Books for Christian Girls: "Hope at the Ocean's Edge" by Chantal J. MacDonald

About this book:

  “Is a Fresh Start Finally Possible After a Life-altering Tragedy?
    Sadie Jones experienced extreme devastation at only nine years old. Now on the cusp of her high school graduation, Sadie is more than ready for a future that will take her away from the small town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia…
    As the year is wrapping up, she catches the attention of a cute lobster fisherman who works down at the local docks. Tom Carter is everything Sadie would want—he’s charming, honest, and hardworking, but will he ever be able to accept her distrust of God?
    When a stranger from her mother’s past reaches out, Sadie finds herself poised to experience the culture and adventure she’s always dreamed of, but she also is on the brink of emotional breakdown.
    Will she open her heart to God’s plan for her life and will she find hope and love at the ocean’s edge?”

Series: Book #1 in the “Sadie Jones” series.

Spiritual Content- Scriptures are quoted, talked about, & thought about; Being witnessed to & Hearing two testimonies; Prayers & Thanking God; Church going (Sadie views it as a ritual and usually daydreams, but does think on part of the sermon one pastor shares); Many talks about God, peace, & following Him even in a messy world; Some 'H's are capital when referring to God; Sadie is angry at God for taking away her parents and this is a big theme of the book with her believing that God abandoned her, could have made the accident not happen, and yet longs for the peace that others talk about; *Major Spoilers* After an accident with her niece at the very end, Sadie prays for God to help her and after an emotional outburst in the hospital chapel, she tells God that she’s tired of being angry and feels peace *End of Spoilers*; Sadie does go to church with her aunt and uncle, but it’s more out of respect than a personal conviction and she usually daydreams during the service; Sadie will “politely and respectfully participated in [her family members’] faith practices, so long as they did not require any commitment on her part”; Sadie hopes that Tom’s religion won’t be a big issue because she’s already going to church; *Spoilers* Sadie and Tom discuss God and when she doesn’t want to have any part it, he tells her that he can’t let his heart get romantically involved with someone who is shut off to Jesus; Sadie feels burned because he’s the one who pursued her and feels like he was self-righteous; He apologizes that it came out wrong, but she is incredibly hurt; Later, she calls herself a heathen because of his words and feels like he implied she isn’t good enough for him; She wants him to see that she doesn’t need his approval or “his God” to be happy; At the very end, they both apologize to each other *End of Spoilers*; A young man shares his testimony with Sadie and a group of middle schooler kids (that he was into partying and an online addiction of p*rnography, but found Jesus and everything changed; He thought that church was for “uptight losers” at the time, but ended up going to a church concert and touched by the messaged shared); Many mentions of God, Jesus, Him never abandoning us, peace, bitterness/anger, & the world being messy; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of prayers, praying, praising God, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, denominations (particularly Methodist), sermons, pastors, Sunday school classes, youth groups, & a concert; Mentions of blessings & being Blessed; A mention of Heaven; A mention of Sadie’s parents watching and celebrating her graduation;
             *Note: Sadie thinks once that she feels like an insignificant dust particle “at the mercy of whatever windstream wanted to move her”; A few mentions of those at Sadie’s school who boldly and angrily protested faith and worse their atheistic worldview like a badge of honor, but Sadie found their hatred to be off-putting and doesn’t want to be like them; A mention of a superstition (children turning their pajamas inside out for it to snow the next day).

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘darn’, a ‘fudged up’, a ‘shoot’, a ‘suck’, a ‘sucked it up’, a ‘turd’, and two ‘stupid’s; Some eye rolling & sarcasm; Seeing an accident, an injured child being unconscious, & blood (*Spoiler* The child will be okay *End of Spoiler*, up to semi-detailed); The Prologue has a car accident where Sadie was with her parents and she was the only survivor (pain, injuries, bleeding/blood, & passing out are shared as well; overall border-line semi-detailed // detailed); Sadie grieves her parents and what life could have been (including raw and angry emotions and feeling the burden of being the sole survivor of the crash, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of car accidents, accidents, deaths (including one from cancer), grief, injuries, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of parents being hard on their oldest daughter which caused her to rebel by partying, drinking, breaking curfew, & sneaking out (this lead to what is noted in a Sexual Content Spoiler); Mentions of parties, alcohol, drinking in high school, & a teen using drinking as a coping mechanism for the trainwreck his life had become; Mentions of pubs (more so a dinner than a bar); A few mentions of gossip & rumors; A couple mentions of a possibly serial killer; A couple mentions of a teenage alcoholic who later died from a drug overdose; A couple mentions of possible brain trauma after an accident; A couple mentions of a Sadie’s best friend’s father leaving his family; A couple mentions of lying (including a teen lying to his parents); A mention of broken families, abuse, & strained relationships; A mention of cigarettes; A mention of verbal diarrhea;
             *Note: Sadie longs to get out of her small “hick” town where everyone treats her with pity and like a victim or damaged goods (she wants to prove to others and herself that she is destined for more than what small-town people write for her); Along with Sadie having anxiety at times and a near panic attack, there are also a few mentions of anxiety & panic (panic attacks are not named nor a big part of the story, but it’s mentioned about Sadie having a time where she feels suffocated); Mentions of counselling (including the years Sadie and her family went after the deaths of her parents, another family going through counselling after a teen pregnancy, & some of the things they learned in it); Mentions of books, authors, & movies (The Color Purple, Anne of Green Gables, Chronicles of Narnia, Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, The Velveteen Rabbit, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Rudyard Kipling, Star Wars, & Charlie and the Chocolate Factory); Mentions of brand names & items (Jenga, Swedish berries, Cheetos, Twizzlers, Sprite, & Cadbury); Mentions of car brands; A few mentions of FaceTime; A few mentions of Disney World, Mickey Mouse, & Disney princesses; A couple mentions of places (Tim Horton’s & McDonald’s); A couple mentions of Prince William; A mention of Halloween; A mention of a baseball team; A mention of someone’s depression after the death of her sister.

