Tag Archives: Christian fiction

Review: Crimson Roses

Posted on by
Crimson Roses

In Grace Livingston Hill’s novel, Crimson Roses, Marion Warren has been taking care of her ill father for five years. They had always planned that she would go to normal college and become a teacher, until his accident.

Now he has passed away. They had discussed that she would have the house and her brother the life insurance money. But a will can’t be found. So her brother, Tom, feels the best thing to do is sell the house and buy a farm in Vermont (which his wife strongly wants to do). They plan that Marion will always have a home with them, where she can help with the housecleaning and teach their children (basically, act as unpaid live-in help).

Marion’s practical mother, who died years before, always called her husband a visionary, not necessarily meaning it as a compliment. Marion takes after her father, while Tom is more like their mother. Marion mildly protests that she doesn’t want to live on a farm in Vermont, she wants to stay in the city, go to school, attend lectures and concerts and such. Tom says these are “foolish notions,” and she’s too old to go to school now anyway. Tom and his wife, Jennie, think that Marion is just being grumpy and will come around by the time they leave.

As Marion considers her options, she truly feels it’s best for her to stay in the city. Since Tom and Jenny won’t listen, Marion finds a job and small apartment on her own. She plans not to take any of her father’s assets so they will be able to buy their farm.

When they find out her plans, there is a big blow-up. Jennie (who gets my nomination for worst sister-in-law ever) feels Marion is being selfish. Tom finally concedes that the only way Marion will learn is to let her have her way. In time, when she realizes she can’t make it on her own, she’ll come to the farm with them.

But Marion thrives in her new situation. She’s been out of circulation for several years while caring for her father, and some of her coworkers help her update her look and clothes. Marion draws a line at some of their suggestions, though, not wanting to look like a “flapper.”

Marion’s intense loneliness almost sends her to Vermont. But she hears of a local weekly symphony concert series. If she manages her money carefully, she can afford it.

On the night of the second concert, Marion finds a beauitful crimson rose on her seat. Thinking the rose has been placed there by mistake, she tries to find who it belongs to. But no one claims it. She decides to take it home and enjoy it.

But the next week, a crimson rose is again at her seat. And the next week, and so on throughout the concert series.

Later in the book, when a young man shows interest in Marion, some “mean girls” in the church think Marion’s station is beneath his and act unkindly toward her (fueled by the interest in one of the girls in the young man).

This book was published in 1928, and, of course, is very old-fashioned in style and content. It’s a clean, sweet story–maybe a smidgen too sweet, but just a smidgen. Some of the 20s slang is amusing.

Marion seems a little naive for a twenty-three year old young woman. But that might have been the case in those times. Plus she had been mostly at home for five years.

The theme of the story might be that faithfulness wins out in the end. Through all her tribulations, though Marion struggles, she remains humble and sweet and tries to do the right thing.

I listened to the audiobook nicely read by Anne Hancock. Though the audiobook was released in 2024, the narrator’s style and accent matched the setting in the book.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss)

Review: He Should Have Told the Bees

Posted on by

He Should Have Told the Bees by Amanda Cox tells the story of two young women whose lives intersect unexpectedly.

Beckett Walsh kept bees with her father until he died unexpectedly. Her mother had left them when Beckett was small. Though memories of her mother are hazy, her leaving sent Beckett into nightmares of monsters when she was a child and panic attacks as a young person and adult. Her father had left his job as a banker to homestead, start an apiary, and accommodate Beckett’s needs. But now he’s gone. Still, Beckett thinks she can do just fine, despite her aunt’s attempts to manage her life.

Callie Peterson grew up with an unstable alcoholic mother who went through a series of men. Now Callie has distanced herself and bought a building to start a new business making candles, lotions, etc. But the building is going to need more work than she thought. And then her mother shows up on her doorstep, claiming she’s ready to seek help. When Callie takes her to a rehab center, she’s unaware that her mother named her as the person responsible for the finances needed.

