"A Lady's Guide to Marvels and Misadventure" by Angela Bell

About this book:

  “Miss Clara Marie Stanton's family may be eccentric, but they certainly aren't insane.
    London, England, 1860 
    When Clara's ex-fiancé begins to spread rumors that her family suffers from hereditary insanity, it's all she can do to protect them from his desperate schemes, society's prejudice, and a lifetime in an asylum. Then Clara's Grandfather Drosselmeyer brings on an apprentice with a mechanical leg, and all pretense of normalcy takes wing.
    Theodore Kingsley, a shame-chased vagabond haunted by the war, wants a fresh start far from Kingsley Court and the disappointed father who declared him dead. Upon returning to England, Theodore meets clockmaker Drosselmeyer, who hires him as an apprentice, much to Clara's dismay. When Drosselmeyer spontaneously disappears in his secret flying owl machine, he leaves behind a note for Clara, beseeching her to make her dreams of adventure a reality by joining him on a merry scavenger hunt across Europe. Together, Clara and Theodore set off to follow Drosselmeyer's trail of clues, but they will have to stay one step ahead of a villain who wants the flying machine for himself--at any cost.”


Series: As of now, seems to be a stand-alone novel. 


Spiritual Content- A few Scriptures are mentioned; Prayers; Singing a hymn; Talks about God, trusting Him, giving up control, & leaning and relying on Him; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Clara believes that everything is up to her and wants to make sure she doesn’t disappoint her family or her God, but both her mother and grandfather witness to her about trusting God and giving up control; Clara’s mother accuses her of trying to carry the world on her shoulders when she’s not God; Clara, her mother, and Theodore visit a handful of beautiful cathedrals, but Theodore doesn’t enter them due to his belief that he’ll soil the Almighty’s house due to past actions; Theodore longs to enter different cathedrals and wonders if he staying away from the Lord’s house has been a mistake; *Spoilers* Theodore wonders if God would be willing to welcome him home after Clara’s mother tells him not to mistake his heavenly Father’s character for his earthly father’s voice, but later thinks that God would never welcome him home; Towards the end, he has a dream of a voice talking to him, treating him kindly, and saying that He will always claim Theodore as his child and him can depend on Him; Theodore wakes up from that dream and kneels at a cross pledging to lean on Him and nothing else *End of Spoilers*; Clara receives letters for her grandfather encouraging her to pursue relying on the Lord and being dependent on Him; *Spoilers* Towards the end, Clara asks God to forgive her stubbornness and asks Him for help, wanting to lean into Him; Clara later wants to seek the Lord’s guidance before admitting her feelings to Theodore, knowing that the last time she didn’t do that regarding a relationship, there was a lot of pain; Theodore agrees to pray about it with her and do what the Lord leads *End of Spoilers*; Many mentions of God, Jesus, trusting Him, giving Him control, leaning and replying on Him, faiths, & Hope; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of God’s creation & His animals (Clara’s mother is an advocate for rescuing mistreated and injured ones); Mentions of cathedrals, visiting them, worship, stained glass windows, statues of saints, & priests; Mentions of songs of worship & it being moving (bells at a cathedral & singing a hymn); Mentions of Jesuits & saints; Mentions of a parade of the apostles and with the archangel Michael battling a skeleton figuring (representing death) at an event; A few mentions of thanking God; A few mentions of blessings; A couple mentions of Providence; A couple mentions of Heaven; A couple mentions of a priest spewing brimstone and hellfire; A mention of the Resurrection; A mention of the return of Christ; A mention of the Gospels & reading them; A mention of divine intervention; A mention of being a good Christian woman (Clara’s mother jokes that she’s not one until she’s had her tea and toast); A mention of a vicar; A mention of Clara’s mother’s plan to baptize animals (not sure if joking or said in earnest); 
             *Note: ‘Good heavens’ is said four times, ‘Thank heavens’ twice, ‘Heavens above’ twice, ‘Heaven knows’ twice, ‘Dear heavens’ once, ‘for heaven’s sake’ once, and ‘how in the name of heaven and earth’ once; A woman yells out for Heaven to save her after seeing a rat; Someone says that “there is no darker hell than a government intuition”; A swan is called a “winged demon” by Theodore; Mentions of Greek mythology and gods, statues of them, & parts of the legends; Mentions of a hobgoblin (Clara calls Theodore one multiple times); A couple mentions of something not being magic but ingenuity; A mention of Theodore’s demons haunting him and controlling his nightmares; A mention of demonic rodents; A mention of sinfully delectable chocolate truffles; A mention of an ungodly speed of a train; A mention of animal being an omen of good luck; A mention of someone screeching like a banshee.
 

