“Set in 1810 London, England, William Jennings has never been interested in marriage and family. So when a relative dies and leaves Jennings three young children, his world turns upside down.
Thrilled to have boys to carry on his name, William invests time in the two brothers, but the little girl is tended to by a negligent nanny. Finally, Jennings seeks help from his sister and soon becomes acquainted with her neighbor, Marianne Walker. Her strength and faith intrigues Jennings, but will he allow himself to fall for her and the God she loves?”
Spiritual Content- Bible reading & Scriptures are read, quoted, thought over, & mentioned; Prayers, Thanking God, & Blessings over food; Church going & sermons; Witnessing & Being witnessed to; Hearing salvation stories from others; Many talks about God, the Trinity, being a Christian, having a faith, & not being in an unequally yoked relationship; ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Jennings stopped contacting his sister after she became a Christian because he thinks that the Bible is incomprehensible and doesn’t want to hear about God; Jennings says a pastor has twisted some of the Scriptures and someone else tells him that the pastor is held accountable by other men in the congregation to make sure his interpretation is biblical; *Spoiler* A bit more than half-way through, Jennings prays and asks God to take away his sins (“the worst of which is my belief that I didn’t sin at all”); He continues to pray, read the Bible, and is mentored by other men throughout the rest of the story *End of Spoiler*; Many mentions of God, Jesus, His will, trusting Him, & praying; Many mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & books of and those in the Bible; Many mentions of prayers, praying, thanking God, & blessings over food; Many mentions of churches, church going, sermons, pastors, singing, & services; Mentions of revivals & being lead to Christ; Mentions of Christians, believing in God, testimonies, & salvation stories; Mentions of training children in the Way & parents making sure they are claiming Christ for their own; Mentions of eternity; Mentions of sins & sinners (At the beginning, it’s said that Jennings probably wouldn’t call himself a sinner and doesn’t think that little children can sin); A couple mentions of miracles; A mention of a Bible study; A mention of being blessed;
*Note: A mention of guardian angels.
Negative Content- A bit of eye rolling; Seeing grieving from children who lost their father; *Spoiler* The children runaway from Jennings due to the abusive nanny *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of a physically abusive nanny & young children receiving pain, bruises, and injuries from her; Mentions of using the bathroom outdoors; A few mentions of a death of a parent & how it happened (his horse got spooked by a snake and landed on him, barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of potentially drowning; A couple mentions of lying & lies; A couple mentions of gossip; A mention of jealousy; A mention of throwing up.
Sexual Content- Four not-detailed kisses and four barely-above-not-detailed kisses (most were done by married couples and a couple of the kisses lead to them being in/going to a bed); Married couples sharing a bed & a few hints to kissing and back massages; Some Noticing, Nearness, Touches, & Embraces; Blushes; Mentions of reputations; A few mentions of a husband kissing his wife’s neck; A couple mentions of a married woman “throw[ing] off every inhibition” after her husband left; Some love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: A mention of a mother who died in labor; A mention of a miscarriage.
-Marianne Walker, age 24
-William Jennings, age 33
P.O.V. switches between them, the children, & many others
Set in 1810
297 pages
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Somehow, this was my first book by
an author that’s deemed a “classic” for the Christian Fiction industry.
My reasons for a low-star rating
is more do to technical details than content, but let me first say some things
I enjoyed:
It was pretty clean. There’s a couple parts of married couples sharing a bed and very light hinting to more, but I do think it would go over most younger readers’ heads.
The faith content was good and loaded throughout the story. (Though I did find Jennings’ moment to be a little out of the blue, but it was needed for the rest of the plot to happen, I suppose.)
My main struggle with this story was that there’s a lot of head-jumping (when the point of view changes within the same chapter with no breaks). I really struggled with that for most of the story. Jennings was also a bit…annoyingly selfish at the beginning, but thankfully that changed fast. (Also, have to add: Where were all the chaperones?! Jennings and Marianne were left alone a lot and while there were mentions of her reputation not being harmed, nothing about chaperones??)
Overall, it wasn’t a new favorite book or one I highly enjoyed. I’m not sure if I’ll read another book by this author if head-jumping is normal in her book, but this one was an okay read for me, personally.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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