Books for Christian Girls: "Unrivaled" by Siri Mitchell

About this book:

“Lucy Kendall returns from a tour of the Continent, her luggage filled with the latest fashions and a mind fired by inspiration. After tasting Europe's best confections, she's sure she'll come up with a recipe that will save her father's struggling candy business and reverse their fortunes. But she soon discovers that their biggest competitor, the cheat who swindled her father out of his prize recipe, has now hired a promotions manager--a cocky, handsome out-of-towner who gets under Lucy's skin.

Charlie Clarke's new role at Standard Manufacturing is the chance of a lifetime. He can put some rough times behind him and reconnect with the father he's never known. The one thing he never counted on, however, was tenacious Lucy Kendall. She's making his work life miserable...and making herself impossible for him to forget.”

Series: While apart of a series, it is not connected to any other book.

Spiritual Content- A couple Prayers; Talks about God, forgiving, & sins; ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Church going (but neither Lucy nor Charlie pay attention to the sermon); During a Confession time at Church, Lucy thinks that “if God knew everything, then there oughtn’t be a need to confess to the things we’d done wrong”); Lucy thinks that if God gives her a passion she wasn’t allowed to do (making candy), that she’ll just ignore Him; Charlie has resented God for something that happened in his childhood & doesn’t like going to church; Both Lucy & Charlie are witnessed to by a new friend, though neither of them fully understand what she’s saying; Towards the end, there doesn’t seem to be much improvement on their thoughts about God (Charlie mentions that talking to God won’t do any good); Partially set during Christmas; Mentions of God, Jesus, & forgiveness; Mentions of churches, church going, preaching, & sermons; Mentions of missionaries; Mentions of Christmas, a nativity, & those in the Bible; Mentions of sins, sinners, & sinning; A couple mentions of blessings; A mention of someone believing like doubting apostle Thomas; A mention of someone finding religion; A mention of that religion is impolite to discuss;

*Note: After thinking he’s played a dirty trick, Lucy thinks that Hell was too good for Charlie and that she hopes “there was someplace even darker and hotter and more miserable for his soul to go and rot.”; Mentions of Santa; A mention of God hearing Lucy’s prayers for a business to go away; A mention of people “raising Cain” (upset) about something; A mention of someone being the spawn of the devil; A mention of a factory being hell; A mention of a woman being blessed with an angel’s voice, but that she’s also been cursed because of her using it in a saloon.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, a ‘drat’, a ‘shut up’, a ‘stupid’, and three ‘dumbs’; The phrase “curse *enter name* for doing *this thing* is said a few times; Eye rolling; Fighting/Boxing; Charlie drinks whiskey out of a flask, goes to a saloon (two or three times), drinks, & social drinking (all positively looked at by him, including him thinking that dancing and drinking were good ways to stay warm during the winter months); Charlie takes part in a card game & wins money (gambling); Lucy plays dirty tricks on Charlie’s father’s company (such as canceling their sugar deliveries and not following instructions from a store-owner); Many mentions of murders, murderers, arrests, criminals, crimes, & jails; Mentions of fights, fighters/boxers, beatings, seeing someone beaten and killed (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Mentions of thugs using guns, breaking kneecaps or legs, & throwing people off bridges; Mentions of thieves & stealing; Mentions of fires & explosions; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of social/dinner drinking, alcohol, bars/saloons; Mentions of cigars, cigarettes, tobacco, pipes, & smoking; Mentions of Charlie’s parent’s divorce; A few mentions of rumors; A few mentions of poker, card games, & gambling; A mention of arson; A mention of throwing up;

*Note: Many mentions of Charlie’s father who left their family & discussions about it; Mentions of animal furs (seal, bear, pony, & fox, barely-above-not-detailed).

Sexual Content- Three cheek kisses, two almost kisses, a not-detailed kiss, two barely-above-not-detailed kisses; Recalling a kiss (up to semi-detailed); Staring at someone’s lips, Wanting to kiss, & Wanting to be kissed (barely-above-not-detailed to semi-detailed); Touches, Embraces, & Hand holding (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Noticing, Nearness, & Smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); A ‘whore’ (Charlie’s father says the only girl you’d be alone with in the dark is a whore or your fiancée); Mentions of an engaged man flirting and hanging out with a saloon singer; Mentions of kisses & kissing; Mentions of reputations & ruination; Mentions of blushes & winks; A few mentions of a honeymoon, a husband seeing his wife’s nightgown, & “what [married couples] have to do” (“rapturous embraces, passionate kisses, and that sort of thing” Lucy wonders if pleasant since people do it, but then wonders if they do it just because they had to); A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of a married couple kissing; A mention from Charlie that he’s kissed at least a dozen girls, but Lucy’s lips were the sweetest; A mention of Charlie would whistle his appreciation for a girl (Lucy) but doesn’t, thinking it would be taken the wrong way; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;

*Note: A mention of a girl’s figure filling out a dress (Lucy hopes she figure will do the same one day).

-Lucille “Lucy” Kendall, age 19

-Charles “Charlie” Clarke

1^st person P.O.V. switches between them

Set in 1910

391 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

It’s my second time reading this novel, and while I definitely enjoyed it more the first time around, I still found this book to be very interesting with the candy factories and rivalry. I found myself getting quite into the rivalry, actually! Both Lucy & Charlie had their moments where I wasn’t liking their choices (Lucy because of her dirty tricks and Charlie drinking and gambling a bit), but overall, I thought the book was pretty realistic in their thoughts and actions—if you were in their shoes, that is.

I’m not sure if I really enjoy the enemies-to-lovers tropes, which this book is for the majority, though. I think it’s always the “I’m so mad at this person/I hate this person, but I can’t help look at their lips” parts that make me unsettled and wrinkle my nose in displeasure.

It was interesting to see both main character’s parts in a 1^st person point of view, which isn’t common.

The faith content was…different in this book and both Lucy and Charlie’s questions/disgruntlements (?) weren’t wrapped up by the end, which I thought was unfortunate. Lucy also had her moments—such as being so annoyed with Charlie she thinks that Hell is too good of a place for him. That really rubbed me the wrong way, personally. It showed herself as the selfish, mean, and rude person another person said that she was when she was younger, but still. I thought that was completely not necessary to say.

While somewhat clean in most regards, there was some comments that would go over the heads of some readers. I’ll still recommend “Like a Flower in Bloom” by this author more than this novel.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!