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘bah’, a ‘confounded’, a ‘what the devil’, two ‘bloomin’s, two ‘for the love of all’s, two forms of ‘my foot’, two forms of ‘what the dickens’, three ‘cursed’s, three forms of ‘shut up’, three forms of ‘what in the blazes’, four ‘botheration’s, four forms of ‘drat’, four ‘stars above’s, five ‘gah’s, seven ‘by jove’s, seven ‘shove off’s, seven ‘what the deuce’s, eight forms of ‘blast’, eight forms of ‘dashed/dash it all’, eight forms of ‘idiot’, ten forms of ‘stupid’, and sixteen ‘stars’ (exclamation); Theodore exclaims “Rusted cogs!” six times; Other made-up curses like “Salted paper cuts”, “Feathers and figs”, “Liver and onions”, and “Rust and rot” are used; Mentions of curses (including Clara holding some back when in pain and Theodore being tempted to swear; others are said, but not written out); Some eye rolling & sarcasm; Being kidnapped, Being held at knife- and gunpoint, Being drugged (chloroform), Being tied up, Almost drowning, Pain, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, & Passing Out (up to semi-detailed); Stabbing someone & Seeing someone shot (self-defense, up to semi-detailed); Seeing someone knocked out, the injuries and blood, & Being concerned for the person (up to semi-detailed); Nightmares (Theodore about his time in a bloody battle and seeing deaths along with hurtful and hateful words from his father and being whipped and slapped by him as well, semi-detailed); Some grief (Clara for her grandmother); Clara feels panic when her mother disappears (she walked away from her, up to semi-detailed); Clara’s ex-fiancé is stalking her due to her family’s money & she is mistrusting towards others because of what he’s done and threatens to do; Clara’s mother rescues animals that are injured, mistreated, or about to be killed by a human (we see this on page and some were going to be drowned); Clara’s mother gets excited about watching two men engage in fisticuffs (they witness the fight, up to semi-detailed); Clara tells a white lie to her mother, but her mother calls her out on it; Mentions of battles, deaths, injuries, a soldier’s “mental faculties” being “deemed damaged beyond hope” and being committed to an asylum, & nightmares and guilt over it (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of deaths of loved ones & grief (Clara for her grandmother, but we also see mentions of her grandfather’s grief for his late wife and son, and mentions of Clara’s grandmother receiving horrible news that caused her to collapse and later her death); Mentions of train crashes, deaths, & Clara’s fear of trains because of hearing about people trapped in them (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of an abduction/kidnapping, chloroform, being tied-up, being held at knife- and gunpoint; Mentions of fights, fighting, an attack, people being shot at, pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of violence, thieves, thefts, pick-pockets, stealing, stolen items, robberies, & break-ins; Mentions of stalking & a stalker; Mentions of jails/prisons, arrests, & deaths; Mentions of threats, blackmail, dastardly spies, & revenge; Mentions of gambling, a man’s addiction, bets, debts, a debt’s prison, & a man being beaten and threatened by his creditor (*Spoiler* At the end, it’s revealed that Clara’s mother betted on a sure-thing, received a large purse from it, and plans to open two orphanages *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of lies, lying, liars, & deception (including Theodore lying to get Clara’s mother’s animals on a train); Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, & drunks (including a man pouring a drink for someone who has passed and then pouring the wine in a river); Mentions of manure/excrement & chamber pots; Mentions of injured animals & Clara’s mother rescuing them before they die or are killed by humans (including drowning the animals in a sack or tossing them off a ship); A few mentions of murder & murderers (mostly towards animals, which Clara’s mother stops); A few mentions of taxidermists; A few mentions of fashionable items being made from animals (pelts and feathers for hats); A few mentions of the death of a mother animal; A couple mentions of a saint being tortured and thrown off a bridge wearing heavy armor; A couple mentions of nooses; A couple mentions of an ambush with torches and pitchforks; A couple mentions of tobacco; A mention of being conned; A mention of a hunter;
             *Note: Theodore’s father resents him for his mother passing away when giving birth to him (He recalls his father saying that he would trade Theodore for his wife, a few times), is verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive, & whips Theodore in past memories and nightmares; Theodore does not have a good family and the topic of his family is a sore spot for him; Theodore views himself as a spare part in the world and a faulty one (because of his father’s ugly words); *Spoiler* At the end, Theodore writes a letter of extending forgiveness to his father, now knowing that being a child of God is an inheritance no man can revoke *End of Spoiler*; Clara is afraid of her family members being committed to an asylum due to their personalities and rumored “hereditary insanity”; Mentions of asylums, those committed to one, the deplorable conditions (including the patients being chained and whipped), Clara being afraid of her family members being committed to one, being threatened about sending someone there, & deaths that happened at asylums; Mentions of Clara’s medical journals cautioning travelers about “railway madness” that can happen with all the jostling on a train and sensory exposure & she is concerned that her mother could get it (also concerned about her mother’s mind “becoming unhinged”due to the train); A few mentions of authors, books, & fictional characters (Pride and Prejudice & The Three Musketeers); A couple mentions of children discriminating other children because of their parents’ prejudices; A mention of Clara’s ex-fiancé telling her she had no business to be involved in his business deals; A mention of a dog Clara’s mother saved from having his ears docked.
 
 
Sexual Content- Two hand kisses, an almost kiss, and a barely-above-not-detailed kiss; Staring at another’s lips; Touches, Dancing, Hand holding, Warmth, Butterflies, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Recalling touches & warmth (barely-above-not-detailed); Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Flirting, Blushes, & Winks; Clara’s mother hints to Clara and Theodore kissing & that they should not do something scandalous when being unchaperoned for a moment (her eyebrows waggling imply her wanting to do that latter one, though, and Theodore teases Clara about doing something scandalous with her); Theodore gives Clara a foot massage (not sexual, just a sweet action); a ‘trollop’; Mentions of blushes & winks; A few mentions of an almost kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of chaperones; A mention of seducing; A mention of the sort of women that lure unsuspecting lads into alleys and “have their way with them” (Theodore teasing Clara); Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
             *Note: Clara is shocked to hear her mother say the word “rousing” and begs her to never use it again in her presence; Clara kicks a man in his loins to vent a measure of her fury (which causes him pain & to moan in agony); Clara knees a man & it’s implied to have been in his private area as she hopes he can’t sit right for a month; When falling into a lake, Clara starts to undress to help her not drown (not sexual at all or commented on by Theodore); Mentions of Theodore’s mother dying in childbirth; A handful of mentions of Clara’s mother’s ample bosom & Clara being squished by it in an embrace; A few mentions of Clara’s mother’s concern about her new mice friend’s habitat having to consider their “conduciveness to pleasant procreation practice” for the habitat to be deemed suitable; A mention of Clara’s mother wanting to order someone to shoot a man in a place that will “end his chances of reproducing”.
 
