Books for Christian Girls: "The King's Feather" by Amy Earls

About this book:

  “Rescue Mom. Handle The Prophesied Power.
And Don’t Fall in Love.
Sure. No Problem at All.
    Pero Moshe’s mom vanished from their Oregon home, and the prophecy says it will happen to Pero, too. But when it does—and Pero is transported to an older universe, life gets more than a little nuts.
    Throw in a bodyguard who is almost criminally cute, a corrupt and brilliant doctor who wants to steal Pero’s power and rule all of Moon City, and her mom showing up as a pawn in the whole thing. And all Pero wants is to grab her mom and go home.
    But, uh, yeah, that’s not happening.
    In the end, Pero is forced to choose between forgiveness or escaping with those she loves before a shout crumbles Moon City’s walls to pieces. And both choices come at a cost she’s not sure she’s willing to pay.”

Series: Book #1 in the “Under His Wings” series.

Spiritual Content- A quote by Joshua in the beginning (Joshua 6:16); A few Scriptures are quoted; Prayers; God is called God, Elohim, Yahweh, & Yeshua; The group of those who follow God are called “Lesaries” and the Bible is called “the Holy Words”; The city of Jericho is called “Moon City” and the events of the wall crashing down are prophesized and talked about (*Spoiler* the wall around the city falls towards the end *End of Spoiler*); Elohim talks to Pero and *Spoiler* comes to be with her in the flesh, talking to her and washing her feet, & heals someone else *End of Spoiler*; Many talks about Elohim, His plans, receiving power from Him, having faith, & forgiveness; 'H's are capital when referring to God; There are three people who are called the “chosen” and on their seventeenth birthday, they each received a gift (it’s said to be “like a power” that comes from Elohim) that has a special action (singing, dancing, & creating/growing trees) & have a special necklace; Pero and her mother are both one of the chosen; A man wants to be Elohim and use the chosen three as a channel to gain their powers; Pero doesn’t care about Elohim because He didn’t bring her mother back (*Spoiler* she quickly changes her tune about Him about because she won’t have to worry about control if she trusts Him and about halfway envisions herself giving Him her broken heart *End of Spoiler*); When Pero worships, she received visions of something that will happen; After trusting Elohim, Pero is able to fly; Many mentions of Elohim, prophecies, & visions; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches/church going (called a “sanctuary”), priests, & prayers and songs done there (Pero found it boring);
             *Note: There are doors/portals that can lead others into another world/universe/planet and it’s called “magic” a few times as Elohim directs others to go and they “magically appear”; Origo is an older universe and sounds like Bible times in the way they live; Everyone has two different bodies, one on Earth and one on Origo (when they are at one or the other, the body in the other universe hides and if they die in one universe, they’re body can be taken to the other universe to live in that body); In a dark place, Pero is instructed to call out to Elohim as there are invisible creatures there (she says “demons aren’t real, are they?” and the other person answers that “maybe they are, but I think they’ll go away if Elohim’s here”; Pero is then able to sense the spiritual side); Lesaries are able to fly on eagles; Mentions of a healing ointment called a blessing; A mention of a magic wand (used as a reference, not an actual item); A mention of some believing a man has received power from the moon; A mention of a man being worshipped by a community; A mention of a man being called a devil; A mention of a place being called hell; A mention of someone going through hell; A mention of someone having a curse; A mention of someone looking like a Greek goddess; A mention of a goddess of wisdom and war.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a form of ‘blasted’, a ‘crudmuffins!’, a ‘dang it’, a ‘dang you’, a ‘darn it’, a ‘great shimpers!’, a ‘idiot’, an ‘oh my word’, two ‘gosh’s, two ‘heck’s, two ‘shut up’s, three ‘dumb’s, and five ‘stupid’s; A possible derogatory name is cut off; Sarcasm, Sass, & Eye rolling; Pero talks back to her parents & other authority figures; A few mentions of curses (said, not written); Seeing a dead body (up to semi-detailed); Being attacked, Fighting, Pain, & Injuries (up to semi-detailed); Being held at gunpoint and knifepoint, threatened, & seeing someone shot (x4, with an arrow and guns, up to semi-detailed); Pero saw her mother abducted & has had nightmares of the event and her screams ever since;  Pero is given a sedative/drug and drinks it; Pero is tempted to steal something, but does not because Elohim is watching; Many mentions of deaths, murders, bodies, violence, battles, fighting, injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, & passing out (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of the possibility of being killed & a plan to kill someone; Mentions of slaves, slavery, & experimentations on slaves (including being able to bring them back to life by eating a special plant if they die); Mentions of torture & beatings; Mentions of being held at gunpoint & threatened; Mentions of abductions & kidnappers; Mentions of nightmares; Mentions of grieving (for a mother, a father, a wife, & parents); Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of alcohol, drunks, drinking, & underage drinking; A few mentions of stalkers; A few mentions of being drugged; A few mentions of betting & bets; A few mentions of hatred; A few mentions of throwing up; A couple mentions of a man killing many children; A couple mentions of rumors; A mention of a burglar; A mention of night clubs; A few mentions of jealousy;
             *Note: *Spoiler* About 2/3s through, Pero finds out she was adopted when her mother found her left in a tree; Pero wonders about her birth parents and thinks that the father who has raised her is not her dad and if he’ll still want her *End of Spoiler*; A few mentions of brand names (Gatorade, Barbie, & Disney); A mention of horror movies with creepy creatures; A mention of a bachelorette show.

