Is Glenrock really so good? - Captives by Jill Williamson - CSFF Blog Tour

Julie one more time! This may be considered spoilers so you might want to just go on somewhere else if you haven't read Jill Williamson's Captives.

But anyone who has read the book, or probably who has read a summary or review, understands that the Safe Lands is not a moral place. The stated goal of life there is to find pleasure (although in fairness, people do seem to work about 40 hour workweeks). Immorality runs rampant. Everyone has an incurable disease. Women are forced into bearing children and not even allowed to raise them. The government has a quite literal three-strikes-and-you're-out policy, or if not, once you hit 40, you get "liberated" (presumably euthanized). As the book put it, the Safe Lands are a "gilded cage."

But an interesting point I was thinking of (and not surprisingly, Shannon McDermott posted it before I did; drat!) is that Glenrock, the rural community outside the Safe Lands, is not exactly a great place either. The basics of life seem to be covered fine--no one seems to go hungry, and while the people presumably work hard, they still have parties and even play Old video games and watch Old movies. Their life goal is not to find pleasure, but a big priority is marrying young and repopulating the Earth and such.

I find this fascinating, because the Safe Lands practices forced surrogacy and forbids the formation of families with children. Whereas in Glenrock, a pair of young people are strongly pressured into an unwanted marriage so that they will have children.

Marriage and procreation were vital to the people of Glenrock, and while Mason saw no logic in waiting to marry until he reached 27.5 years, reaching at least twenty would offer him so much more knowledge and life experience. Why not wait another three years for that?

In addition, Glenrock has some gender biases (besides the usual patriarchal leanings, by tradition the MEN wouldn't practice medicine). While Omar (a young man from Glenrock) is rather self-absorbed and self-pitying, when he basically says that Jemma was the only person in Glenrock who was kind to him, I actually believe that the people there really did see him as an outcast and didn't reach out to him as well as they could have (though I also don't know that Omar wanted to be reached). Never mind the main characters' emotionally-abusive father, who as much as forced his son Mason into consenting to an arranged marriage. And at least one of the female villagers has serious body image problems (yes, even in a village where food isn't readily available at a grocery store, a young teenage girl is routinely thought of as fat, and hates that aspect of herself).

While Christianity wasn't forgotten in Glenrock, I didn't personally feel that it was a particularly Christian community, either. When things go wrong the characters may think of or call on God, but that's about all I noticed in this book.

Obviously the Safe Lands are in general morally bankrupt, of course...but if you judged the United States by our media, we wouldn't look so much better. (And there are millions of Christians in this country! Which makes me wonder if any Christians may be hiding underground in the Safe Lands.)

Anyway, what I liked was that even though the Safe Lands are dystopic, Glenrock was not portrayed as an ideal place. It seems like they did not work an excessive amount, had enough to eat, had a reasonable life expectancy, and had some technology that would have been the envy of people in the 1980s, maybe even 1990s. Yet both the society and some of the individuals had some fairly serious problems. I think people are people, whatever world you put them in. One saying that's not directly from the Bible (as far as I know), but that has a Biblical basis, is that Christians are called to be in the world but not of it (John 15:19; Romans 12:2). I'd almost be tempted to say Glenrock's citizens are instead of the world but not in it.

I also like that instead of wanting to flee the Safe Lands and perhaps get back to their regular lives--Levi's goal--Mason actually has some interest in saving the people of the Safe Lands. The technology itself isn't necessarily evil; vaporizers can be used for medicine, for instance. The problem is how the technology is used and the people in charge of it.

It may take a massive rebellion against the government, or underground movements which may already be in the works...but someday there could be a large population of Godly people in the Safe Lands, actually living in the world but not of it.

One last link to the tour participants:

Julie Bihn (that's me!)
Thomas Fletcher Booher
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
Pauline Creeden
Emma or Audrey Engel
Victor Gentile
Timothy Hicks
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Asha Marie Pena
Nathan Reimer
Chawna Schroeder
Jojo Sutis
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Phyllis Wheeler
Rachel Wyant

 *In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book.