-Clara Stanton, age 23
-Theodore “Arthur” Kingsley
                                P.O.V. switches between them 
                                            Set in 1860
                                                        383 pages

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Pre Teens- 

New Teens- 

Early High School Teens- 

Older High School Teens- 

My personal Rating- 

I’ve heard a lot of different opinions about this book, so even though I was already curious about this book the minute I heard about it, I became even more curious hearing that it was actually a steampunk book and not just a Historical book like I was expecting. Had I not known it would have a Steampunk influence (mainly through automatons and flying machines), though, I think I would’ve been very confused and it would’ve altered my enjoyment of the book. So go into this book knowing this information! 

 

It had its silly moments with all the many animals Clara’s mother has rescued, but then it would take a turn to solemn moments with the mentions of asylums and deaths of loved ones. It was a bit jarring at time, but that’s trying to continue living life and also facing on-going grief. 

 

I can see why some people didn’t like Clara with her attitude towards Arthur—I enjoy it for the first part but I do wish she would’ve been kinder to him quicker because he was a dear. But I can see where she was coming from (trying to protect her family from the scoundrel she used to be engaged to) and I did enjoy how he didn’t let her suspicions and general mistrust of him to bother him. He kept teasing her good naturedly and was such a sunshine-like character. She did lighten up before the half-way mark and when he started to do a bit of flirting, it was so smooth and so cute. They really were a good match and I really enjoyed reading their adventure and quips. 

 

The faith content was lovely and often what my own heart needed to hear along with Clara’s. It was worked in beautifully with letters from her grandfather and conversations with her mother. Arthur/Theodore doesn’t think he can come to God because of his past actions and his earthly father’s loathing, but how it was shown and what happened at the end brought tears to my eyes. Also how their growing faiths made a big role of her acceptance of his feelings and wanting to seek God’s guidance before becoming closer to Theodore was great to see. 

 

I really liked so many aspects of this book! The humor and whit in this book took me my surprised and I really liked it. I also really liked Clara and her protectiveness for her family. This book had a whimsical writing style that can be a little difficult I think to get into at first, but it was fun and fit the mood of the story. 

 

Overall, I found it to be utterly charming. I can’t think of a better word than charming, but I suppose whimsical and even delightful would fit as well. The romance was light and cute, the whit and banter was great, and the faith content was something I needed. Really enjoyed this book and suspect it will be a favorite from 2024!

 

 

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.

"History Lost and Found" by Beth Adams

About this book:

  “When Pearl Allen passes away the day after her 100th birthday, her granddaughter Tracy begins the difficult task of sorting through her beloved grandmother’s belongings. She finds a worn, marked-up King James Bible and a trove of journals and scrapbooks in her grandmother’s cedar chest. Within is a handwritten family tree with the name Ezekiel Collins listed as one of Pearl’s children. There has to be a mistake because how can she have an uncle she’s never heard of?”


Series: Book #1 in the “Secrets from Grandma’s Attic” series. 


Spiritual Content- A bit of Bible reading; Church going (a few times for answers for the mystery); Talks about God & His love for us that’s shown in the Bible; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Many mentions of Bibles; Mentions of God, trusting Him, His love, & grace; Mentions of Bible reading & devotionals; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, a church choir, services, your group & pastors/rectors; Mentions of nuns from a convent running a home for unwed mothers; A few mentions of a Methodist church & a Lutheran church; A couple mentions of sharing the gospel; A mention of it always being a good time to worship God; A mention of a miracle; A mention of Christian books; A mention of a woman being a deacon at her church; A mention of a sin; 
             *Note: A teenager says that he didn’t want to hear about his great-grandmother’s Bible but rather about hear about soldiers when interviewing her for a report; A handful of mentions of luck & bad luck; A couple mentions of a rumored ghost haunting a place & another haunted place; A mention of a woman’s demons; A mention of a place being called evil (because of treatment received there). 
 

