About this book:
“Julia Schultz has a reputation for being a storyteller--or as others see it, a liar. But with a dark and painful past, stories were all that kept her company and made her interesting to others. Longing for a fresh start and a second chance to earn real trust, Julia takes a job as a Harvey Girl at the El Tovar hotel, where she's challenged to be her true self.
Learning the trade of a master jeweler is hard work, but Christopher Miller takes pride in running his family's small shop and earning the respect of the people around him. But when he discovers that he has six weeks to buy his shop from his landlord before it is sold, he must find a way to save his grandfather's legacy.
United by the discovery of a legendary treasure, Chris and Julia find hope in each other. But when Julia's past catches up with her, doubt creeps into Chris's heart. Can he really trust her and her stories?”
Series: Book #2 in the “Secrets of the Canyon” series. Review of Book #1 Here!
Spiritual Content- Many Scriptures are read, remembered, quoted, discussed, & thought-over; Being witnessed to (Julia) & witnessing to others (Ruth); Many Prayers & Thanking God; Many talks about God, Jesus, believing in Him, Him loving us, & faiths; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Ruth witnesses to Julia often; Julia doesn’t think she is worthy of God’s love & that God is too busy for her (at one point she thinks God is laughing at her); *Spoiler* Towards the end, right when what Ruth has said to her about God makes sense, there’s a spiteful voice in Julia’s head telling her that she’s a worthless orphan; She tries to cover her ears and tells God that she needs proof that He cares for her; Once she reads Scriptures that she’s been told before, she prays to God *End of Spoiler*; Many mentions of God, Jesus, believing in Him, His will, His creation, faiths; Many mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & those in the Bible; Mentions of witnessing & being witnessed to; Mentions of Heaven; Mentions of churches, church going, a study group, & a preacher; A few mentions of miracles; A few mentions of blessings & being Blessed; A couple mentions of a Franciscan priest; A mention of someone saying that the biblical flood carved the river in the Grand Canyon; A mention of a godly marriage; A mention of sinners;
*Note: A mention of some people believing an orphan is from the devil.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blah, blah, blah, blah, blah’, a ‘dagnabbit’, a ‘shoot’, a ‘sucker’, a ‘tarnation’, two ‘blast’s, four forms of ‘idiot’, eleven ‘dumb’s, and twenty ‘stupid’s; Seeing others who have been shot, attacked, injured, & bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Being tied up, Being beat-up, Injuries, & Pain (up to semi-detailed); Beating someone up & killing another by shooting him multiple times (done by Bobby, bluntly written, barely-above-not-detailed); A bit of sarcasm & eye rolling; Julia’s parents died when she was young, which caused her to go from home to home (*Major Spoiler* Her parents were hanged because they’d killed two people while robbing a bank *Major End of Spoiler); Because of Julia childhood (the deaths of her parents and then adoptive parents), she thinks that she’s worthless (also due to people making comments about her) and not deserving of love, so she’s sought attention and affirmation from others by telling lots of stories/lies (she’s told in the first chapter that it isn’t right and plans to do better from then on; she messes up once, but does well the rest of the book); Bobby smacks & later kills someone (barely-above-not-detailed); Bobby plans to kill anyone who gets in the way of finding the treasure (including Julia, barely-above-not-detailed); Many mentions of jail, arrests, crimes, criminals, robberies, thieves, stealing, stolen items, beating someone up, deaths/murders, & hangings; Many mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of deaths & grief (including Julia for her biological parents and adoptive parents & Chris for his grandfather); Mentions of planning to kill others to keep them away from the treasure (including trapping mountain lions to release on others; Bobby’s plans, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of stories about others’ deaths (Julia with her parents so she doesn’t have to tell anyone what really happened to them); Mentions of gunshots, almost being shot, others being shot, & attacks (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, & mountain lion attacks (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of hatred; Mentions of gossip, rumors, peer pressure, & a mean girl; Mentions of wounded animals, animals killing their prey, & a carcass (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of threats; A few mentions of a child almost getting hit by a train (a story, did not actually happen); A few mentions of pipes & tobacco; A few mentions of throwing up; A few mentions of hunters & hunting; A couple mentions of a fire & deaths; A couple mentions of a woman running for her life (Book #1); A couple mentions of someone passing out; A couple mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of a family being evicted; A mention of a kidnapping (Book #1); A mention of a child putting a snake in his adoptive mother’s bed & her getting sick (it’s implied the child is no longer with them); A mention of loan sharks coming after a person’s family & taking everything; A mention of seeing the life draining out of an animal (that attacked someone); A mention of someone’s glare being able to skin a cat; A mention of poop;
*Note: Mentions of a young Julia facing prejudice because she’s an orphan.
Sexual Content- Forehead/Temple kisses, a not-detailed kiss, and a borderline barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kiss; Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, & Nearness (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to touch & embrace; Blushes; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of an engaged couple struggling with their passion, but wanting to honor the Lord with their bodies, so they promise to only share one kiss a week (he says it’s hard to restrain himself); A couple mentions of couples kissing; A mention of a wife telling her husband that he took “too many husbandly privileges”; A mention of Chris aiming to keep his mind and body pure; A mention of flirting; Love, falling in love, & the emotions.
-Julia Schultz
-Christopher ‘Chris’ Miller
P.O.V. switches between them, Ruth (x6), & Bobby (x9)
Set in 1907 (Prologue in 1889)
320 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
This book had quite a bit of lessons!
Our main girl, Julia, oh, goodness. I felt really bad for her. All she wants is love—unconditional love—and to have others care about her. Julia’s childhood taught her that lying and coming up with stories about herself would make others interested in her. I was glad to see someone tell her that that isn’t how she should live very quickly on in the story because I don’t think I could have handled waiting for that discussion. Like in the first book, I do think that Julia’s change of believing happened a bit…not rushed because it was towards the end of the book, but perhaps sudden.
Chris was fine. A little too perfect at times, but they were cute together and this book reminded me of a book I probably would have loved as a tween/early teen. Clean, sweet romance, and a little bit of a mystery. It did few…juvenile at times, but that might be because of all the exclamation points and the writing style. I will overlook that easily though since it’s very clean with good lessons. So far, both this second book and the first book are ones I think ages 13-15 would really enjoy.
We see Ruth’s point of view more in this second book, so I’m looking forward to finally learning her story in the third and final book. This has been an interesting series so far. I think I enjoyed the first book a bit more, but this one was good too. I definitely plan on reading the third book (Ruth’s story) soon.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
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