Books for Christian Girls: "The Warrior Maiden" by Melanie Dickerson

About this book:

“She knows women are expected to marry, cook, and have children, not go to war. Can she manage to stay alive, save her mother, and keep the handsome son of a duke from discovering her secret?

When Mulan takes her father’s place in battle against the besieging Teutonic Knights, she realizes she has been preparing for this journey her whole life—and that her life, and her mother’s, depends on her success. As the adopted daughter of poor parents, Mulan has little power in the world. If she can’t prove herself on the battlefield, she could face death—or, perhaps worse, marriage to the village butcher.

Disguised as a young man, Mulan meets the German duke’s son, Wolfgang, who is determined to save his people even if it means fighting against his own brother. Wolfgang is exasperated by the new soldier who seems to be one step away from disaster at all times—or showing him up in embarrassing ways.

From rivals to reluctant friends, Mulan and Wolfgang begin to share secrets. But war is an uncertain time and dreams can die as quickly as they are born. When Mulan receives word of danger back home, she must make the ultimate choice. Can she be the son her bitter father never had? Or will she become the strong young woman she was created to be?

This fresh reimagining of the classic tale takes us to fifteenth-century Lithuania where both love and war challenge the strongest of hearts.”

Series: Book #9 in the “Hagenheim” series. {Reviews of #1 Here, #2 Here, #3 Here, #4 Here, #5 Here!, #6 Here!, #7 Here!, and #8 Here!} {You do not have to read this series in order to understand them, but I highly recommend that you do read them in order.}

Spiritual Content- Scriptures are mentioned, read, quoted, & discussed; Many Prayers, Crossing, & Thanking God; Talks about God, His will, & forgiveness; ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Many mentions of God & forgiveness; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of Christians & faiths; Mentions of Bibles; Mentions of chapels & crucifixes; Mentions of miracles; Mentions of blessings & being blessed; Mentions of prophecies & priests; Mentions of monks & monastery; Mentions of Church laws & excommunication; Mention of people thinking they’re doing something for God (taking other people’s land by force) & them using the Church as an excuse; Mentions of pagans; A few mentions of those & events in the Bible; A few mentions of the pope; A few mentions of sins; A couple mentions of Heaven; A couple mentions of crossing; A mention of the Holy Lands; A mention of someone’s religious zeal; A mention of guardian angels; A mention of a stained glass;

*Note: Many mentions of evil sorcery, pagan magic, witchcraft, & demonic trickery (including laws against it & the punishment of being burned at the stake); Mentions of evil people & evil actions; Mentions of a man thinking women are the devil’s favorite instrument for doing evil and working pagan magic; A few mentions of a demon-possessed man & his demons visibly leaving him; A mention of Satan’s tactic; A mention of a man looking like the devil himself; A mention of the devil’s schemes; A mention of asking if the devil is powerful in a land.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a form of ‘shut up’; A bit of sarcasm & eye rolling; Lots of Fighting in a war & Causing pain and injuries (Mulan does struggle with all of this & remembering, up to semi-detailed); Being shot, Pain, Injuries, & Blood/Bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Fires (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of battles, fighting, killing, deaths, bodies, injuries, & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a death & the body (from a sickness); Mentions of the death of a little boy from his father beating him; Mentions of executions & women being burned alive for witchcraft (whether they do it or not, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a plan to murder a duke & the attempt (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of fires & an enemy’s plan to burn people and their horses alive; Mentions of people & horses being killed in battles (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of beatings/torture, being left to die, injuries, blood/bleeding, & missing body parts (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of sword fights, injuries, & blood/bleeding; Mentions of violence & being threatened; Mentions of being choked; Mentions of Steffan’s harden heart & him mentioning that he’ll kill his family who are on the opposing side of the battle; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of lying, lies, & liars; Mentions of alcohol (wine & beer), drinking, & drunks; Mentions of Mulan being teased/bullied for looking different; A few mentions of a man being killed (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of slitting throats; A few mentions of sheep being chased off a cliff and dying; A few mentions of a butcher preparing meat (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of a man’s hatred for women; A few mentions of rumors; A couple mentions of a fight with a bear & injuries (Book #8); A couple mentions of a man smelling like bloody meat; A couple mentions of human waste & animal manure; A mention of an accident death; A mention of thinking someone had drowned;

*Note: A couple mentions of men using the bathroom at a tree.

