Books for Christian Girls: "Once I Knew" by Victoria Lynn

About this book:

“Violet lives her quiet little life in her sleepy village. Trying to remain as dead to the politics that are threatening their world as possible. She follows the rules, stays out of trouble and does her best to remain out of sight of the dreaded and overbearing Kingsmen.

With the new regent on the throne, the country has been thrown into a turmoil. Unlike the kindly king before him, the new ruler is overbearing, frightening and tyrannical in his rule. Taxes are bleeding the people dry and without the money or goods to pay, they have been forced into penal servitude and imprisonment by the Kingsmen, who know no mercy. The despair and fear that has taken over their lives has ruled out any level of hope.

When Violet stumbles upon an unconscious and injured Kingsman in the woods, despite the consequences, she cannot help but take care of the injured man. When he wakes and has no memory of who he is, she takes the only precaution that will keep her and her grandmother safe; she destroys the evidence of his past life.

If Violet’s lowly Kingsman regains his memory, will she be able to live with the consequences? And will the Kingsman be able to live with his past life?”

Series: Book #1 in “The Chronicles of Elira” series.

Spiritual Content- Galatians 5:1 at the beginning; Scriptures are mentioned, quoted, & remembered; Many prayers & thanking God; God talks to Violet & Obed; A couple hymns are remembered & sung; Talks about God, His plan, being a child of God, & praying; A discussion about God, why He is/isn’t rescuing His people right away, & Him knowing (Violet struggles with this); ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Obed isn’t sure if he believes in God (*Spoiler* Halfway through, God talks to him and he prays for Jesus to take and cleanse him; he feels the difference and God talks to him *End of Spoiler*); Many, many mentions of God, Jesus, His sacrifice for us, seeing the Lord, being called by Him, & being a child of God; Many mentions of prayers & praying (including a mention of Obed thinking that Violet wasn’t praying in English one time); Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of Heaven & knowing you’re going there when you die; Mentions of sins, sinners, & living sinfully; A few mentions of faiths; A few mentions of miracles; A couple mentions of the Lord sometimes opening people’s eyes to future events (called “spiritual sight”); A couple mentions of godsends; A couple mentions of churches & religions; A mention of going to churches that have “a ceremony of pomps, scripts, and elaborate folding of hands”;

*Note: Violet says that every Kingsman she’s met was evil or some varying shade of it; Mentions of evil men, a man’s evil eyes, evil plans, evil intentions, & the evil in someone; Mentions of hell (the possibility of “all hell [breaking] loose”, fighting “like hell”, wanting to “bring down hell” upon someone, a “hellish moment”, a fire being like “a taste of hell”, pain like “hell fire”, not knowing “what hell exists” for someone, and someone forcing a “living hell” upon his people); A mention of a man being like “a demon from the pit of burning fire”; A mention of a demon inside of someone; A mention of Violet thinking that if a room “burned as hot as her soul did, then [the people in the room] would all burn in hellfire”; A mention of someone looking at another like they’re a ghost or just sprouted horns.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘hang it all’, an ‘idiot’, a ‘manure’ (said like a curse), a ‘shut up’, a ‘what in tarnation’, a ‘what the devil’, and four forms of ‘stupid’; Mentions of curses & cursing (a couple by Violet (who was ashamed she knew them and said them), said not written); A bit of sarcasm; Being held at knife-point (barely-above-not-detailed); Fighting & being hit and slapped (both Violet and Obed, up to semi-detailed); Lots of Pain, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, & Passing out (up to semi-detailed); A fire, burns, & pain (semi-detailed); Recalling seeing the hanging of a loved one (blunt, semi-detailed) & grieving; Recalling an accident & pain (up to semi-detailed); Violet wonders at one point after a lot of pain, that “wouldn’t it just be easier to end it all?” (she’s told not to think like that and this leads into a discussion about God and Him knowing everything); Violet’s grandmother slips into old memories at times & is very confused (this is incredibly hard on Violet); Violet has few panic attacks & anxiety attacks; Violet lies that Obed is her cousin for the sake of their safety & also keeps from him anything she knows about his past; Many mentions of executions (hangings), being killed, & punishments from the government (including harsh beatings and being put into the stocks, up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of pain, injuries, being choked, broken bones, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of an assassination attempt & believing a body to have been eaten by wild animals (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of someone being poisoned & dying; Mentions of a possible death & dead body (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a child being beaten by the kingsmen and becoming crippled; Mentions of wars, battles, & fighting; Mentions of slavery & slaves; Mentions of someone being held at knife-point & blood; Mentions of a fire & injuries (semi-detailed); Mentions of threats of violence & killing; Mentions of prison; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, drunks, & pubs; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of rumors; Mentions of nightmares; Mentions of a kitten that was killed by a kingsman in front of it’s owner (a child, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of manure & the smell of waste (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of a country doing raids to “steal women, children, & helpless men”; A few mentions of treason; A few mentions of thieves & stealing; A few mentions of hatred; A few mentions of vomit & throwing up; A couple mentions of a possible kidnapping & ransom; A couple mentions of taking substances that altered your mind (Obed); A couple mentions of a horse being abused by it’s rider (barely-above-not-detailed); A mention of the sound of swords meeting flesh (barely-above-not-detailed); A mention of someone being ran out of a place & to be killed like a dog; A mention of being trapped “like a deer in a snare”; A mention of the smell of dead fish (barely-above-not-detailed).