The Media in Captives by Jill Williamson - CSFF Blog Tour

Julie again! So in Jill Williamson's dystopian science fiction Captives, the media is full of "reality" shows such as Big is Beautiful, the masses are inspired by fashion trends from The Finley and Flynn Show, and even ceremonies where people are "liberated" from their life are on ColorCast as compelling entertainment. (And if you'd like to explore more of the Safe Lands, there's an entertaining website at http://thesafelands.com/)

It also sounds like the content on general TV can be at least as bad as anything you'd see on cable now. From the point of view of Omar, who came from the rural village of Glenrock to the Safe Lands:

One show depicted two men trying to kill each other on a stage surrounded by cheering onlookers. On a cooking show, a woman taught Omar how to cook his own strawberry savarin, whatever that was. What Omar assumed was meant to be a beauty program showed fat people--bigger than Mary, Shay, and Megan combined--and how one woman wanted to go back in time and relive her third life to earn better fortune. On C Factor, a man with earrings was having relations with a woman. On TV! There had been a scene like that in the Old movie Titanic, but they hadn't shown it. A channel that seemed to be devoted to displaying things he could buy was selling something called a Personal Vaporizer that could be used to make candy, alcohol, medications, and stimulants--whatever those were--turn into a breathable form. (pp. 126-127)

(I didn't know what a savarin was either, but upon finding it's a cake, I do think it would bring me pleasure in life!)

At first glance, it looks like the old movies--even those that have some objectionable content--are being hailed as something positive. But then, this is Omar's point of view, and he is not exactly the hero. Or maybe it's just being realistic...most Christians (including myself) watch, and even own, media like Titanic that has some redeeming qualities but doesn't have a Christian world view. (And in fairness, the "entertainment" in the Safe Lands doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities, though I'm biased against "reality" TV.)

And yes, the people in rustic Glenrock do watch movies and even play video games. As I touched on in my review, Levi and Jemma, the "perfect" couple in the novel, love the film "The Princess Bride," so much so that Jemma's convinced that Levi, her "Westley," will save her when she's captured, and uses the codename Buttercup.

I just assumed Williamson was writing this as a sweet, innocent, positive thing, though I didn't see the basis for their romance (except that they were pretty, they loved each other, and presumably liked the same movies). For me, this romance didn't work, and not just because I'm not a sucker for the romance featured in "The Princess Bride." Actually, if Levi had called Jemma his Belle, his Tiana, even his Anastasia, I still would have thought it was much more creepy than cute. 

And in fairness, I'm sure that in real life, people get tired of me quoting TV shows they're not interested in.

I guess a takeaway (whether intended or not) is that we probably should be living our lives in the "real" world. Not that we can't enjoy entertainment, but fixating on ANY media--"wholesome" or not--is at best silly and at worst as destructive as life in the Safe Lands.

Not fixating on media is easier said than done, of course, and I don't know that I can do it. Certainly not on my own.

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11:14, NIV)

Here are the tour participants!

Julie Bihn (that's me!)
Thomas Fletcher Booher
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
Pauline Creeden
Emma or Audrey Engel
Victor Gentile
Timothy Hicks
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Asha Marie Pena
Nathan Reimer
Chawna Schroeder
Jojo Sutis
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Phyllis Wheeler
Rachel Wyant

 *In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book.

CSFF Blog Tour - Review - Captives by Jill Williamson

Julie here! OK, it looks like on the last CSFF Blog Tour, some folks stopped by on Monday and almost no one came back when I posted my review on Tuesday. So I thought I'd try something different and put the review first.

 

Book: Captives by Jill Williamson


Ridiculously simplified summary: After a waterborne illness decimates the human race, most of the survivors live in the Safe Lands, a walled city devoted primarily to hedonism, where everyone is "liberated" at the age of 40, never to be seen again. Everyone in the Safe Lands suffers from a deadly skin disease...and lately they have had terrible trouble having babies. Their only solution to the latter problem is to find uninfected people from outside the Safe Lands who can bear children for them.

Near the Safe Lands are three tiny villages populated by those who refuse to take on the new way of life. One day, the people of the Safe Lands come to the tiny village of Glenrock, ostensibly with an invitation to become part of the Safe Lands and enjoy all the advantages that entails.

Things do not go well.

Content: I felt the religious content was present but fairly light. I liked that the outsiders (ostensibly Christians) were not always right, and a few of the things their society did weren't even necessarily good or right, while the Safe Landers aren't all necessarily evil, either.