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘sucking up’; A bit of eye rolling & sarcasm; Mentions of wars, the Pearl Harbor bombing, fighting, deaths, & grief (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of the Spanish flu, “treatments” for it (such as drinking bleach or smelling gasoline) & deaths; Mentions of a baby ring (Georgia Tann) & kidnapping/stealing the children and falsifying records; Mentions of drugs being part of why two kids are in the foster care system, the kids suffering when they were with their birth mother because of her own demons, the kids ties to the birth mother never being severed because of blood, them being retraumatized every time after visiting her, & the possibility of the birth mother getting custody again; Mentions of fires & a family losing their house; Mentions of shipwrecks & colliding boats; Mentions of divorces & an unwanted separation; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of rumors; Mentions of anger & tension towards others over differences in opinion on town laws; Mentions of elderly family members having memory problems (including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, & someone implies another is crazy by moving her finger in a circle on the side of her head when talking about the elderly woman); A few mentions of the possibility of the death of a child with medical problems; A few mentions of car crashes & a death (involving an eight-teen wheeler); A couple mentions of jealousy (between sisters); A mention of the possibility of an infant dying at birth; A mention of a death from cancer; A mention of a man dying after a long fight with Alzheimer’s; A mention of a woman’s husband being diagnosed with leukemia; A mention of someone’s lip piercing; A mention of a missing person; A mention of a flood; A mention of nightmares; A mention of graffiti; A mention of alcohol; A mention of someone looking like another just punched a kitten; 
             *Note: *Major Spoilers* A man tells his adoptive mother (who has always tried to keep his adoption a secret) that his biological mother has never been and is not his mother, that she is; The adoptive mother adds that the biological family isn’t his family because they gave him up and abandoned him, but he defends them because they didn’t know about him *End of Spoilers*; Many, many mentions of foster care, adoption, & biological parents (including mothers being forced to give-up their children, comments about adoption being rooted in the heartbreak of a mother sacrificing herself for her child, a comment about the children finding loving homes and the birth mothers “going on to have another chance at a more traditional life”, & Tracy finding records of a home for unwed mothers and wondering if the young woman wanted to relinquish their babies, wanted to raise them, or if they ever gotten over the loss, up to semi-detailed on her thought and wonderings about their feelings and emotions); Many mentions of institutions back in historical days where adults, children, and babies would be admitted for many different reasons (such as schizophrenia, mongolism, multiple personalities, laziness, epileptic fits, dropsy, tuberculosis, overtaxing of mental powers, hysteria, & babies with disabilities like craniosynostosis and Down syndrome), the babies or people being “sent away” to there by their family members (Tracy wonders if this is what happened to the person named in the Bible, but believes that her grandparents would have only put the baby there if they couldn’t care for him with a severe medical problem), a facility being described like it being like “every horror move you’ve ever seen”, & deaths of those there; Mentions of mothers who had depression or other mental health issues (one would be in the mental hospital for it); Mentions of adoptions being kept quiet in the 1940s & families pretending their adopted child is biologically theirs (legally and publicly); Mentions of creepy things & kids hunting for them (books, items, & a fake skeleton); A few mentions of the passing of a beloved sister who had Down syndrome (she was in her thirties); A few mentions of wondering if unwed mothers were able to “get over” giving up their children (including someone saying, “of course not. How could you get over something like that?”); A few mentions of adopted adults feeling like “something” is missing from their lives (their biological families); A few mentions of Wikipedia; A few mentions of car brands; A couple mentions of a brand name item (Nintendo Switch); A couple mentions of an author (Mark Twain); A couple mentions of TV shows & movies (Unsolved Mysteries & Nightmare on Elm Street); A mention of the possibility of disgracing a family and being disowned because of it; A mention of a fictional character (Spider-Man); A mention of Google maps; A mention of horror movies.
 
 
Sexual Content- Three cheek kiss (between Tracy and her husband); A bit of hand holding; Tracy wonders if the mystery name in the Bible could be a child from an out-of-wedlock pregnancy & when she first voices this thought, her cousin’s husband says that “it happens all the time, doesn’t it? Your grandparents were human, after all. They probably made all kinds of mistakes, just like the rest of us”; *Major Spoilers* Tracy tries to figure out if it was an out-of-wedlock pregnancy because her grandfather was stationed elsewhere in the war during the time the baby would have been conceived, but then finds out it was another woman and her grandfather (before either of them were married) and that the baby was taken away from the mother by the nuns at an unwed mothers home; It’s said by Tracy’s cousin and sister add that the woman “got pregnant with Grandpa’s help, she didn’t do it alone” and “Grandpa got [the woman] pregnant”; He never knew about the existence of the baby because he was shipped out and never received her letters; The child grew up in a wealthy family and had a “happy enough” childhood, but never met either of his biological parents before they passed and shows his sadness at that; He did meet Tracy’s grandmother and she welcomed him with open arms and stayed in-touch with him until her death *End of Major Spoilers*; In five letters-like parts added-in through the book, there’s hints to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and the girl’s parents not knowing (due to her mother’s illness and fear that her father “will kill” her; *Major Spoiler* When she does tell her father, he says its merciful that her mother is out of her mind and in “that awful place” (an institution/mental hospital) because she won’t feel the same he feels over having a pregnant and unwed daughter; She is sent to a home for unwed mothers where the nuns will “take care of everything”; She planned to keep her baby and runaway if necessarily, and while she hits the nuns who take the baby away from her, she ultimately doesn’t get to keep or even hold her baby; In a letter to the birth father, she’s upset and says that if he was there and not in the war, this wouldn’t have happened; Later, it’s revealed that she would get depressed every summer around the day she gave birth *End of Major Spoilers*; Many mentions of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, girls being sent to a home for unwed mothers when they “got in trouble”, everyone making “mistakes” (particularly used in this context), a couple making some “bed decisions” and it driving them apart, & young women relinquishing their babies if unwed (which makes Tracy wonder if the women wanted to do that or wanted to raise their babies; She also notes that some of the nuns in charge of the unwed mothers’ home would treat the women that protested giving up their babies as if that pain was “if not [a] punishment, at least natural consequences for the actions that had landed them there in the first place”which makes Tracy upset about the men involved in the creation of the child not being a part of anything else); Mentions of affairs, cheating, & broken hearts; Mentions of dating, boyfriends/girlfriends, & romances; A couple mentions of young women getting pregnant from “an act against their will”; A couple mentions of unwed mothers being looked upon as shameful and unfit for society; A mention of a boyfriend making a pass at his girlfriend’s sister; A mention of jealousy; 
             *Note: Mentions of childbirth, screams, & pain (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of a man unable to have biological children due to an injury as a child (no details given).
 
