Okay so this month I got a WHOLE BUNCH of Revell book s to review and it was a blast! I’m so excited because I’m getting a similar scenario next month.
For now I’m going to review my three Revell Books. They’re each in their own stages of reading. We’ll start with
Nine by Rachelle Dekker
Nine was such a unique story. We start with a flashback. A loving relationship between two characters. A sense of absolute reliance… and a bit of wonder. Such an awesome way to start a book. Then we get introduced to Zoe Johnson ( I still don’t know how to pronounce that. I don’t read it Zoey.)
The redemption arc of Zoe, and the discovery of the who and what Lucy were intriguing. And the reason behind the name of the book I ALWAYS LOVE DISCOVERING THE REASON BEHIND NAMES!
Lucy’s conflict towards the latter half of the book was SO COOL. I loved seeing her fight between her “programming” and her sense of Lucy. And the difference of her coming out of the shadows and becoming…. herself. Neither Lucy nor *spoilers*.
And additionally the character Seeley. Guys I did a full instagram play by play as I read through this book (you can follow my bookstagram @ofsunflowersandbooks) My emotions for this character were so torn and for the sake of avoiding spoilers, I’ll just say read the book.
Now for a content warning. This is a Revell book, so it’s mostly clean, morally acceptable. However, there are several semi-detailed “torture” scenes that may be disturbing to certain readers. Lucy is… a killer, to keep things simple. Seeley is nothing less than that either. I didn’t find anything overly gruesome, so if you’re not especially squeamish and don’t mind a bit of intensity, I’d say this book is perfectly okay. In regards to sexual content, I don’t exactly recall any in the moment. I think there may have been one or two comments aimed about a woman by certain unsavory fellows, and there was a scene at the beginning of the book where a freeway fellow was going to “give Lucy a ride to town” that implied that wasn’t all he was going to give her.
Personally, I enjoyed the story very much. If you’ve been around for some time you’ll know that I adore the Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker, who is actually Rachelle’s dad. So was I slightly excited to read this one? Yes. I was stoked to get the chance. Was I biased, no. The Girl Behind the Red Rope, which was written by Ted and Rachelle both, was something I personally didn’t feel comfortable reading, so this was a hit or miss chance for me. And it was a hit.
Five stars! Recommended for girls ages 16 and older, for violence content and depth of plot. 😀
Something Worth Doing by Jane Kirkpatrick
Right off the bat I’m going to post the disclaimer that I’m not quite finished with this book just yet. I’m fairly well into it tho, and I think I’m pretty well equipped to leave a review on it, which of course I will adjust to be accurate once I complete the story.
I haven’t really had great success with Jane Kirkpatrick’s writing style yet. The last book I read by her was All She Left Behind. I will admit I liked that story, but the main thread was girls, ladies, women, females. MAKE A PLACE FOR YOURSELF IN THE WORLD OF MEN. I’ll say for myself that I am a pretty bold person and I believe in making a place for yourself in the world, however after reading Something Worth Doing, the amount of feminism that’s portrayed in these books is just too much for me. I just don’t agree with the way that the ladies handled their lives, their careers, their desires. I don’t like the way this main character, Jenny, (yes I’m still calling her Jenny for now) was so “dominant” over her husband, and as a meek little thing he agreed with her. Again, disclaimer. I’m not done with the book yet. We’ll see how this goes.
The plot itself is pretty fast paced. It goes from independent Jenny falling head over heels, love at first sight with heart flutters for Ben. Hesitating to marry because of her independence but after a time she must marry. So then she becomes and wife and has kids and they have the same struggles other frontier families usually have (thinking Laura Ingles and the First Four Years) then she write a poem, and it gets accepted into the newspaper and her husband says he doesn’t mind her writing, so they she starts writing what’s called “The Farmer’s Wife.” Which I didn’t really like all that much once she started voicing more and more controversy.
Now girls, I appreciate the freedoms and privileges that we have as ladies in our day and age. I just don’t like this book and the way that this particular character acts out to get it. I guess suffrage is just not my preferred genre.
Content wise its clean in all aspects. Jenny has some hard childbirths, but otherwise I haven’t adjusted.
At this point I will give it a three star rating and recommend to girls 14 and up who enjoy historical fiction in a suffrage setting. I’ll definitely adjust and update as this needs to be if I decide otherwise when I actually finish reading the book. (In the very near future as I don’t usually take very long to finish reading books. These three were just all due on the same day and I hadn’t gotten them all read through just yet!)
The Edge of Belonging by Amanda Cox
This one isn’t even fair to write a review yet, but I will say I have started it and so far I’m quite pleased! James is not your run of the mill type of homeless man. He’s not old, he’s not boring. He doesn’t hate the world and the baby proves to him that life is worth living. I’m really enjoying that!
And from Ivy’s perspective. Guys. This girl is an adopted girl, working as an elementry school counselor. This is going to be epic. I can’t even wait to dive in all the way and finish it! The writing style already has be sucked in and ready to curl up with a nice blanket and spend the whole evening emerged in a precious discover-your-history and make-yourself-better story!
No content so far because I haven’t gotten far enough, but I’ll add content rating and star rating when I get finished.
Thank you for reading girls! I’ll be back soon with another life update/story about September 18th and how that changes the way we live every day. I’m excited about that one too!
P.S. Thank you Revell for these review copies. I really enjoy reading nd reviewing these stories! All opinions are my own and a positive review is never required. So you girls get to hear the nitty gritty. (BTW I still have to write a review for These Nameless Things, and I’m not excited.)
Good reviews, Libby! Thanks!