Review: Historical Fiction in the tradition of Janette Oke
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 27, 2012
This volume includes four books in one: A Dream Unfolding, A Heart Renewed, A Life Restored and A Hope Revealed. Each book is also available separately. The stories centre around members of the Coulter and Anderson families, as they move to Prescott, Arizona, in 1860's America.Conflict is the essence of good fiction, and this series has conflict in large doses. Unfortunately, the doses are just too large, and become larger than life to the point of melodrama, especially in the final book. The stories were much darker than most Christian fiction, and I really didn't enjoy that aspect, as I felt it unnecessary. If I wanted to read about greed and the depravity of human nature, I'd be reading non-fiction.I also found the rape scenes unnecessarily detailed (yes, scenes, not just scene). There were plenty of hints of `marital intimacy' throughout this collection, but they were just hints of activity occurring behind closed doors, as is normal for Christian fiction. So why detail the rape scenes? Yes, I know this is fiction. Yes, I know there are rape and abuse scenes in the Bible. Yes, I know bad things happen to good people. But am I the only person who finds it distasteful that the only time there is graphic sex in a Christian novel is when it's a rape scene?The first three books had quite a number of typos and grammatical errors, although most were obvious (e.g. 'in tact' rather than 'intact') and didn't confuse or detract from the story. What was more annoying was the amount of unnecessary back story, particularly in the later books. Pages and pages are spent repeating the personal histories of characters we have already been introduced to. This is especially tedious when all the books of a series have been combined in one volume, as is the case here. The fourth book had noticeably fewer errors and includes a thanks to the editors - it's just a pity they didn't get hired until this point.On the positive side, the series is impeccably researched, and the author has managed to include a lot of historical detail without it seeming like an 'information dump'. All the stories have a strong Christian message of hope and forgiveness, and manage to portray this without descending into preachiness.Thanks to BookRooster for providing a free ebook for review.