-Tracy Doyle
                                P.O.V. of Tracy & a handful of letters added-in 
                                                        232 pages

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Pre Teens- 

New Teens- 

Early High School Teens- 

Older High School Teens- 

My personal Rating- 

{ Trigger warning for those sensitive to adoption, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, & the babies being taken away from their mothers—sometimes without the mother having a choice. }

As adoption is near and dear to my heart, I found myself very interested in this book the more I read. I will say, thought, that like many Guidepost mysteries’ first books, I was a little lost with this one and all the characters and information I’m given right off the bat. There’s a lot of family trees and trying to figure out how the mystery name comes into play, but I think I kept up decent enough on everything. This book, by the ending, was kind of messy. Real life-like, I suppose, but messy. Readers that like family drama and secrets may like this one, but I found it very sad at times with the reality of the unwed mother home and young women being forced to give up their babies. 

I’ll admit that I didn’t care for the message that an out-of-wedlock pregnancy is a “mistake” at the beginning. It’s regarded as “everyone makes mistakes” and no one is perfect, so we all need God’s saving grace, which is true, but I think back to the “Christy Miller” series when it talked about no child ever being an accident and that God knew that baby would be born—and what a miracle is it, that not even the angels can create a life. I read that as a pre-teen and it’s stuck with me all of these years. 

Overall, I did find myself very interested in the mystery of this book and plan to at least read the next book in the series as I own it; past that, we’ll see if I’m interested enough to continue the series. 

 

 

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.

"Jack vs. the Tornado" by Amanda Cleary Eastep

About this book:

  “Adventures, friendships, and faith-testers . . . all under the watchful eye of a great big God.
    The Tree Street Kids live on Cherry, Oak, Maple, and Pine, but their 1990s suburban neighborhood is more than just quiet, tree-lined streets. Jack, Ellison, Roger, and Ruthie face challenges and find adventures in every creek and cul-de-sac—as well as God’s great love in one small neighborhood.
     In the first book of the Tree Street Kids series, 10-year-old Jack is shocked to discover his parents are moving from their rural homestead to the boring suburbs of Chicago. Full of energy and determination, Jack devises a plan to get himself back to his beloved farmhouse forever. Only three things stand in his way: a neighbor in need, a shocking discovery, and tornado season. Will Jack find a solution? Or is God up to something bigger than Jack can possibly imagine?”


Series: Book #1 in the “Tree Street Kids” series. 


Spiritual Content- Scriptures read, mentioned, quoted, remembered, & prayed; Prayers & Blessings over food; A couple talks about God always being with us; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Jack prays that nothing changes at the farm while he’s gone, but figures “praying that nothing changes is like praying your little sister goes a whole week without bugging you.”; *Spoiler* Jack apologizes to God when he realizes the God has been with him through the move & he isn’t the only one who had to move away *End of Spoiler*; Jack’s sister Midge gets the nick-name “Praying Mantis” because she loves Jesus and bugs (“in that order”); Jack recalls memorizing Scriptures in Sunday school and would typically pick short ones; Mentions of God & Jesus; Mentions of prayers, praying, blessings over food, & Thanking God; Mentions of churches, church going, services, youth groups, & meetings; Mentions of WWJD bracelets and shirts (& the meaning); A few mentions of memorizing Scriptures; A few mentions of those & events in the Bible; A few mentions of Christmas & Easter; A mention of a nativity; 
             *Note: Jack isn’t excited about living next to a cemetery, but his sister teases him by saying “Yippee, ghosts!” and make a silly face at them; A boy calls his mother “Mothership” as her name over walk-talkies (thrice); Mentions of aliens, spaceships, Mars, & finding “evidence” of it (proved not to be related to aliens despite some of the kids’ excitement); A mention of Greek mythology (regarding to a constellation of stars); A mention of ghost stories; A mention of Jack’s grandmother saying that tornadoes can “hypnotize” you.
 

