hard time making the transition. Left alone while his mom works, he ventures out with some new friends into an area of Moses Lake where boats are not supposed to go, ignoring the posted warning signs. Mart McClendon, the fish and game warden (or “boat cop,” as some call him), takes the teens in and calls their parents.

When Mart and Andrea meet, sparks fly. She thinks he is overreacting. He thinks she is some over-busy rich mom who doesn’t keep an eye on her son.

When Mart offers to let the teens take a water safety course in lieu of a fine, Andrea agrees despite Dustin’s protests.

Andrea’s work takes her into remote areas. One day when she sees an older man with a little girl in his truck, she suspects something is wrong. The little girl is not in a seat-belt and her hair is tangled with bits of leaves.

Later, Mart’s friends at a diner tell of seeing an old man with a little girl in the hills across the lake. The man, Len, is not known to have a family. He hasn’t been right mentally since he returned from Viet Nam. But he has seemed harmless. Yet, where had this little girl come from, and can a recluse like Len take care of her?

As Mart and Andrea investigate the situation, they learn more than Len’s situation. They discover their own purposes and more about each other.

I enjoyed this story. The little community around Moses Lake seems like real people, characters without being caricatures.

The Waterbird Bait and Grocery has a “wall of wisdom” where people write little sayings, and these proverbs and observations begin each chapter.

Some of the themes: first impressions aren’t always accurate; the best solutions are not always the most obvious; it takes time to heal from trauma, and others.

The audiobook was nicely read by two narrators, Johanna Parker and Scott Sowers. It was free from Audible’s Plus Catalog at the time I listened.

My only complaint is that this author has a penchant for putting several paragraphs of description or backstory in-between lines of dialogue. It can make discussions seem really stilted, especially while listening to an audiobook. I picture the other characters waiting patiently for the one with the next line to come back out of his or her thoughts and speak.

But otherwise, this was a great story. I’m looking forward to the rest.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss)

Review: Ribbon of Years

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Ribbon of Years

Ribbon of Years: A Timeless Journey of Love, Loss, and Unwavering Grace is a novel by Robin Lee Hatcher.

The story opens with middle-aged Julianna Crosby somewhat at loose ends, feeling there should be more to life. Nothing major is wrong, but she just feels sort of empty, purposeless.

She visits an estate sale, usually one of her favorite activities. As she roams through the house, she finds an upstairs sitting room with a cardboard box labeled “My Life.” The woman at the door had said everything in the house was on sale, so Julianna opened the box. The items inside were a hodgepodge collection that didn’t seem connected.

Just then an elderly man comes into the room and notices the box. He sits down and asks Julianna to pass him the movie poster in the box. He begins to tell Julianna how Miriam, the woman whose house they were in, acquired the poster and what it meant to her.

As a teenager, Miriam had wanted to be an actress. Headstrong and impulsive, she didn’t even want to finish high school: she wanted to run away to Hollywood.

More people come into the room with Julianna and the older man, Jacob McAllister. Each person has some story to tell about Miriam based on one of the items in the box. Through frequent flashbacks, we get the story of Miriam’s life, from a teenage girl headed for trouble, to a young wife who can barely handle her husband being sent off to war, and so on throughout her 80 yeas of life.

She has many ups and down through the years, but eventually finds God faithful and his grace sufficient for all her needs. Her life, then, inspires others–even Julianna’s.

I heard of this book from Susanne, who loved it so much, she’s read it four times. I’ve enjoyed some of this author’s books through the years, so I looked up this book and found the audiobook was free with my Audible account.

I didn’t realize until I started listening to it that it was narrated by a “Virtual Voice.” I was disappointed, but figured it was free and I’d already started it, so I kept listening.

That was a mistake. The voice sounded human, but the inflections were often wrong. There was no emotion in the voice. Some words were mispronounced. Sometimes the voice sounded garbled and I missed a few words–if this had been a cassette, I would have said it sounded like the tape had wrinkles in places.

Miriam’s life was inspirational, not because she lived it perfectly, but because she learned to rely on God through all that happened to her.