There is substantial talk about artificial insemination/pregnancy (with more than one visit to a male donation center), casual sex (not portrayed positively, but present), and several scenes of drug use, as well as shootings and fights. There are words (both old-fashioned and futuristic) used in place of curse words, which doesn't bother me but I've heard it offends others. There was a vague implication that the sex scene in Titanic was not too graphic/didn't show too much (not referencing the "artistic" nudity scene), though in fairness this came from a character who was hardly a moral paragon. However, a character who was supposed to be much closer to perfect decides that having a kissing session with someone else before you get married is nothing to be ashamed of.

Rating:

Compelling: 9 out of 10. Tricky for me to rate because the first 50 or so pages, I was wishing I hadn't signed up to review this 415-page book. The prologue (which starts on page 7) just confused me, making it hard for me to get interested, and then the early scenes in Glenrock didn't interest me in the least. For a small village, there were an awful lot of characters thrown at me (which I never enjoy) and I found their world contradictory and not compelling. The first two chapters from Mason's point of view in particular left me cold; he just seemed like a listless and dull character, mostly observing and not showing any courage. And even when the soldiers from the Safe Lands come, I wasn't really interested...to be honest, if I would have been reading this at a bookstore, or even checked it out from the library, I most likely would have put it down and stopped reading a couple dozen pages in.

Then in Chapter 5, page 62, Omar, one of the characters, starts on a drive with someone from the Safe Lands. As the outsiders are brought into a new world, things picked up speed with near-perfect consistency (for the most part I only got bored during the drug benders (!) which struck me more like something from an after-school special). By the end I was flying through the pages and even interested to read the next book. But it was a a rough journey to get there. So I'll say 9/10 because about 1/10 of the book (maybe a little more overall) were difficult for me to get into.

Characters: 7 out of 10. At first, all the characters blurred together (and I thought several were rather dull), but throughout the course of the book they do start to get more interesting. Many of them have interesting traits, like severe (and heartbreaking) body image issues or an unhealthy obsession with ranch dressing, which I could definitely sympathize with. But other than those traits, I'm not sure I get the best sense of any of the characters.  Though given that the society is one of the major features of the book, the numerous points of view, and the broad, sweeping story portrayed, it's impressive that the characterization could be as deep as it is.

As far as the romantic elements of the characters, I found Levi and Jemma's Princess-Bride(!)-inspired romance so sappy that it made me squirm...and I read and write (speculative) Christian romance. I found Mason and Omar's feelings much more interesting (and even Jordan and Naomi's romance, and they were minor characters).

Writing/editing: 7 out of 10. At least two typos, and overall some of the sentences felt kind of stilted or awkward to me, like when a word is used twice in the same sentence.  I felt like this book could have done with one more round of polishing, but there may have been some sort of deadline involved.  Managing to create at least two different worlds (with varying degrees of success) and to tell a big story from so many points of view is a feat, which Williamson accomplishes impressively, if not perfectly.

Plausibility/believability: 3 out of 5. This is also a really tricky category. I didn't really "buy" the outsiders' world--there are complaints about having to work too hard, but they seem able to scavenge needed goods from other cities with little difficulty and even play "Old" video games and watch "Old" movies in the leisure time they evidently have. And they're all living like farmers, with a priority on marrying young to repopulate the world or whatever, but the average family size seems to be around 3 kids. (My mom was NOT from a farming family and they had 4 kids in the family...my dad, from a farming family, was the 7th SON, never mind the daughters!).  So their world didn't line up for me. Maybe they have infertility problems (the Safe Landers do) but I didn't notice any reference to that.

The entire overall premise doesn't make sense to me either--early on, it comes to light that the Safe Lands can (barely) afford to buy a healthy woman to bear children for them, but for some reason it seems to be equally difficult to come by the male "donations" necessary to get her pregnant? (So much so that they would use an infected male's donation?) I know in the modern world, it's way cheaper to get a male "donation" than a surrogate to carry a baby to term.

And in a world where uninfected males are rare and (apparently) necessary, why in the world would you kill any of them, regardless of their age or how annoying they are? And why would you not get as many "donations" as you could from each uninfected male (in case they slip up and get infected), instead of scheduling them at long intervals?