Both women get a summons about a hearing for a trust that Beckett’s father had set up, naming them both as co-owners of the farm. The two women never knew each other before. Beckett can’t fathom why her father would name this stranger a co-owner when he knows Beckett’s needs and problems. Callie doesn’t, either. But she wonders if selling the farm could help her financial problems. But doing so would oust Beckett from the only safe place she knows.

Both women try to understand why Beckett’s father named Callie in the trust. Their search leads them to secrets and connections they never knew about. Will both their lives be upended–or fulfilled?

I enjoyed this story quite a lot. It was easy to sympathize with each woman’s journey and pain.

The side characters are delightful. Beck is unexpectedly visited by a neighbor in the form of a young girl who says she is an alien. Callie’s booth neighbor in the markets where they sell their wares turns out to be a stabilizing factor in her life.

The book opens with an excerpt of a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier titled “Telling the Bees,” in which beehives are draped in black as the bees are told their keeper has died. Evidently, according to Wikipedia, this is a custom in many European countries. It was even done when Queen Elizabeth died in 2022.

At one point, Callie’s friend points out some sunbeams and says:

They’re called crepuscular rays. And they happen because of light hitting dust. It’s just ordinary, boring particulate floating all around us like it always does, and then bam, the light hits it and suddenly it’s something that makes people stop and take pictures. If that’s not a miracle, then I guess I don’t know what a miracle is (p. 54).

That becomes an underlying theme.

A few other quotes that stood out to me:

If she could stack up all the hurt in the world and sort the kind inflicted with malicious intent from the hurt inflicted by carelessness, how would the two compare? Was there really any difference when the result was the same? (p. 216).

It was a hard lesson to learn—that you couldn’t be the one to fill the holes in another person’s life. Working through dysfunctional patterns, finding healthy coping skills, and letting God heal the wounds the past left behind, those were things you couldn’t do for another person. No matter how much you wanted to (p. 251).

It’s possible for treasured things to come out of the brokenness. Even if it doesn’t happen the way any of us would have wanted. Even if it comes through loss (p. 299).

On a humorous note, it’s fun to notice a particular author’s unique repeated words. In this book and others, Amanda uses the word “scrubbed” a lot (eight times in this book)–she scrubbed her eyes, he scrubbed his hand over his face. And hearts tend to “stutter-step” when upset. And people “worry” their bottom lips.

Amanda doesn’t have end notes about the story, but there is an interview here where she discusses the book.

All in all, I’m happy to recommend this book.

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

Review: All the Lost Places

Posted on by
All the Lost Places

In All the Lost Places by Amanda Dykes, Daniel Goodman is a former thief in 1904 California who is trying to make restitution. He saves money from his lowly wages to repay those he robbed from. He has not seen his mother since he got out of prison: he feels he can’t face her until he has righted his wrongs.

When he hears that his mother may lose her home due to lack of finances, he looks for additional work. A seemingly chance encounter finds him interviewing with a man whose boss wants to make a “little Venice” in CA. At first Daniel applies just for physical labor. But upon finding out that someone is needed to translate one of Daniel’s favorite books and travel to Venice to sketch famous buildings, Daniel pushes hard for that role. His mother had come from Venice. She had sent him the book in question when he was in prison. He used to be able to draw–a head injury has left him unable to draw from memory any more, but he can draw something if he can see it.

The man is skeptical at first, but when Daniel draws a nearby building for him, the man agrees.

Daniel had kept himself pretty isolated after his prison confinement, so traveling and interacting with so many people is a strain on his nerves. He barely arrives in Venice when he literally runs into Vittoria, a bookseller. One of his tasks is to try to find the original copy of the book he’s supposed to translate, The Book of Waters. Daniel’s copy is one of only a few, which are all unfinished. It’s hoped that the original will have the closing chapters. He enlists Vittoria’s help to try to find the book.

As Daniel translates, he’s drawn into the story of Sebastien, who was put in a basket and floated toward an orphanage in Venice in 1807. Instead, a gondolier notices the basket, picks him up, and takes him to a guild of five artisans, who adopt him and train him in each of their skills. Though Sebastien loves his blended family, he wrestles all his life with his identity and purpose. One day, a woman washes up on the shore of the island Sebastien lives on, changing both their lives forever.

