“Ellie Sawyer has always felt more comfortable with books than people, which explains why she’s a PhD history student neck deep in research and trying to complete her doctoral dissertation in time to graduate. But the final books she needs are half a world away in the tiny European kingdom of Lethersby, and the only time she can access the secretive Royal Castle Library is during the Christmas holiday.
Ellie is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery that has eluded Lethersby scholars for more than 100 hundred years by figuring out what happened to their long-lost queen, a young royal who disappeared shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. With the help of Mark, a handsome castle staff member who shares her love of history, she might be able to unravel the queen’s story. But Mark is keeping his own secret from her, and what they discover together could change everything for Ellie—and the entire kingdom.”
Series: Book #1 in an unnamed series.
Spiritual Content- Many Scriptures are mentioned, read, remembered, & thought over; Many, many prayers & Thanking God; Church going, a Christmas Eve service, & a sermon; Many talks about & Discussions of God, Jesus Christ, Him pursuing us, strong faiths, Bible reading, love, & being chosen by God; Most 'H's are capital when referring to God; Set during Christmastime; At the beginning of the book, Ellie surprises herself by praying as she hasn’t done that in months or years due to being too busy to pray or read her Bible; Ellie recalls how she would crave reading her Bible and thinks that her relationship with the Lord is dry now, so she starts to read her Bible and pray again; Ellie feels a Presence with her at times & hears God talking to her (most are Scripture references); Many, many mentions of God, Jesus Christ, Scriptures, strong faiths, prayers, & praying; Many, many mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & books of the Bible; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of churches/chapels, church going, sermons, and either paying or not paying attention to the preacher; Mentions of Christmas & Christmas hymns.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a form of ‘drat’, an ‘idiot’, an ‘oh my gosh’, two ‘stupid’s, three forms of ‘dumb’; Eye rolling; Ellie eavesdrops and though she doesn’t want to, she becomes curious about what is being said (twice); Many mentions of wars, fighting, deaths, & neutral countries; Mentions of deaths (cancer) & grief (including a wife for her husband and daughter & a daughter for her father); Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of eavesdropping; A mention of college parties; A mention of the lottery;
*Note: Ellie struggles a lot with self-confidence, self-doubt, comparison, and thinking she will be rejected by others (lots of this is on-page including her thinking she is a failure, always doomed to fail, and not good enough; Others try to tell her that that is not true and encourage her); Ellie has a near panic attack (barely-above-not-detailed) & anxiety; Mentions of books, authors, & fictional characters (The Odyssey, Beowulf, Paradise Lost, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Narnia, & Ebenezer Scrooge); A few mentions of a car brand; A couple mentions of Google Translate; A mention of a Barbie doll.
Sexual Content- A fingers-to-lips touch, five hand kisses, three head/forehead kisses, three barely-above-not-detailed kisses, and two semi-detailed kisses; Touches, Embraces, Dancing, Hand holding, Warmth, Shivers/Tingles, Flutters, Nearness, & Smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); A bit of wanting to touch (barely-above-not-detailed); Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Flirting, Winks, & Blushes; Ellie blushes about the thought of a honeymoon and can’t wait for it; Mentions of theories that Queen Alma left because of a secret lover or because she was pregnant out of wedlock; Mentions of dates, dating, boyfriends/girlfriends, crushes, & exes; A couple mentions of kisses & an excellent kisser; A couple mentions of wanting to kiss; A couple mentions of blushes; A couple mentions of flirting; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Ellie is self-conscious about her outward appearance, including her weight and thinks about her body in negative ways often (including noticing her thighs, soft middle, her clothes feeling tight, and how she’s easily winded) and how she doesn’t love her body; Most of her self-consciousness stems from a boy in high school backing out of taking her to prom because she was “too fat” and told her so when she pressed him about the reason in the cafeteria (in front of many others) & she recalls this and her feelings about it a handful of times; Ellie thinks that Mark is out of her league; A few mentions of Ellie’s curves (which she is self-conscious about, but Mark tells her he loves them); A mention of a revealing dress.
-Ellie Sawyer,
P.O.V. of Ellie
312 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 teens who struggle with self-confidence }
This wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought it would be dual-time period and go back and forth for the historical element, when it was actually just a modern-day setting with Ellie trying to figure out the mystery. It definitely had the Hallmark-storyline with the prince falling for the American, the wonderful library academia vibes, and great faith content. But it also had a more sensitive message because of Ellie’s major insecurities in herself.
I’ll admit that shortly into reading this book and seeing her lack of confidence and lack of interest in her Bible, I was concerned that the male lead would swoop in and rescue her (which is something I’ve seen a lot in Christian Fiction). I was pleasantly surprised that did majorly not happen—there’s a bit of it at the end with him commenting on loving her curves—and was overall heartened by the lack of that element and seeing her journey of faith in this book.
At the risk of sounding unfeeling and harsh, I also must admit that I grew tired of Ellie’s woes about her insecurities, physical appearance, and how she’s “just a scholar”. This is rehashed and rehashed again and again which made the book feel so slooooooow to me. I would usually fly through this kind of plotline, but because of the lack of interest at times and the constant repetition, it dragged. I know that some truths will just not stick to our mind, and we have to repeat and repeat them to get it to stick, but it felt redundant at times with Ellie. She was often comparing herself to others around her and my heart hurt for her.
That said, the faith content was great, and it truly was the main focus of the book—let’s say 50% romance and then split the remaining half between the romance and the mystery of the queen? So, it was nice to see the faith content and discussions and lots of Scriptures, but at the same time, it also got to be repetitive quickly.
Besides the faith content, this book went just about as I thought it would—particularly with the missing queen (called it early on) and the romance—Ellie was really oblivious to who the handsome guy in the library was. She reacted just as well to the news as I expected her to (so not well at all) and when a certain other common trope (another woman) came into play, I was a little annoyed.
Final verdict? This was a pretty clean, faith heavy book. I liked some aspects of it, but I do think it could have been at least a hundred pages shorter. For teen readers, I would say it would be better for those who struggle with their insecurities like Ellie did, particularly about her outward appearance and finding her identity in Christ. It’s clean enough for younger girls/teens, but because of her lack of self-confidence and thinking about her flaws often, I wouldn’t want a younger girl to then notice these things about themselves if they hadn’t already been aware of it.
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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