The author said that Miriam was based on her own mother. The audiobook didn’t contain end notes, so I am not sure whether the events of the story occurred in the author’s mother’s life, or whether the character of Miriam reflects the author’s mother–or both.

The story itself was good, but I am afraid I didn’t love it as much as my friend did. I can’t pinpoint exactly why. However, I feel I can recommend it to you–at least the print version–without qualms. Maybe you’ll love it as much as my friend.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss)

Review: Every Hour Until Then

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Every Hour Until Then

Every Hour Until Then is the fifth in Gabrielle Meyer’s Time Crosser novels about a handful of people who lead double lives. They live a day in one year, and when they go to sleep, they wake up in another year and place, centuries before or after. The next day, they wake up in the first timeline as if no time had passed there. They have until their twenty-first or twenty-fifth birthdays (depended on a number of factors) to chose which path they want to stay in. At that time, they’ll lose the other path.

Twenty-three-year-old Kathryn Kelly lives a privileged life in 1888 London with her parents and sister, Mary. As the book opens, Mary is packing to leave home but won’t tell Kathryn why. Kathryn runs to her father to stop Mary, but he insists Mary is now dead to them. But Kathryn is determined to find out what’s going on. She learns that Mary has gone to live as a charwoman in the Whitechapel district, a poor and dangerous part of London.

Kathryn’s neighbor, Austen Baird, has been her best friend since childhood. But he’s been distant since his parents died a few years ago. Still, she hopes he’ll accompany her to Whitechapel since she can’t go there alone.

In 1938, Kathryn Voland lives with her parents in Washington D.C. She has a lifelong interest in history and works as an assistant exhibit curator at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building. Her father is famous aviator Luke Voland. Her mother is another time crosser, Grace from For a Lifetime. They’ve just come to London because Kathryn has been invited to be a guest curator for a special exhibit at the London Museum. However, Kathryn has ulterior motives for being in London. Kathryn’s two timelines are only fifty years apart, closer than most time crossers. She hopes to find clues in 1938 that might help her find Mary in 1888. Yet with the threat of war with Germany looming, she doesn’t know how long she’ll be able to stay in London.

As Kathryn meets with the museum’s Keeper, Sir Bryant Rothschild, she learns that the special exhibit will feature Jack the Ripper on the fiftieth anniversary of his crime spree.

As Kathryn researches Jacks’ gruesome murders, she’s horrified to learn that her sister in 1888, Mary Jane Kelly, is Jack’s fifth victim.

Her first instinct is to put all her energy into finding and saving Mary. But one of the time crossers’ rules is that if they knowingly change history, they’ll lose their lives in that timeline. Kathryn’s planning to stay in 1938 anyway, so leaving 1888 a couple of years early is not a great loss. But her mother has warned her that changing history can have serious unintended consequences.

And her relationship with Austen is just beginning to reconnect. She believes he feels something more than friendship for her. Does she really want to leave without exploring whether they could have a future together?

She decides that, whatever the risks or consequences, she must save Mary.

I’ve enjoyed all of Gabrielle’s Time Crossers stories, but this one was riveting, especially the last half. Often I can guess at the ways a plot might go, but this one had a twist that gobsmacked me.

I had known very little about the Jack the Ripper murders before reading this book. They remain some of the worst murders of all time. I felt the author did a good job conveying what Jack did without going into unnecessary details.

I got a little irritated at Kathryn’s penchant for getting herself into dangerous situations. However, she does begin to realize that she is impetuous, headstrong, and stubborn, and that those qualities are not always good. She also finds that she runs ahead of God, hoping He’ll approve her plans, instead of waiting on His leading.

I enjoyed the audiobook read by Liz Pearce. I am used to Liz’s voice on some of Roseanna M. White’s books, so it took some adjustment to remember I was in another author’s stories.

I’m glad this audiobook contained the author’s historical notes, sharing where she got her inspiration and what facts were true or fiction. There are several theories about who Jack was and why he committed his crimes. Gabrielle chose one of the theories to incorporate into her novel.

I’ve wondered how many ways Gabrielle can take this time crossing theme. All of the books have been excellent so far, and another is due out this fall. I can’t wait.

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