Sebastien’s story occurs when Napoleon had taken over Venice. Some Venetians planned that at some point, they would revolt and set up their Doge, or governor.

Sebastien and Daniel wrestle with some of the same questions. Though Daniel knows his origins, he can’t free himself from the guilt and losses of his past. Yet just as Venice was “the city that came from a swamp . . . a lost place that grew hope,” perhaps God can build something new and beautiful on the swampy places of a man’s life.

The Napoleonic era is one I know very little about, and I was glad to learn more of that time frame and Venice’s history. Amanda shares a lot of interesting details in in her end notes, including the fact that an Abbot Kinney really did build a “Venice of America” in CA in the early 1900s.

Some of the quotes that stood out to me:

Isn’t that the way of miracles? Something extraordinary because of the faithful ordinary (p. 53, Kindle version).

Found means someone was searching for you, running after you. You, the greatest treasure in all the world. That is what Trovato—Found—means. Sebastien Trovato, you are Found. Always and forever (p. 74).

Life had taught them hope was a dangerous and fragile thing . . . Faith sang a different song: hope was as necessary as breath, and so strong that it carried its own heartbeat (p. 115).

He dug instead for the tiniest slip of hope. And in doing so, hope became . . . purpose (p. 120).

Mosaic . . . it is the art of empty spaces. Broken things, harvested as treasure and pieced together into something entirely . . . different. Old, but new. Broken, but whole (p. 219).

“Do not be downcast, O your soul!’” He raised his face to the sun, reciting a psalm—or what sounded like one.
“Do you mean ‘O my soul’?”
“My soul is very happy in this moment. I mean your soul” (p. 249). 

Perhaps you are becoming a new tool for a new work. God is not bound by the way things used to be (p. 254).

She stood before him, inches and a universe away, all at once (p. 285).

Amanda’s writings always touch the heart. This book took a little longer for me to get into than some of her others, but I loved how all the threads came together in the end.

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

Review: Up from the Sea

Posted on by
Up from the Sea by Amanda Dykes

Amanda Dykes’ novella, Up from the Sea is a prequel to Whose Waves These Are, one of my all-time favorite Christian novels.

Savannah Mae Thorpe was raised in Georgia, but is taken in by an aunt and uncle in Maine after her parents die. Savannah is more comfortable walking in the forest than the ballroom with her cousins.

When her cousins and their friends tell of an old legend, Savannah recognizes it as a variation on a story her mother told of a young woman who buried a small chest under what came to be known as the Atonement Tree, asking forgiveness while an unknown observer watched.

When Savannah discovers an updated version of the map her mother drew as a child, she goes with her cousins and Alistair Bliss, a local woodsman and employee of the family, to see if they can find the tree. What they discover has ramifications for all of them.

Along with Savannah’s “fish out of water” story, there are hints of troubled secrets in Alistair’s past, Savannah’s uneasy relationship with the cousin she used to count as a friend, and some Revolutionary War history.

Some of my favorite quotes:

Darkness comes, Savannah my girl. But don’t you let it steal your light.

I have a feeling no matter how mixed up the problem is, the answer’s almost always the most simple thing hiding beneath all our worries. That if we scale it back and look for the simplest truth—there lies the thing to do.

So many dashed hopes between the three women present within, yet it felt like a gathering place. God’s hand moving and weaving, stitching these unlikely hearts to one another.

So far, I have loved everything I’ve read of Amanda’s. This was such a sweet story. I loved the development of Savannah’s relationship with Alistair (who becomes the father of the brothers in Whose Waves These Are). I think both books could be read on their own, but they go well together.

Review: Good Hope Road

Posted on by
Good Hope Road by Lisa Wingate

Good Hope Road by Lisa Wingate begins with a tornado hitting the small town of Poetry, Missouri. Twenty-one-year-old Jenilee Lane is home alone, her father and brother having gone to a cattle auction in Kansas City.. Their house is spared, but Jenilee discovers her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Gibson, and the woman’s granddaughter trapped under debris across their storm cellar.

