Review: Christian literature and historical romance should not share a book!!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 20, 2013
A lot of people disliked something about this book, but no-one mentioned the real problem!The main problem with this book, besides needing a good editor, was the author tried to combine two mutually exclusive genres: Christian literature and historical romance. Honestly, true romance and true Christian lit are polar opposites, and while trying to write something that appeals to both groups, the author ended up annoying everyone.Some main complaints of mine and other reviewers:Spoliers1. Jo's amazing wet nursing skills despite never having a child...This is fair game for Christian lit. If the author wasn't so afraid of offending non Christians she could have gone into much more detail of Jo's struggle of faith and how she came to realise that this was a gift from God and why Anna's and Thomas' struggles were too. Would have also explained her cheery cheery disposition, aka joy and all that jazz.2. Anna sleeping in the same bed as Thomas before marriage:This is fair game for romance. Most historical romance stories ends up with sex before marriage, usually secretly or with only the family knowing and usually right before or after some formal marriage proposal was offered (cause now they have to save the girls honor). Anna and Thomas were already engaged, if they had just had some weird spontaneous sex scene, no one probably would have mentioned this in regards to the time period. But she didn't want to offend the Christians this time, so no actual sex before marriage, just sleeping and kissing and everyone was left confused on why a pure girl in that century would risk her reputation...3. The sex scenes. All of the sex scenes were weird because of this middle ground she walked. Actual sex scenes in itself are a big no-no in Christian lit, and that alone was weird. On the other side, there was no cursing, or crude words, of course, and although it described complete sex scenes, it did so with the barest off descriptions,  which made it feel juvenile and one dimensional. It came off as awkward from any perspective.As for the smaller stuff like no one got a divorce back then (well her ex husband did practically own the town) and her focus on her dad's hole-filled pants (he was hiding his grief by working like crazy and her mom was too depressed to mend them) were confusing mostly because she covered way too much time...a year...in way too short of a book, while trying to include too much;  some things were just not explained well.-------Anyway I did like the book, and loved the plot! I just felt like it would have been such a better book if she didn't try so hard and just picked a genre, any genre, as long as it was only one genre, because these two just did not mix. Oh and for an editor.I doubt I will buy any more of her books, since this one was her cheapest at 99 cents and I doubt her writing style is going to change much for two dollars more...