But all that said, once inside the walls of the Safe Lands, I got wrapped up in the world enough that I was mostly able to ignore those problems. The slang and technology of the world is pervasive and believable (Wyndos--glass that seems even more versatile than iPad/iPhone technology--are a nice touch). The TV programs are plausible and overall the level of detail is impressive. I had a few other problems even once I get into the world, but the story was moving along so quickly by that point, I overlooked them.

I'm not sure I can believe that human society would have changed in the way portrayed here, but it's at the least an exercise in "what if" that was interesting to follow.

Positive: 3 out of 5. It wraps up a lot neater than I was expecting, but it's not the type of book to leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling, either.

Gut reaction: 4 out of 5. I can't say this is a perfect book, given the issues I cited above, but it was interesting, compelling (once I got past the beginning) and made me want more, which is really all I ask for from a book.

Bonus points: 5 out of 5.

Recommended for: Fans of edgy dystopian young adult novels. (I'm not a parent, but I'm not so sure I'd want my teens reading this, though.)

Total Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars

Tomorrow, I'll talk about the media in Captives.

Here are the tour participants!

Julie Bihn (that's me!)
Thomas Fletcher Booher
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
Pauline Creeden
Emma or Audrey Engel
Victor Gentile
Timothy Hicks
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Asha Marie Pena
Nathan Reimer
Chawna Schroeder
Jojo Sutis
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Phyllis Wheeler
Rachel Wyant

 *In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book.

Storm by Evan Angler - Wrap-Up - CSFF Blog Tour

Winding up the tour on Evan Angler's Storm!

Several other folks on the tour posted the book trailer, which has some interesting visuals.



I found the talk about "hope" particularly interesting because the "hope" here seems to be hope that the world can be redeemed, hope they'll survive, when per Revelation, things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. And none of the characters seemed to me to be actively awaiting a Savior. (Though, as Rebecca LuElla Miller pointed out, characters are also busy just trying to survive.)

Given it's a Christian publisher, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the series plays out, fair enough.

Joan Neinhuis did a very good job outlining something I hadn't thought to mention in the review--the technology. Some of it was almost certainly more fantasy than anything else (such as inter-continental transportation) but it was still fun to read. (And nothing less plausible than the TV show Revolution, as far as I can tell.)

Chawna Schroeder does a great job of articulating why I'm not sure that I'll like the characters more if I read books 1 and 2....I'm interested to see for myself, though.

Thanks for the tour, all!

Review - Storm by Evan Angler - CSFF Blog Tour

Julie here for the CSFF Blog Tour!

 

Book: Storm by Evan Angler

Ridiculously simplified summary: Book 3 in a series.  The end times are upon us, with all citizens of the American Union needing to be Marked in order to buy or sell anything. All Marked Americans serve the charismatic European leader Cylis and the American leader General Langston.

After being betrayed by his sister, who is now a top soldier working for the Marked, the Unmarked Logan Langly and his friends seek to save the life of their Marked friend Erin Arbitror, who has fallen ill with a mysterious virus. Meanwhile, the weather mill that brings rain nationwide has been malfunctioning, causing a nationwide drought. Can Logan save the world as he knows it?

Content: This started out surprisingly optimistic, for a book about the end of the world and all. The Christian aspect was rather subtle--I'm not sure how much there was in Books 1-2, or how much there will be in later books, but I think this particular one would be suitable for anyone who's not outright hostile to Christianity. The ending was fairly dark but not entirely without hope. On the one hand, the fact that it wasn't entirely hopeless is surprising for a dystopian book. But on the other hand, there was so little preaching throughout the book, that I felt like the hope in the book is more about the hope of love in general, rather than being directly linked to Christ.

Rating:

Compelling: 8 out of 10. I found the first few chapters fascinating, learning about this world and how it ticks, how the Marks work, and so forth. Later in the book gets more about politics and numerous double crosses, but somehow those didn't interest me quite as much because I didn't feel like the characters were all that differentiated. (Meagan tells me that problem comes from not reading books 1 and 2, which in fairness, were not part of the tour. But I've come in at the middle of other stories, even for the blog tour, and liked/understood the characters, but didn't feel that way here for the most part.)

No matter; I think this is more about the big picture than the individuals. And I'm considering going back and checking out the first two from my library, so that's something in and of itself. When it comes down to it, though, I'm not sure I want to read the fourth book, though that depends on how I end up liking 1 and 2.