Jenilee and her family had not been close to their neighbors. Jenilee’s father had a bad temper and kept the family to themselves. They were often regarded as “white trash” by the townspeople. But Jenilee is the only help available, so she gets her neighbors out from the cellar just before Mrs. Gibson’s son and daughter-in-law come.

To keep busy, Jenilee and Mrs. Gibson go to the armory, the only large building in town still standing. Along the way, Jenilee picks up pieces of debris she finds: parts of letters, pictures, certificates.

The veterinarian is the only medical help at the armory until a doctor stranded in the storm is brought in. Jenilee had worked for the vet and seems to have a natural way of calming frightened people while they wait for help.

Jenilee continues going to the armory while waiting to hear about her father and brother. One day she decides to tape the paraphernalia she found on a wall there so people can find their lost treasures. This blossoms into giving hope to people.

Mrs. Gibson begins to see there is more to Jenilee than she’d thought. She also runs into an injured man at the armory with whom she’d had a long-running feud. At first she can’t spare a kind word for him. But she sees sides to him that she had forgotten were there.

As neighbors help neighbors and helpers come from others areas, they see each other with fresh vision and discover good things can arise from tragedies.

The book touches on multiple themes: the difficulties of an abusive family; how we can too easily misjudge others; the need to let go of the past; the fact that difficulties can bring out the best and worst in people; and faith, hope, and forgiveness

Some of my favorite quotes:

I walked to the kitchen, shuffling the way I do when my knees are like old plow handles and my joints are rusted shut.

It’s humbling to realize maybe you ain’t as good as someone you’ve spent years looking down on.

That part of you that wants to care for other folks is like fresh milk. You might as well pour it out as you go along the path. It don’t . . . keep in a bucket . . . very long.

In town after town, people were building anew. Towns just like our own—small, imperfect places beneath which hid the potential for something larger, something stronger, something we may never have seen, if not for the disaster.

The book is the second in a series of five, the sequel to Tending Roses (linked to my review). It’s been a few months since I read the first book, but I didn’t see any characters I recognized in this one. In the author’s notes at the end of the book, she explains one distant connection with the first book which will be delved into later.

There were a few “damns” and misuses of the Lord’s name. But otherwise, this was a great book.

Review: Between the Sound and Sea

Posted on by
Between the Sound and Sea

Between the Sound and Sea is “Inspirational Contemporary Fiction with History and Mystery at a North Carolina Lighthouse.” The Sound in the title is Pamlico Sound in the Outer Banks of NC, but the title has several layers of meaning.

Josephina Harris–Joey–owns a fledgling event-planning business in Copper Creek, TN, where she grew up. She had helped her father and brother in their restoration business until her father retired and sold the business. But the new owner cheated people, who, for some reason, blamed Joey’s father. Her parents decided to make a new start in Florida. Joey’s customers have cancelled events one by one

When Joey’s friend sends her an ad about help wanted to restore a lighthouse and cottage on a North Carolina island, Joey decides to apply. If she gets the job, it will give her an income to tide her over and give her time to think about what she should do next.

Joey travels to NC and meets the owner of the lighthouse, 81-year-old Walt O’Hare, and his grandson, Finn. Walt had grown up in the area but left after WWII. His best friend, Cay, short for Cathy, had been the lighthouse keeper’s daughter. During the war, her father’s body had mysteriously washed up on shore, but Cay was never found and presumed dead. Walt wants to restore the lighthouse in their memory. Finn is not so sure this idea of his grandfather’s is a good one and is even less sure Joey is the person for the job. But he acquiesces.

It soon becomes clear that Walt has other reasons for wanting to restore, reasons which he is not sharing.

The people in town tell of strange things happening on the island over the years. Some say ghosts inhabit the island. Others say Cay’s father was working for the Nazis.

As Joey begins restoration, she finds patched-up places in the lighthouse’s inner walls. When one area begins chipping, she discovers what appears to be a lighthouse keeper’s log inside–but the events described don’t match the official logs.

Local lore describes a “Saint Mae” who rescued people lost at sea. Could these logs belong to Mae? But who is she and why is she not listed among the lighthouse keepers?