Sexual Content- seven hand kisses (some barely-above-not-detailed), two cheek kisses, two forehead kisses, six not-detailed kisses, three barely-above-not-detailed kisses, and four semi-detailed kisses (one in a dream); Remembering a kiss & embrace (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to kiss & Staring at lips (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches & Embraces (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to touch & embrace (barely-above-not-detailed); Noticing, Nearness, Smelling, & Being flustered; A man tries to hit to Mulan about getting together (he touches her knee and she pulls out a knife on him); Mentions of Mulan being conceived out of wedlock while her biological father was fighting in a foreign land (an affair); Mentions of kisses & kissing; A few mentions of other illegitimate births; A few mentions of a vow of chastity & men never knowing a woman; A few mentions of wondering about being kissed & held in a man’s arms; A couple mentions of a man not taking advantage of a girl; A couple mentions of temptation; A couple mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of blushing; A mention of a man’s mother embracing many lovers; A mention of a less noble reason why a man would keep a girl around (not true, said in meanness); A mention of the possibility of crude men doing worse thing to a woman; A mention of being warned about a type of men; A mention of men’s coarse talk; A mention of a married couple kissing; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;

*Note: A few mentions of hiding Mulan’s “things” (breasts) & her not being well-endowed; A couple mentions of Mulan’s curves; A couple mentions of infants dying at a young age; A couple mentions of a wife only giving birth to stillborns.

-Mulan, age 18

-Wolfgang Gerstenberg
P.O.V. switches between them & Steffan (x6)

Set in 1423
303 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

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My personal Rating-

The book I’ve been anticipating for over two years.

Was it everything I hoped? Yes and no.

First off, the parts I really liked:
~Mulan. ~~Obviously~~. I’ve been sharing how excited I am about more diversity finally coming to the Christian YA market with this book and I just adore that we have Mulan of Asian descent in our fairytale retelling world. This counts for a lot in my eyes.

~It was different from the Disney ‘Mulan’. Now, don’t get me wrong, along with ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Frozen’, ‘Mulan’ and the sequel are some of my favorite Disney movies. However, I liked that this novel had its own take on the classic story. The Mushu-like character was very minor, and I would have liked seeing a bit more…he could have lightened the book up a little.

~Hearing about all the prior characters from this series. That was a bit bittersweet, though, just because this series seems to have only one book left now.

~I know this book is being promoted as a loose retelling of Mulan, but I would say it’s like the story of Mulan meets Joan of Arc (without the tragic ending of the last one).

~The great faith content. Mulan was a wonderful character who wanted to know about God due to what a couple priests told her when she was young. I also loved how quick she was to pray in the battle, as that is something I often feel is forgotten most of the time in Christian Fiction.

For the parts I wasn’t so thrilled on:

~Mainly, it was all the kisses towards the end and all the emotions happening quicker than I was expecting. If you’re okay with more kisses, than you should be fine, but I personally do think it got to be a bit much at one scene. Wolfgang was respectable towards Mulan, even after her secret was revealed (as he should as a fictional hero), so while that raised my view of him, he did seem a little meek-ish at times when he was with Steffan. (Which, side-note, I understand that completely because it’s an older sibling, but there were times I wished Wolfgang would be a little more blunt with his brother…then again, his way worked too for this plot.)

~The fighting. I was very appreciative that nothing went above semi-detailed, but since this was set during battles and fighting, there was quite obviously lots of fighting scenes. For my personal comfort level, I was okay with all of these parts, but those sensitive to such things might be warned.

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So, while yes, I was disappointed with all the kissing towards the end, I love the fact that we’re seeing more diversity in our Christian YA. I do look forward to reading Steffan’s story in “The Piper’s Pursuit” releasing December 2019.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!