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dumb’, a ‘gah!’, and a ‘what the heck’; Some eye rolling; Some sibling teasing, bickering, & name-calling (such as bratty and dork; one comment by Jack towards his sister makes his parents send him to his room and he later apologizes to her); Three tornado warnings (one: Jack and his family have to go into a storm shelter during a tornado warning which he isn’t scared of it, but is concerned about his pet chicken; two: with a neighbor when their parents are gone (Jack is concerned for their safety); three: Jack goes out in bad weather (green skies) to help a neighbor (he is concerned that his elderly neighbor could be confused or reliving the war; Jack’s sister and friend follow him with the friend saying that his sister “doesn’t listen to authority!”) & sees a tornado off in the distance); Jack is upset about moving & tries not to cry about potentially losing the farm (he acts out a couple times and snaps at his sister, which his parents comment on and disapprove of); Jack’s family is having to move to the suburbs due to the work on the farm, the cost of up-keep, & his grandparents’ ages so he plans to earn money to keep the farm; When Jack first wakes up in the new house, he thinks he’s been kidnapped; Jack isn’t happy about moving & wants to focus on making money to save the farmhouse instead of making friends *Spoiler* Towards the end, a tornado takes out the barn and Jack cries himself to sleep over the news; He tries to focus on the fact that they are all safe and glad he wasn’t in the barn when the tornado happened, but is still sad and says he hates the tornado that did it *End of Spoiler*; Jack has to let his little sister play in his hayloft, but is glad she doesn’t like dolls and that when he tells her not to touch his stuff, she doesn’t (we see this mentioned a couple times); *Spoilers* Jack and the others find a bomb shelter & explore it despite being a little scared (and concerned that someone could be in there, which Midge teases Jack about finding skeletons or someone who could think he’s their lunch, but there’s no one there); Jack is almost trapped in it, but is rescued; The parents of all of the kids aren’t happy about the bomb shelter, but none of them are grounded; Jack didn’t want to tell their moms about it because “Moms are never much for adventures” *End of Spoilers*; *Spoiler* The other kids are upset and hurt by Jack’s plan to move back to the farm as they’ve been unknowingly helping him earn money for it; Jack wishes for everything to be back how it was and his relationship with the new friends are a bit shaky for a few pages *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of World War II, the Nazis, bombs, & bomb shelters; Mentions of tornadoes, damages, & losing something in the storms (buildings); A few mentions of an older man crying due to missing family & hard financial news; A few mentions of “murdering” insects; A few mentions of stinky smells (some diaper related); A few mentions of throwing up (‘barf’ is also used); A couple mentions of Jack’s grandmother thinking about frying his pet chicken (which he reminds her that Henrietta the chick is not breakfast or dinner, but more like a pet); A couple mentions of people concerned about nuclear wars (in the 1960s); A mention of bloody wounds (no details); A mention of a fire; A mention of something sounding like a lie (but Jack really means it); 
             *Note: Jack’s father only comes home on weekends due to his work & it’s implied that money is tight for the family (which Jack is aware of and there’s a couple comments on possibly being poor); Jack plays video games (Super Mario); The Tree Streets Kids call themselves the “Tree Street Gang” but Jack is told they’re not “like a bad gang”, but are “better than a club”; There are a few book recommendations throughout the book & mentioned (‘A Wrinkle in Time’by Madeleine L’Engle, ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar, ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ by Jules Verne, and ‘Farmer Boy’by Laura Ingalls Wilder; Other books that are quoted from and mentioned but not given as a recommended are ‘War of the Worlds’ by H. G. Wells, ‘The Invisible Man’ by Ralph Ellison, and ‘The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Dream’); Mentions of brand names & items (Beanie Babies, Game Boy, LEGO, Squeezit drinks, Green River Sodas, & Mountain Dew); Mentions of fictional characters (Mega Man, Ninja Turtles, Batman, Super Mario, & Star Wars); Mentions of a car brand; A couple mentions of Disney movies (including a broad mention of the movies & also 101 Dalmatians); A mention of Jack’s grandfather complaining about politicians with his friends; A mention of a baseball player (Satchel Paige); A dark skinned boy comments on Jack being easy to see in the dark (the boy’s brother tells him not to be rude).
 
 
Sexual Content- A teasing joke about Henrietta being Jack’s girlfriend (he makes a face at this tease and the other boy apologizes).
 
-Jack Finch, age 10
                                P.O.V. of Jack 
                                            Set in 1995
                                                        192 pages

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Pre Teens- 

New Teens- 

Early High School Teens- 

Older High School Teens- 

My personal Rating- 

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book, but it was pretty cute! I thought it had the childhood charm well with the neighborhood adventures and I especially liked the illustrations (and map!) throughout the book. I’m looking forward to continuing the series. 

 

 

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.

"If the Boot Fits" by Karen Witemeyer

About this book:

  “Determined to prove that cattle king Eli Dearing has no justification for evicting his stepmother and half brothers, Asher Ellis uses the cover of a fancy ball to break into the Three Cedars ranch house to search for proof of wrongdoing. On the verge of discovery, he flees, but a boy's cry compels him to make a daring rescue.
    Spunky and independent, Samantha Dearing balks when she learns the ball her father is hosting in her honor is nothing more than a matrimonial ambush. Taking a break from her unwanted suitors, Samantha spots a thief fleeing her home. When the stranger ends up saving her brother's life, she hides the only clue to his identity left behind--his boot--and resolves to find him herself.
    But when Samantha encounters the older brother of a student she tutors, all thoughts of the bootless mystery man vanish. And although Asher tries to keep his distance from Samantha for reasons of his own, a series of suspicious accidents befall her, and his protective instincts flare, no matter the cost to their future.”


Series: Book #2 in the “Texas Ever After” series. I did not finished the first book due to content and it seems like no characters from that book were mentioned in this one. 


Spiritual Content- Psalm 118:9 at the beginning; Many Scriptures are read, remembered, thought over, quoted, mentioned, & discussed; Bible reading; Many Prayers & Thanking and Praising God (and a blessing over food); Talks about God, trusting Him, & His timing; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; Samantha wonders if her being a girl is “such a sin” that it would alter her father’s love/attention towards her; Samantha wonders why God would allow a tragedy to befall His faithful servants but a woman encourages her that there’s a reason and continues to trust God; Asher wonders why God allows disparity among His people in the way that everyone lives; An unwed mother believes God quit helping her when she let a man sweet-talk her into his bed, which Samantha disagrees with and voices; A few diary entries that have a woman upset with God not giving her a child, saying that another woman can be barren because God needs that woman’s time for His work (this thought it not corrected on page at all), & saying that God has failed her and believes He is withholding His blessing, *Major Spoilers* She took matters into her own hands after reading about Sarah (thinking that God did not curse Hagar and instead took pity on her and the child) and goes to have an affair for a year to be able to get pregnant; She eventually realizes that she rejected God’s plan for her own and asks for forgiveness; See Major Spoiler note in Sexual Content *End of Spoilers*; Many mentions of God, trusting Him, & His timing; Many mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of thanking & praising God and Jesus; Mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & books of the Bible; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of churches, church going, services, worship, sermons, & preachers/ministers; Mentions of callings & ministries; Mentions of blessings & being Blessed; Mentions of sins & partaking in sin; A few mentions of miracles; A few mentions of a birthmark being said to be where the angels kissed a child; A couple mentions of a pastor sensing a soul in need of salvation (& the person trying to leave the pastor’s presence as soon as possible); A mention of Providence; A mention of the pearly gates; 
             *Note: Other phrases such as “Good heavens” (x8), “Heavens” (x6), “Heaven knows…” (x4), and “For heaven’s sake” (x1) are all said; A fire being described as “a menacing demon stalking its prey”.
 