When accidents and unexplained things start happening around the lighthouse and cottage, Joey wonders what’s at the bottom of it all.

Besides the lighthouse mystery, Joey, Walt, and Finn all deal with regrets from their past and indecision about how to handle the future. There’s a secondary story line involving a teenage boy with a troubled past.

I enjoyed how the story unfolded, sharing what really happened with Cay, who Mae was, how everything connected, and how each character found peace. The restoration of the lighthouse seemed a subtle metaphor for the needed restoration available to each character.

I also loved that the author had Christian characters doing Christian things without being heavy-handed about it. Some Christian fiction is so subtle, there’s almost nothing Christian about it. It’s refreshing to find truly Christian fiction.

A couple of favorite quotes:

God meets us right where we’re at. And maybe things in our lives get broken down and beat up along the way. The good news is restoration work is kind of His specialty.

I’m grateful to have played a role, but I wasn’t the planner orchestrating this event.
This one was in the hands of One far more skilled than I, gently guiding even when we were all half certain we’d lost our way.

A couple of well-worded descriptions caught my ear, too: “the comfort of an oversized sweater worn on a crisp fall morning” and “Her voice was wispy like fog over water.”

I listened to the audiobook read by Rebecca Quinn Robertson, who did an okay job. She spoke too softly sometimes.

As I sat down to write this review, I looked up the book on Amazon and reread the first few pages in their free sample. I had forgotten how it began, with an older woman telling a young boy about Saint Mae. I was delighted to realize who those characters were later in the story.

Overall, this was a great read that I am happy to recommend.

Review: Set the Stars Alight

Posted on by
Set the Stars Alight

In Amanda Dykes’ novel, Set the Stars Alight, Lucy Claremont is the daughter of an English watchmaker whose family invites a young “lost boy” into their circle. Dash grew up in America until both parents died. He lived with a distant aunt who wasn’t home much and seemed not very interested in him.

Lucy’s father loved to tell stories and riddles to the children. Many of his stories centered on a legend about a man who lived 200 years before, Frederick Handford. Handford was a seaman who, accused of treason, stole a boat called the Jubilee and was never heard from again. Many had searched for any sign of Handford or the Jubilee, to no avail. Many stories had been told about what might have happened.

Lucy grew up with a love for the ocean and a desire to research and find the Jubilee. Dash grew up loving the stars, after hearing about them from Lucy’s father and using his homemade telescope. Their interests and circumstances seemed to take them in opposite directions until their paths crossed again while researching the Jubilee.

The story shifts back and forth from 2020 to the 1800s and what really happened with Frederick Handford. He was the son of a respected admiral who, since his own glory days, fell to drink. Frederick grew up with his father on one end of the house, drinking and raging, and his mother at the other end, playing parts of Handel’s Messiah. When his mother died, he ran away to escape his father’s rage and neglect. He was taken in by a kind local shepherd, but inadvertently brought tragedy to the man and his family. Frederick spent the rest of his life trying to make it up to them, especially the man’s daughter, Juliette.

Amanda writes in her author’s notes that this story felt like a set of nesting dolls, with many layers and stories within stories. That’s an apt description.

Amanda’s stories have a way of deeply touching hearts. Her characters are real and flawed, yet their stories are redemptive.

One of my favorite quotes comes from the book comes from a poem titled “The Old Astronomer to His Pupil” by Sarah Williams:

Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

A few more quotes that stood out to me:

He is coming, and coming, and coming, and coming after you. In every sunset, in every snatch of birdsong In everything that stirs deep into you and makes you hungry for bigger things, eternal things. That is Him, pursuing you with tenderest grace. In the places so hard they wring your soul. In the places so beautiful they steal your breath. He is there, filling your soul, giving you breath.

Made-up tales that stand through time . . . they are echoes . . . of truth.

I think it’s our duty to keep the stories, to pass them on. It is our duty—and our honor. In a world as dark as ours, we—that is, people—forget how to see the light. So we remind them by telling the truth, fighting the dark, paying attention . . . setting the stars alight. There are things shining brightly all along, if we will notice.

