Stray Review

This time I’m reviewing Stray by: Elissa Sussman.

Aislynn lives in a world where all women have magic, but if not contained, that magic will cause them to stray from The Path they are given in life. Aislynn has always struggled to keep a lid on the powerful magic bottled up inside her. Unfortunately she has an occurrence that sets her life on a completely different Path of being a fairy godmother. Aislynn constantly struggles to be and do as she’s told, but that becomes increasingly difficult…

This book took a while to get into. I really considered putting it down and never finishing it, but I trudged along. About a fourth to a third of the way into the book, I finally started to become interested and I didn’t want to put it down.

The synopsis of this book is, honestly, terrible. I expected this book to be completely different, where Aislynn was a spoiled, selfish girl who acted out, which caused her to become a fairy godmother. Actually, though, she couldn’t control her magic, which caused her later fate. This was completely different than what I was led to believe and I felt so much more for Aislynn in the way the book actually turned out than if she really was how the synopsis had led on.

I thought the plot of this book was good, but I wished there was a bit more explained earlier on. Aislynn slowly learns more and unravels the mysteries surrounding her, but I was so often confused in this book. Many of the concepts and idea in this book were unique, but I just wished they were brought about in a clearer manner. It took me too long to figure out different terminology (that wasn’t really blatantly explained) and to understand the reasoning behind a bunch of the rules in this book.

I really did like Aislynn as a character. She struggled with questioning the system that she’d lived in her whole life and I loved the changes that I saw her go through. She bloomed in a wonderful way and really found herself. I really wish her self-harming was explored just a bit further. That’s a huge topic to tackle and I felt it was almost just mentioned and forgotten. There’s so much more that Elissa Sussman could have done with it to add even more emotional depth to Aislynn. Aislynn was still a great character as is, but Elissa Sussman could have made Aislynn even better.

As far as secondary characters go, I liked Thackery and Brigid, but I found I didn’t really care to see any of the others again. I even was getting tired of Linea (the girl Aislynn is the fairy godmother to). All the characters, other than Aislynn, felt a bit two-dimensional. They just seemed to have a short list of qualities and traits, but that was as far as they went. They were all a great supporting cast, but Aislynn feel really like the only main character (at least depth-wise).

There was one event in the book that happens out of the blue. It is never explained further. Maybe the next book will mention it, but I think it is unlikely. It bothered me that this thing that contradicted so much in the book would just suddenly happen and everything acting like it was okay. After it, I enjoyed the book enough that I chose to not dwell on it further, but it really felt like a cheap trick to force the plot to go a specific way.

Overall, I really did enjoy this book. I wish that there weren’t so many little things that got on my nerves. If you can overlook things like that, then you can really enjoy this unique story. There really is a bunch of good in this book, but I wish it could have a bit more work done on it.

Lastly, the cover is beautiful. This was part of the reason I was so interested in this book.

The Ride of Her Life Review

This time I am going to review The Ride Of Her Life by: Lorna Seilstad.

It has been three years since Lilly Hart has lost her husband. Raising a six-year-old boy is challenging enough as a single mom, but the matter is further complicated by Lilly’s former in-laws. They will stop at nothing to rip her son from her in the name of doing what’s best for the boy. All this adds up to some major trust issues that are challenged when Lilly spends more time with Nick Perrin.

I enjoyed this book, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed the first two books in this series. Maybe this could mostly just have to do with what was going on in my life, but I put this book down multiple times. It was easy to forget about.

That isn’t to say that it isn’t a great book. Lorna Seilstad’s writing wraps you up in the story when you read it. The plot progresses nicely. I was never bored with the book, I just managed to put it down too often. It’s not a book that I couldn’t wait to finish and I stayed up all night long to read.

I really liked Lilly when she was just Marguerite’s sidekick. She was a great voice of reason and an encouragement for Marguerite. I really loved her faith and relationship with God. In this book, though, I felt there was a huge disconnect from the Lilly of Making Waves and the Lilly presented here. I understand her heartache changed her, but in the first book she almost seemed so secure in her Christianity. I really loved getting to know her in this book, but she almost felt like a completely different person.

I liked Nick, but he felt a bit flat as a character. His backstory was so unique that I wished it played a bit larger role in this book. It was just barely mentioned on occasion throughout the whole course of the book that I became super curious about it. I wanted to know even more, but there never was the chance. I liked his unique job of designing roller coasters, but I didn’t know really why he liked it. I didn’t really feel his motivations for pursuing the career. This all translated to a good, but not great hero for this book.