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘biddy’, a ‘good grief’, a ‘thunderation’, two ‘shut up’s, two ‘stupid’s, and six ‘shoot’s; A man calls Samantha a ‘cow’; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Being shot at, being stalked, Being locked in a house on fire, a carriage accident, a rattlesnake being on the character, & shaking and crying after all of these near-death experiences (up to semi-detailed); Gunshots, being shot at, being held at gunpoint, fighting, being hit/attacked, injuries, pain, helping someone who was shot, seeing others shot and bleeding, & seeing someone else being held as hostage at gunpoint (*Spoiler* a twelve-year-old boy on the last one *End of Spoiler*, semi-detailed); Saving someone from drowning (up to semi-detailed); At the very beginning, Asher trespasses into the Dearing home during a party to gain information that could possibly lead to blackmail (Asher thinks of his plan as just); A drunk man threatens & grabs at Samantha (Asher threats the man with broken bones, up to semi-detailed); Asher threatens a man who means harm to Samantha & wishes to beat another to a bloody pulp for harming her; Mentions of someone nearly drowning & other near-death experiences (a carriage accident, a run in with a rattlesnake, & being locked in a house on fire, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of deaths, deaths of loved ones, & grief (for a wife, a mother, & both parents, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of injuries, blood/bleeding, pain, & possible deaths (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of gunfire, shooting/shooting at someone; Mentions of thieves, stealing, trespassing, break-ins, jails/prisons, crimes, criminals, & possible hanging; Mentions of fires, arson, being locked in a house on fire, smoke, passing out, & injuries (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a man grabbing at a woman & pulling her into an alley; Mentions of a young boy being slapped/hit for his mouthy comments to an adult; Mentions of a father kicking his daughter out of the house due to her being an unwed mother (she wonders if she’ll have to give up her son despite it being like ripping out her heart); Mentions of alcohol, drinking, a drunk, & saloons; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of hatred; A few mentions of poison, someone who was murdered with poison, & a plan to do it to another; A few mentions of nightmares; A few mentions of gossip & rumors; A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of a dead body; A couple mentions of blackmail; A couple mentions of gambling & poker; A couple mentions of eavesdropping; A couple mentions of cigarettes & tobacco; A mention of a chamber pot; 
             *Note: Samantha & her father have a strained relationship due to her believing that he doesn’t care about her well-being because he sent her away & her late mother’s comments that implied that Samantha wasn’t enough (we quickly learn that this is not the case and see their relationship improve, albeit still having Samantha’s past hurts because of his actions and believing that he had no use for a daughter; She wonders if her prejudices and bitterness are clouding her thoughts towards him and still works for forgiveness towards him, up to semi-detailed on her emotions and feelings); Samantha becomes interested in a trespasser because that means the man wasn’t afraid to defy her father (a tiny rebellious part of her thinks this) & that she would like to best her father at finding out about the trespasser; A few mentions of the women’s suffrage movement & wanting to be equal; A couple mentions of a character’s “true” father (biological); A mention of a struggling with infertility feeling “darkness” descend over her.
 