Sexual Content- A hand kiss and a semi-detailed kiss; Recalling a kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to kiss; Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Warmth, Nearness, Butterflies, & Smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to touch & embrace (barely-above-not-detailed); Noticing & Staring (including muscles, barely-above-not-detailed); A ‘sexy’; *Spoiler* About halfway through, one of Pero’s love interests is thought to possibly be her half-brother and she’s very embarrassed about her feelings towards him, but it’s revealed closer to the end that she was adopted, so she’s confused on her feelings and if that means they can be together then. He proposes, but she’s not ready for that. She thinks that she’s drawn to him, but cannot love him *End of Spoiler*; It’s implied that Pero’s mother has been a concubine for a man while being held captive by him (including it being said that he took advantage of her and one man referring to her as one of the other man’s many girlfriends); Mentions of kisses, kissing, & touches; Mentions of flirting & blushes; Mentions of boyfriends; A few mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of crushes; A mention of swooning over a handsome older guy; Love, thinking about love, attraction, & the emotions;
             *Note: Both Pero’s love interests are in their mid-20s; A group of drunks tell Pero to take off her clothing (she does not nor is she in a dangerous situation because of them); A few mentions of a man being too old for Pero (she finds it gross when he calls her stunning); A couple mentions of a line of guys asking for Pero’s number; A mention of Pero wondering if she’s fallen for a guy like in a book where “the girl falls in love from a wolf-man’s psychedelic eye power? Or was [she] responding to something else in him?”; A mention of some guards making crude comments about women and fighting over them; A mention of a man kneeing another man in the groin; In the author’s note, she mentions about a prostitute from the Bible and a character being based off of her.

-Pero Moshe, age 17
                                1^st person P.O.V. of Pero
                                                   280 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{ Add up to a full star for Older High School Teens who enjoy Allegories. }

This was a very interesting and different book (that has a great cover, by the way).

I think it’s important before going into my final thoughts to know that I’m not a big allegory fan…I prefer things and plots of books to be straight up said, rather than have a hidden meaning behind the words. (It should be no shock to learn that I’m not a poetry fan either because of this.)

I would be really curious if someone who is a big fantasy or allegory fan read this book and their opinion on it. I don’t do high fantasy (extremely fantasy fantasy) books so it’s possible all of my lack of understanding is mostly my fault, but I still wished a lot of things were explained more to make it easier on those like me who has a brain that isn’t wired for such themes.

Here’s the thing, this book was well written. How things happened and the dialogue were good. I just wish events and how the worlds work could have been explained more. I struggled with caring about characters that we only knew for a little bit of time, not being sure the motives of others, how things are and people are connected, and points like that. There’s many worlds (?) but I honestly don’t understand really any of it—I’ve tried to do my best in the content sections to explain what I can. We’re pretty thrown into the plot in the first chapter, trying to figure things out, what’s going on, and learning new words. I wish there had been a bit more build-up, personally, in the first couple of chapters to have groundwork done before the main plot kicks in.

Pero can be rebellious, but I’m not sure if that’s her personality or the stress of the current events, because it happens at the beginning and there’s no work up to the events that will apparently take place on her birthday. She was too quick to like someone then switch to another guy. But one corner of the love triangle is handled in a way I wasn’t expecting and can’t say I liked how it went down (*Spoiler* He is apparently her half-brother? Even a cousin would be Ick, but the potential relation is just weird. She’s embarrassed about her feelings for him. But shortly later, he’s back to being a potential love interest when Pero finds out she’s adopted and he’s excited that they means they can be together. Personally, I’m very uncomfortable with that either way. *End of Spoiler*)

I think this book has great potential, but I do think the worlds and how everything is connected could have been explained and fleshed out better.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!