Review: Underlying Christian theme is over the top
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 03 26, 2013
I am normally a tolerant reader of Westerns.  They are reasonably short, have a clear plot and describe old West scenes which I can easily imagine.  I seldom fail to finish a Western but after reading two-thirds of this one, I just could not continue.  The underlying Christian religious theme which initially only a subplot of the story of a family joining a wagon train to travel out West became, by the middle of the book, the central point of the story.  It was clear that I was being preached at. Added to this are other deficiencies which I might have overlooked in other circumstances.  An example:  It was not clear to me why the main female character in the book, Jay, became despondent over a period of days and could not even cook well and then, after talking to the preacher, regains her confidence and determination.  There were a number of other instances--both with a religious and non-religious undertone--that just did not quite add up.I found some of the descriptions a bit trite and, later, redundant.  I got tired of hearing about the trail master chewing tobacco.  It worked OK at the beginning of the story but, by the middle of the book, it seemed to be worn out.Perhaps the story had a dramatic ending.  I could not stick around to find out.