Sexual Content- Wondering if she’s about to be kissed (barely-above-not-detailed, doesn’t happen); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Warmth, & Butterflies (barely-above-not-detailed); Trying not to think about running her hands through a guy’s hair (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Going on a date; A guy flirts with Sadie and when his friends come over, she is uncomfortable and when someone else chases the guys away, she feels like she’s been violated even though nothing happened; *Spoiler* Sadie finds out about half-way through that her mother got pregnant as a teenager and gave the baby up for adoption; The biological father was a teenage alcoholic and later died of a drug overdose; Sadie is hurt that this was kept from her, but her aunt tells her that her parents were waiting until she got older to tell her; Sadie is contacted by her half-brother and goes to spend time with him and his family for a couple of weeks in England *End of Spoiler*; Tom (Sadie’s love interest) shares his testimony with her and a group of middle schoolers that he fell into some destructive habits with some online addictions (“pretty bad stuff, if you catch my drift”) and later calls it a p*rnography addiction (to keep the temptations away, he shut down all of his social media accounts; No information on what that is is given to the reader besides implying it was bad; Sadie notes that while he says this with remorse, there’s no weight of shame in his words); Shortly after meeting Tom, Sadie doodles her name with his last name & can’t stop thinking about him; *Spoilers* Tom says he won’t let his heart get romantically involved with someone who is closed off to Jesus and Sadie feels rejected; He apologizes that it came out wrong, but she is incredibly hurt; At the very end, they apologize to each other because they were both to blame *End of Spoilers*; Sadie’s aunt and uncle approach to curfews, dating, and dress codes for her have been more suggestions than rules and she thinks she has a strong moral compass which has worked out thankfully for them; Sadie’s best friend is “perhaps more than a little” boy crazy and has “burned through countless boyfriends” (plus mentions of her boy crazy ways and wanting to set her sights on college boys); Mentions of dates, dating, prom, boyfriends, & break-ups; Mentions of romance novels (including when meeting a handsome young man accidentally, Sadie thinks that she’s “spent too many nights with her head buried in a romance novel for her to believe that this was anything more than a friendly invite [to a baseball game].”); A mention of a man kissing his wife with “extra gusto”; A mention of some people being lustful; A mention of middle-school girls flirting with one of the youth leaders as “innocently as only a middle school girl can”; A crush/interest in a guy, attraction, & emotions about it and him;
             *Note: Sadie’s best friend’s mom says that her and Sadie are sisters “from another mister”; A few mentions of couples unsuccessfully having children of their own; A mention of Sadie’s best friend having a curvy figure that makes her self-conscious so she dresses in modest clothing like flowy tops or skirts and lots of layers; A mention of the public speaking advice of imagining everyone in their underwear.

-Sadie Jones, age 18
                                P.O.V. switches between them
                                                        246 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Please note the mention of a p*rn addiction and adjust the ratings for the age-appropriateness for each girl and what she’s been exposed to in her life.}

In complete honesty, I’ve been avoiding this book for a while. (Sincerely sorry to the author about that!) Car accidents are hard for me to read about, so with the prologue being of one with the deaths of young Sadie’s parents, it was difficult. While I may not have loved this book, I did liked different elements of it.

Sadie actually reminded me of Christy from the “Christy Miller” series at times and I think it was the coming of age trope with big decisions and emotions. I can’t blame Sadie for her anger towards God and thought it was pretty realistic for what she’s gone through. I would be curious to see what happens next for her in the next books of the series! This was very Canadian which was fun as I haven’t read too many contemporary books set in Canada.

I will note that there was a lot of info-dumping as we’re introduced to Sadie’s life and those in it. There also were some typos and odd comments/examples that took me out of the story with a couple plot holes, but it was overall engaging and I would recommend it for girls who are high school age and older.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!