Characters: 5 out of 10. Like I said, many of the characters blurred together for me. For instance, there's a climactic scene that includes Logan and Hailey, but I don't recognize any big differences between the two characters there, aside from the people they care about the most--it was more about the story and the betrayals than the characters. For the most part, I found the adults more interesting than the child-protagonists (who I felt more or less acted like adults anyway, though that very well could be a symptom of an adult literally and figuratively writing the series--more on that later). To me, Tyler, a complete prankster by nature, is the only one who really seemed like a child to me. Of course, I read this soon after just getting off teaching Vacation Bible School to a class of ALL 5th and 6th grade boys, so my expectations of children may be skewed to the low side.

One very interesting thing about the characters is that the Marked are not universally evil and the Markless are not universally good. In fact, overall I'd say the Marked characters were the more likable ones. I'm not sure if that's accurate or not for the end times (or if things will change in book 4), but I definitely thought it made the story more interesting and relatable.

Writing/editing: 8 out of 10. I only saw one typo for sure (apostrophe error). There were some stylistic choices I wouldn't have made (at one point, there are three scene breaks in as many sentences!). I think if there would have been more effort to stay in fewer characters' points of view, maybe the characterization would have seemed a bit stronger. But I thought it still read pretty well. The first meeting with Cylis was delightfully creepy.

Plausibility/believability: 3 out of 5. I "bought" most of the world from the getgo, and the twists nearer to the end were interesting. I'm not sure I believed/agreed with Mr. Angler actually being the author of these books that are written presumably a hundred or more years in the future, but we're somehow reading now. I thought that idea worked charmingly on Angler's website, but when characters in the book itself are reading a published book about their own exploits that presumably happened not long ago...given how long it takes to get a book published nowadays...I thought it was a bit forced. It might have a great payoff eventually, granted, but seeing it in isolation in the book, I thought it was a bit gimicky.

That said, this apocalyptic tale is targeted to a middle grade audience (!), and I get the feeling that the "author being a character" conceit appeals to the target audience, who may not have seen a third-person narrator address the audience in any way before.

Positive: 3 out of 5. Like I said earlier, despite the promises that it's a big deal to be Unmarked, in this book, life is going relatively well for the Unmarked, considering it's the end of the world and all. I get the feeling that the next book is going to be darker. This does end with escalating things going wrong, so not really a happy ending, but not nearly as hopeless as some books I've read, which is surprising.

Gut reaction: 3 out of 5. I really enjoyed the beginning several chapters but I found myself somehow less interested as the story progressed...I guess I expected to care more about the characters themselves, but I felt pretty much the same about all of them at the end as I did just a few pages in. Again, that could be a symptom of starting at book 3.

Bonus points: 5 out of 5.

Recommended for: Fans of dystopian young adult novels...I think. I'd definitely recommend reading the first couple books first, though.

Total Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars


Here are the other tour participants!

Julie Bihn
Beckie Burnham
Keanan Brand
Pauline Creeden
Emma or Audrey Engel
Sarah Faulkner
Victor Gentile
Ryan Heart
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Writer Rani
Chawna Schroeder
Jacque Stengl
Jojo Sutis
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Phyllis Wheeler
Rachel Wyant

 *In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book.

Storm - The Swipe Series by Evan Angler - CSFF Blog Tour

 Julie here for the CSFF Blog Tour!


This month's book is Storm by Evan Angler, a dystopian Christian young-adult novel.

I'm not well-versed in the end times...and frankly, since Christians can't even agree on whether any Rapture will come before the biggest horrors are unleashed on Earth, I figure that any book written about the end times is going to be very much speculative. Angler doesn't disappoint in that regard, with genetically-engineered plagues and a numerous details of Marked society and technology, though seeing it from the Earthly point of view, there's little evidence of supernatural happenings. From this book, at least, it felt to me like the end of the world caused by humans, so in many regards it wasn't so different from secular dystopian novels. I'm not sure that's a bad thing, but it wasn't what I expected.

Unfortunately, the end times are confusing enough, and the blog tour received Book 3 in an ongoing series! So it was a challenge to keep track of the characters and the storyline.

Review is tomorrow, but here are the other tour participants!

Julie Bihn
Beckie Burnham
Keanan Brand
Pauline Creeden
Emma or Audrey Engel
Sarah Faulkner
Victor Gentile
Ryan Heart
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Writer Rani
Chawna Schroeder
Jacque Stengl
Jojo Sutis
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Phyllis Wheeler
Rachel Wyant

 *In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book.