Such freedom, to know our limits. And to know the God who has none.

God had a way of redeeming wounds with the strength of others.

Surprise gave way to curiosity, And curiosity–as it was meant to from the time God breathed life into the great wide world–made way for wonder.”

I listened to the audiobook, which was mostly good except the narrator’s diction wasn’t clear in places. I checked out the e-book from Libby to get the author’s notes and look up some passages.

I thought the modern-day part of the book moved a little slowly at times. But overall, this was a lovely, touching story.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Review: Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor

Posted on by
Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor

Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor by Roseanna M. White is a sweet (pun intended) Edwardian-era novella with shades of Jane Austen and The Nutcracker.

Lady Mariah Lyons’ step-father, the Earl of Castleton, has to leave his estate to a distant cousin due to an entail on the property. His heir, Cyril Lightbourne, had visited the manor as a child, where he and Mariah became fast friends. They were both imaginative and fun-loving, renaming Plumford Manor as Sugar Plum Manor and writing tales set in the woods.

But due to a misunderstanding, Cyril thought the Earl didn’t really want him as an heir, so he’s been absent for twelve years. Now he’s been invited to Plumford Manor for Christmas and is not quite sure what to expect.

Mariah isn’t sure, either, whether Cyril will be the same friend he was, or whether he will be distant and aloof. She’s heard he is courting Lady Pearl, and she doesn’t know why the men who flock to Pearl can’t see the cruelty behind the beauty.

Another guest arriving at the manor for Christmas is a Danish Greve (Count) who specifically wants to seek Mariah’s hand in marriage because his prince wants to strengthen ties with England by having a member of the royal court marry into a leading English family. He doesn’t love her: he thinks she is pleasant enough, though a bit silly, but he attributes that to her youth. Though handsome, he comes across as almost emotionless, cold, and calculating.

The two men had an altercation in the past, which sets the tone for their meeting at Plumford. Their pursuit of Mariah adds to their animosity and desire for revenge.

Mariah is a sweet girl, though not as beautiful as her widowed older sister. Her siblings and mother think she’s a bit immature, even ridiculous. Now the Greve feels the same way. Is what she always thought of as joyfulness truly childishness? Does she need to tone herself down to marry the Greve, or will Cyril ever see her as more than a childhood friend?

Embedded in the story are themes of faith, forgiveness, redemption, and being who God created you to be. I listened to the audiobook nicely read by Liz Pearce. This was a nice Christmas read.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Three Short Christmas Reads

Posted on by

I finished a few very short Christmas stories or novellas, so I thought I’d mention them in one post.

Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale by Amanda Dykes

Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale is a novella by Amanda Dykes which takes place on the Isle of Espoir, halfway between France and England. A famed composer lived there, Giovanni St. John. Superstition in his day said “a composer must never write beyond his ninth symphony. To do so was to face certain death.”

He disappeared after conducting his eight symphony, then suddenly reappeared nine years later with his tenth. He said the ninth was there, but they would never see or hear it.

Many years later, an aged St. John returns to the Isle of Espoir, to the old house villagers had taken to calling the Silent House because of his long absence. His grown daughter, Aria, is with him, gloved hands concealing injuries which had silenced her promising music career.

Aria has one last thing to do before her father dies. But she’ll need the help of her long-ago childhood friend, James. Yet Her father has forbidden James to see her, blaming James for the accident that injured Aria–as James does, himself.

This was a sweet and poignant story, packing a lot in for a novella.

Amanda shares at the end that this book was part of a campaign to get a bicycle to Gospel for Asia missionaries. When all was said and done, enough was raised for fifteen bicycles!

Tin Can Serenade by Amanda Dykes

Tin Can Serenade is a short story by Amanda Dykes, made up entirely of notes sent back and forth in a tin can on a pulley rope between two houses separated by a river. Two children are the writers and exchange notes first about a lost toy boat, then include biscuits, peppermint sticks, and such. She writes with flowery words, having read a lot. He’s very plainspoken. She lives with her widowed mother; he lives with his widower father.

