Here I am with five new short reviews for you! The books in this post are a bit eclectic, but then, so are my reading tastes in general. I hope you enjoy the continued journey through my 2021 literary journey!

Okay, so this one requires a bit of background. It is a Christian historical romance novel, which is about the last thing I would ever read under normal circumstances! But my neighbor stopped one day to ask if I liked to read, and I said yes, and the next thing I knew she was dropping off a bag full of Christian historical romance for me to borrow. I felt like I had to read at least one, so I tackled a trilogy that she said was her favorite.

This is the first book in that trilogy. And it was okay. If you like the genre, it’s probably very good. But I just really don’t like romance novels in general. The writing was decent, and the historical setting was actually interesting — a group of former Confederates after the Civil War making their way to Brazil to start a colony of their own after they were defeated in the war, which is apparently something that really happened, even though I was unfamiliar with it before reading this.

And again, it was okay. I read the whole thing and didn’t totally hate it. But it’s just really not my thing.

I had heard this one recommended SO many times, and then when a friend from church texted me a picture of the copy she was currently reading and reiterated how good it was, I decided to order and read it. And I agree — it is very good. It’s very short — I think I read it in a few sittings, even in the midst of my own trenches of motherhood. But a lot is packed into those few pages.

It’s always good to just get a dose of Godly perspective when the day-to-day can get overwhelming. I know that at the time I read this book, I found it immensely encouraging and that it pointed me back to the purposes behind what I do in a relatable and helpful way, but to be honest, I don’t remember a lot of details, which makes me think I need to re-read it right about now, because I’m certainly still in the middle of those trenches!

Continuing my re-read of this classic series — I hadn’t read this one as many times as some of the others, and I definitely feel like it provides a crucial piece of Laura’s growing-up journey. We see her start to become more aware of the adult world around her, of different kinds of dangers, and of how her life may be different from the lives of others. It’s also nice to see the family finally come to a place they can really call home after all their long journeys.

This was my first book club book of last year, and we all enthusiastically chose it because we had so loved A Gentleman in Moscow, which was by the same author. I was hoping for the same depth and character from this book.

At three out of five stars, I liked it better than most of the other members of my book club — so needless to say, it was nobody’s favorite. I did enjoy the writing and most of the characters. I just didn’t feel like ultimately it really went anywhere. It kind of meandered around this girl’s life and seemed like it should have been some great love story between her and one particular gentleman, but in the end their relationship fell a bit flat for me. I couldn’t tell what the point of it was supposed to be, and certain motivations didn’t quite ring true. So it was fine. But I wouldn’t read it again or recommend it, really.

This is the second book in the Christian romance trilogy my neighbor lent me, and again, it was fine. I appreciated the cleanness and Christian sexual morality, though I still felt the romance was at times a little more focused on the physical than I prefer. Also the series starts to get into some strange supernatural stuff that is supposed to be demonic in nature, and the role that this plays increases with each installment. This just felt weird to me — not that I don’t believe in supernatural demonic occurrences, because I do, but none of these things felt particularly realistic to me, and they didn’t really fit into the rest of the story, in my opinion.

Each book in the series takes a character from the previous book and follows their story and their romance, and I did like that format. It’s nice to be able to see different perspectives on what is going on, to follow the story of a previous heroine who is now married and settled down, or to get to see the love story of someone who was just a side character. But still — just not really my thing.

I’ll be back with five more reviews soon!