The ending to this book is good. So much time was spent building up to the climax that the ending actually felt a bit rushed. Most of this book revolves around Mr. Hart wanting to take Levi from Lilly that I thought climax and tension would be so much more than what it turned out to be. It just fizzles out towards the end like a fuse that goes out right before igniting a firework.

I thought Lorna Seilstad did a great job dealing with Lilly’s trust issues. Nothing to do with that felt fake or forced. The message in this book was beautiful.

Even though it doesn’t quite sound like it, I really did enjoy this book. It’s a great book for someone looking for a sweet inspirational romance.

A Great Catch Review

This time I am going to review A Great Catch by: Lorna Seilstad.

Emily Graham is the president of her local suffrage movement and she pours herself into her cause. Her meddlesome aunts and grandmother think she should settle down, but Emily has other ideas. She’s determined to chase away any suitor and her constant clumsiness aids her cause. Her plans are dashed when baseball pitcher Carter Stockton enters the picture. Emily fights to keep her work for the suffrage movement at the forefront of her mind, above all else, but Carter proves to become increasingly distracting.

I’ve loved the Christian Fiction genre for awhile now. Most of the time when I read all the inspirational messages in them, I haven’t really been struck by anything I didn’t already know. Books in this genre have a whole lot of great advice, but normally it’s all stuff I already knew from being a Christian.

This book however, blew me to pieces in that department. I identified so much with Emily. All the lessons she learned really hit home. Lorna Seilstad masterfully wrote this book and Emily’s struggles. Not once did I feel like anything in this book was fake. More than any other book, the lessons in this one really made an impact.

All the characters are unique and fun to read. They all have depth and their struggles are really poignant. The secondary characters really help further the story. This book wouldn’t have been the same without them.

The plot moved along nicely and at a pleasant pace. I never got bored during this book and I loved reading the budding romance between Emily and Carter. They had many obstacles to overcome and it made the book feel more like real life.

I really loved this look into the Women’s Suffrage Movement. It makes me so proud of the many brave women in our history that worked so hard to give us the many rights we have today. Not all of them got to see the day when women could vote, but if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t know that right either.

Lorna Seilstad did an excellent job in including the movement in her book. She really represented all the attitudes raging at that time: from the hardworking and fired-up suffragettes to the bull-headed opposers. I really felt like this book gave an excellent glimpse into what it could have been like during that time.

Making Waves Review

This time I am going to review Making Waves by: Lorna Seilstad.

Marguerite Westing couldn’t be happier to escape the city to vacation at Lake Manawa and leave her boring suitor, Roger, behind. The lake is just the place for her adventurous spirit to run free. From the first moment she sees a ship gliding through the waters of the lake, she falls in love with sailing and decides she has to learn. The problem is, it’s not something a woman should be doing. Hatching a scheme, she finagles a way to learn from the hansom Trip Andrews. Something about him makes her heart race, but tragedy could very well prevent them from being together, not to mention Roger, who isn’t quite all he appears to be…

I originally read this book a couple years ago and I absolutely loved it. I couldn’t put it down and I was so amused by Marguerite’s spunk. Browsing the kindle store, I noticed it was only a buck and I decided to buy it. The next books in the series weren’t expensive either, so I decided to buy them as well. Before I went onto the second book, I decided I should probably reread this one and it was just as good as I remembered. Once again, I couldn’t put it down.

I have a lot of fun reading characters like Marguerite. I love her need for adventure and pushing boundaries, probably because I have some of those qualities. Marguerite refused to be vanilla. I loved how she set her mind to something and wouldn’t give up. She was rich, but she didn’t mind hard work.

I also love the journey this book took her on. She would sometimes lie to aid in achieving her goals. Just like so many of us, she could easily justify the lies. They were little, so who could they really hurt? The lesson of learning to be truthful is so important and Lorna Seilstad did a wonderful job in challenging Marguerite in this way.

Trip was a great character as well. He could be hot-headed at times, just like his father. I appreciated that his father was tough, but you could really sense that Trip still loved him. Trip’s growth in this book was also good. I wished I could see a bit more of his thoughts while his attitudes seemed to change, closer to the end of the book. There is a whole lot more that could be said about how people could never measure up to his standards and how he learned to let go of that.

The ending was sweet and I just wished there was more because I didn’t want this book to end. Lorna Seilstad’s writing easily wrapped me up in the story. She did a great job with all the different POV’s and they all were unique in personality to fit the character.

I loved this book and I’m looking forward to read the next one!