As their correspondence reveals details about their families, they have no idea what they are about to stir up.

This was one of the sweetest things I have read in a long while, and wonderfully, beautifully written. It was originally written as a free story for Amanda’s readers and is free for now as a Kindle book.

Christmas at the Circus by Joanne Bischof is listed as a “short story from the Greatest Season on Earth.” The characters are the same as those in The Lady and the Lionheart by the author (linked to my review) about a want-to-be nurse who helps a circus performer in need and (spoiler alert) ends up marrying him. I think Christmas at the Circus may have been a bonus or Christmas story around the time Lionheart was published.

At any rate, Charlie and Ella are married, raising his niece. The circus is at their off-season location, with all the performers preparing for at big Christmas celebration under the big top. But Ella has no idea a special surprise awaits her.

There wasn’t much else to this story, but it would have been a fun addendum for fans of the original book.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Review: The Painted Castle

Posted on by
The Painted Castle by Kristy Cambron

The Painted Castle is the third in Kristy Cambron’s Lost Castle series, the first two being The Lost Castle and Castle on the Rise.

In modern-day Dublin, Keira Foley is the sister of the two main characters in the previous books. She is an art historian but lost her job, and her fiance broke up with her. She’s working in her brother’s pub for now, until she’s asked to authenticate a portrait of Queen Victoria painted by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. It was discovered in an old manor home whose owner just wants to sort through and sell everything. But Keira doesn’t know if she can trust the man asking: a rumored American art thief. She decides to go with him, and uncovers more questions than answers.

In 1833 England, Elizabeth Meade is shattered when her beloved father is killed. He left her and her mother in dire financial straits, which her mother tries to hide from society. Elizabeth’s only goal in life to to find the man who killed her father and take revenge. Her favorite pastime, painting, is not approved by her mother, but brings Elizabeth joy. When Elizabeth is grown, her mother arranges her marriage to a Viscount Huxley, and Elizabeth is startled to learn he is the very man she thinks murdered her father.

During WWII, Amelia Woods turned the estate into a haven for refugee children after her beloved Arthur died. But now she’s ordered by the English military to house a group of American pilots. Amelia does her best in a difficult situation, trying to shelter the children from the war as much as she can and manage amidst rationing. She and the American captain bond over the books in her husband’s library.

A main character in each timeline is recovering from some kind of loss. Many of the characters learn that though our path isn’t always what we’d planned, we can trust God through it.

Partway through the book, I began to wonder if Winterhalter was a real artist. He was! And the portrait of Victoria was real as well, commissioned by her for her husband’s birthday. It was unconventional for the time, showing Victoria with her hair down and a bit more shoulder uncovered than usual. Albert loved it, but felt it was too intimate for public display, and hung it in his study.

Much historical fiction these days is written with two timelines. Kristy is the only writer I’ve known to weave together three, and though she does it well, I hope this does not become a trend. 🙂 She does a good job keeping us from getting confused by naming the date and location at the beginning of each chapter and orienting us quickly with pertinent details.

I enjoyed the settings and stories as well as the way details were unfolded throughout the book. Each of the characters seemed relatable.

A couple of favorite quotes:

Books are a completely personal kind of journey. On the first page, they ask us not only to be willing but to be moved, changed, persuaded, even made new by the time we reach the end. Everyone’s walk-through is different (p. 104).

Parham Hill seemed to own the strange combination of both peace and pain. Beauty and bitterness. A lavishness surrounded by a coldness . . . They were strange bedfellows to find hidden in the shadow of Framlingham Castle and its quaint little country hamlet (p. 131).

In her author’s notes, Kristy shares that her father was an American pilot in WWII who flew in the very area she wrote about here. And she shares other bits and pieces that inspired her plots.

There are also some interesting bits in the book about H. A. Rey and his wife, Margret. He was born in Germany, and he and his wife were Jews living in France. They escaped on bicycles not long before Paris fell, taking their manuscript of Curious George with them, which became an instant success when they got it published.

Though it’s been a while since I read the previous two books, I felt the last chapter pulled everything together very well and was a fitting conclusion.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)