Sexual Content- Two top-of-the-head kisses (one being friendly), a forehead kiss, an almost kiss (semi-detailed), and two semi-detailed kisses (one from a dream of a past event); Wanting to kiss someone (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, & Hand Holding (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to touch, embrace, & hold hands; Blushes; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); A Kingsman implies that if Violet sleeps with him, her debts will be paid (when she rejects him, he says that he may still get what he wants and that if she doesn’t pay, he’ll take what he wants with or without her permission; it’s blatantly hinted at what he means, but the words ‘sleep with’ or anything similar is not actually said); Kingsmen act suggestive to Violet & leer at her lustfully (this happens three times, including one trying to get her to kiss him & the others roughly pulling and pushing her and touching her cheek while talking to her in a suggestive tone, barely-above-not-detailed); Obed has a remembering/dream of a party & pulling a woman onto his lap for a kiss and playing with her hair (barely-above-not-detailed) & another of women at his feet and one in his lap playing with his hair and kisses her (it’s said that her breath on his cheek filled “him with pleasure”, that he recalling it, “felt the enjoyment of the moment but also felt repulsed”, border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); A few mentions of Violet not being touched by a man (it’s said that “he could have had his way and wrecked her if he had been given the slightest chance. Which, clearly, the Lord wasn’t allowing.”); A few mentions of a man bringing up of when Obed used to lust over everything and anything & him seducing many women; A couple mentions of woman being assaulted (no details, another mention of a girl being found “beaten and worse”); A couple mentions of kisses; A couple mentions of Violet’s purity (one said in a mocking tone); A mention of men whistling at Violet; A mention of a life turning into parties, women, & debauchery; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;

*Note: A couple mentions of a mother & (stillborn) baby dying (Violet’s family); A mention of some women’s dresses being revealing and lewd.

-Violet Frell

-Obed

P.O.V. switches between them

Historical/Fantasy

374 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Lower the ratings a full star for those sensitive to mentions of men having their way with women &/or animal death.}

What a fascinating novel. The characters, the world building, the setting. Just everything had me so intrigued and wanting to know more.

I had high hopes for this novel and it pretty much knock it out of the park. There was such good substance to this plot—it was not heavily focused on the romance, but on their faiths and doing the right and good thing for others. The romance elements were sweet and not on the physical side at all, which I so appreciated. The faith content was just spectacular, it held and weaved this book and the plot together so well.

I don’t know what else to say, this book quickly pulled me in and I didn’t want to set it down to do anything else. Two of my favorite tropes (amnesia and hidden identity) were important to the story and had me so curious in what would happen next.

There are some mentions of men leering at Violet and wanting to have their way with her, but nothing goes beyond that. Another few mentions of the death of a child’s pet that might be hard for some readers, so please take note of both of those parts. Violet also struggles with panic attacks at times and a mention of wondering about ending it all that could be triggering for those with suicidal thoughts. Elsewise, I would consider this book to be clean and could be interesting for readers 16+, depending on the girl.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!