 
Sexual Content- A hand kiss, two forehead kisses (one that arouses feelings), a cheek kiss, a border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kiss, and three semi-detailed kisses; Remembering kisses (up to semi-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Warmth, Butterflies/Tingles, & Nearness (up to semi-detailed); Remembering touches, embraces, & nearness (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to touch & embrace (up to semi-detailed); Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; a ‘harlot’ and a ‘hussy’; Samantha has romantic daydreams of Asher after he rescues her; Asher panics when he sees Samantha messing with her skirt in a way that could imply she’s disrobing (mentioning Lady Godiva and they are both very embarrassed by it; she was adjusting her skirt, not taking it off); *Major Spoiler but Important Content Note (Affairs and Infertility)* Samantha receives her late mother’s diary and reads the entries of her mother being upset with God (believing He cursed her) for not letting her get pregnant, saying that God might want her pastor’s-wife-sister to be barren to have more time to do His work but there’s nothing gained by her infertility, saying that God failed her by her giving birth to a girl who is “of no value” (Samantha, but does start to soft her heart towards her in later entries), and feels “darkness” descending over her; She took matters into her own hands after reading about Hagar and Sarah & since she knows her husband won’t welcome another woman into his bed, she plans to have an affair as it could be her husband having the barrenness (despite a doctor not admitting the fault might lie with men); She views it as a business transaction comparing it to bulls and cattle, adding that there will be no love as she needs his “seed”; She tells herself that she is doing it for her husband, but her conscience doesn’t recognize the “nobility” of her quest; After the first time, she feels soiled about a man who is not her husband touching her and thinks that she betrayed her husband, asking for God to forgive her; To use her guilt, she eagerly welcomes her husband into her bed, but continues the affair for a year in hopes of finally getting pregnant (which she does and guilt eats at her conscience, saying that the end results justifies whatever it took, but knows it’s a lie as she rejected God’s plan for her own); When Samantha tells Asher about it, she calls it not being a love affair, but more like a “breeding opportunity” and tells her father it had no emotional attachment and “strictly a breeding exercise” *End of Major Spoilers*; Mentions of affairs & illegitimate children; Mentions of a man getting a woman to his bed, her getting pregnant, the man not accepting the child as his and will not marry the woman (who is going to get kicked out of her family’s home because of it), & him seducing and bedding other women (he accuses the mother of the baby of rolling “around in the hay” with other men and says she ruined herself, not taking any responsibilities for the child; She considers herself tarnished because of it and believes God quit helping her when she let the man sweet-talk her into his bed, which Samantha disagrees with; *Spoiler* This is Samantha’s good friend and Samantha refuses to minimize that the man was an equal participant of the consequences of the sin, perhaps even the instigator of it; She gets very upset and tells her father that it is his problem as well because “the older and wiser men of our society turn a blind eye to the bad behavior of their young proteges” so nothing will stop this from happening again; She angrily asks why that when “a man and woman have relations outside of marriage, the woman is considered to be a harlot, but the man is simply ‘sowing his wild oats’? ...when the man is equally responsible for the child’s existence?”; Her father agrees that it’s unfair for the woman, but also the “truth that she chose to give herself to a man not her husband” and Samantha brings up about the woman in the woman who was being stoned for adultery and assuming that the man was covered for by other men *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of a man’s womanizing ways, bragging about a “love shack”, & him taking multiple different women there for years (Samantha’s younger brother knows about the love shack and how babies are made due to breeding cattle & she is horrified by knowing that he knows about such things); Mentions of kisses & kissing; Mentions of flirting & flirts; A few mentions of the women who work at saloons & men paying to meet them in a place to be alone; A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of a man being caught while engaged with a woman in “unsanctioned behavior”; A mention of some men seeking “female companionship” (implied to be more than just talking); A mention of a loose woman; A mention of a man’s roguish gaze towards women; A mention of a woman possibly being assaulted by Asher (he wonders if someone thinks he would do this, but he wouldn’t); Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
             *Note: Samantha, after being forced into a mothering role at a young age and her dreams being freedom and independence from familial responsibilities, now wonders about holding a baby of her own; Mentions of woman being barren (Samantha assumes that her aunt mourned the loss of not having children and wonders how she and her husband let go of that pain with no resentment towards God; Also heavy mentioned in the Major Spoiler section above); A few mentions of a woman’s monthly bleeding; A few mentions of men having to strip down to their underwear under an officer’s orders (looking for a criminal). 
 
-Samantha Dearing, age 19
-Asher Ellis
                                P.O.V. switches between them 
                                             Set in 1889
                                                        368 pages

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Pre Teens- 

New Teens- 

Early High School Teens- 

Older High School Teens- 

My personal Rating- 

{Trigger warning: Affairs, Infertility, & mentions of sexual assault from manipulation}

Despite not finishing the first book in this series due to content, I was still curious about this book because of it being a light (and reverse) Cinderella retelling. Our male lead is the Cinderella (but with a good stepfamily) and our female lead is the princess. I really liked the family aspect of both main characters and loved seeing their brothers. 

 

Here’s the thing: fairytale retellings are a genre I typically expect to be lighter in terms of content. Sure, the originals are yikes and often disgusting to say the least, but most retellings—at least in the Christian Fiction realm—are light. Not much to note in the way of content. This series hasn’t been that way at all. In this book particularly, I am incredibly disappointed in how heavy that twist in this story is weighing on my heart. 

 

I often figure out the twists in books. My mom is convinced it’s because I read so much that there’s nothing left to surprise me with. It could be that or it could be the fact that my brain goes ninety to nothing when reading and is always trying to figure out what’s going to happen. With this book though, I started to get frustrated that Samantha couldn’t see who the culprit was. It felt incredibly obvious to me and I wanted to smack her over the head with the knowledge. Especially after she learned Very Important Information towards the end of the book. The beginning of the book was very cute and yet it also felt slow paced, I was just waiting for a shoe to drop (no Cinderella pun intended) and when that “surprise” entered in, I knew it was the proverbial shoe. 

 

I was greatly enjoying this book until the last quarter or so which entered in content that dramatically affected these ratings. I won’t say much here, but the details of it is listed in the Sexual Content part of this review. It does have to do with a wife planning an affair, it being treated as a business transaction, and illegitimate children. (Also the woman having messed-up theology.) I unfortunately saw this coming on the horizon it was very disappointing to see that my thoughts were correct. It’s such a bummer because the romance between our main couple was so cute and there was a really good faith content, but that content is just not sitting well with me along with a man who seduced a woman into going to bed with him. 

 

I’ve been sitting here, typing these final thoughts and staring at my screen for over fifteen minutes now, trying to gather my thoughts. This book is not recommended for ages 9-19, the target ages of BFCG. Each reader will obviously decide for themself and I will not be the one to tell you “no, don’t read this book.” I will never say that because my job is to give the information of what’s in the book, the content found within. Yes, I am above the age range of 9-19. I could give it a two star rating, which I’ve been debating as I stare at my computer screen. Because I did like their romance (there wasn’t even that much noticing!) and the faith content. But that just doesn’t feel right to me. I feel weighed down and heavy from the twist this book had and while the ending ends in a hopeful note, there’s still lingering sadness to me. I can’t in good conscience give this book a higher rating because of the content, despite the majority (not all) of the first half being enjoyable because by the end of the book, I didn’t like it. Which is terribly sad and disappointing. 

 

 

 

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.