Review: Touching the Clouds by Bonnie Leon

Another review from Julie! Maggie read this one and gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

 

Book: Touching the Clouds by Bonnie Leon


Ridiculously simplified summary: In the 1930s, a woman's place is usually thought to be in the home. Instead, adventurous Kate calls off her wedding and moves to Alaska to be a bush pilot. She meets Paul, a determined homesteader. Both take comfort in the harsh conditions and fierce beauty of Alaska, while trying to overcome guilt from their pasts.

Content: I felt like the religious elements came up out of nowhere--Kate is calling in Bible verses, carrying her grandmother's old Bible with her, and so forth, but I never felt like she was really living life as a Christian--she seems more interested in doing things her own way. There are a few deaths.

This review is for the Kindle version, which was a free download at the time.

Rating:

Compelling: 8 out of 10. I thought the historical storyline was pretty interesting, though I didn't believe it every moment. It was literally halfway through the book when the romance aspect started, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't what I expected. I thought the last 25% of the book or so verged on melodrama, but I'll admit, I couldn't stop reading.

Characters: 4 out of 10. OK, first, this is a romance. If you don't know the conventions of who's going to end up together and are interested in reading this book, go ahead and stop reading right now, because this will spoil you.

You still there?

You know the conventions?

You sure?

Okay, so in romance novels, if there are two point of view characters (a man and a woman), in every example I've read anyway, they end up together, so we know what's going to happen.

Kate is interesting, fiercely independent, stubborn to the point of risking her life needlessly sometimes. I found it hard to like her, though, given how men adore her and she just throws them aside.

I didn't really care for Paul, the hero--I would have rather he spent less time feeling guilty, moping about Kate, and being unreasonable. I'm not that old-fashioned--I don't care if the man pursues the woman or the woman is hoping to get the man. But I didn't feel like either of them was seriously passionate about the other, so I didn't care for them together from a romance standpoint. Things might get more interesting in books 2 and 3 of the trilogy.

There were a lot of minor characters so they sort of blended together for me, though they weren't bad. The one who stood out for me was Mike, who was not deeply characterized, per se, but who was charming nonetheless--sweet, a good friend, always there when needed.

Writing/editing: 6 out of 10. It may have been the Kindle version I was reading, but quite a few paragraphs were rolled together when I thought they should have been split, and there was some problematic phrasing. The style was to skip from event to event, but the whole book takes place over at least two summers...I'm more used to an intimate, short timeline, instead of sometimes having months pass between events. That might be my problem.

Plausibility/believability: 3 out of 5. Some other reviewers disagreed as far as accuracy, but (not knowing anything about flying or Alaska) I really enjoyed the "feel" of historic Alaska and old-time piloting. As for criticisms about the Depression element, I don't know about the Depression in Alaska, but my general understanding is that if you actually had a job, things were pretty good for you during that period. My own grandfather went out west during the Depression to find work, so surely there were some areas that weren't suffering so much.

It did surprise me that Kate (who basically struck me as a modern woman) would be so accepted, but I guess it wasn't unreasonable. I didn't understand some of the survival techniques (or lack thereof) near the end, but I guess they were needed for tension.

Positive: 2 out of 5. There is some serious providence near the end (that's the reason Kate and Paul are evidently a good match). I felt like there was little emotional reaction to multiple deaths earlier in the book, though that may be in part because the book shows short scenes and then skips ahead quite a bit--so maybe there was more mourning, but we missed it because a month or more was skipped.

Gut reaction: 1 out of 5. I hate to say any more because it's a spoiler. It's about the romance element...

Mike was likable, loving, absolutely crazy for Kate, she runs to him for comfort more than once...but no, she doesn't care for him. She basically leads him on for quite a bit of time, only to decide she likes the fella she doesn't even spend much time with better. Another reviewer pointed out--rightfully--that she already dumped one nice guy. I don't know if Mike was right for Kate or not...but I would've taken him myself! Paul...not so much.

Bonus points: 5 out of 5.

Recommended for: Fans of historical Christian fiction who don't mind strong heroines, jilted heroes, and a romance that takes half the story to get off the ground.

Total Rating: 2.9 out of 5 stars

 *I downloaded this book free for Kindle.