Christian Fiction Challenge - March (Read Outside Your Nomral Genre)

• Title: Secrets of the Heart

• Author: Al Lacy

• Copyright: 1998

• How long was the book languishing in your TBR pile? About a month

• What made you buy/borrow the book in the first place? Actually I read this book when it originally came out but I'm currently going through the alphabet with Christian fiction authors and I was in the L's and I thought I'd reread it because I didn't remember the story.

• What were your thoughts on the story? Well now I remember why I didn't really like this book the first time around. The premise of the series is interesting, about mail order brides and their decision to leave home to marry a stranger. This story however, is about revenge and how as a Christian you shouldn't want it. Not wanting to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read it, a quick recap would be this: Poor girl marries rich guy, rich inlaws hate girl, husband dies, in laws take away daughter and won't let mother see her, mother answers mail order ad and marries guy out west and plans to get her daughter back BUT doesn't tell new husband any of this, new family becomes rich, inlaws become poor, new family goes back to get daughter, new husband becomes Christian, tells wife revenge is evil, wife finally becomes Christian, asks in laws to forgive her, everyone hugs, new family gives in laws money. Ok this was the most unrealistic ending and I hated it. If my daughter was taken away from me simply because I didn't have money, even if I became a Christian I would not let them back with open arms. It just seemed too perfect, no one would act like that.

• Now do you wish you read the book sooner? Not really since I was really frustrated by the end of the book.
  

• Any questions/statements for the author? Christians do not always have tidied up endings, it's fine to be angry!
  

• Where will the book reside now? It's already back at the library, lol

• The challenge is to read a book in a new genre or read a book you normally wouldn't read. Do you see the genre/sub genre in a new light? Will you read another book like this one? Well, I wouldn't mind reading more books about mail order brides, so I'm going back to try to read the rest of the series, which I never got around to finishing last time. But if the rest of the series keeps having endings which have to have everything all tidied up I prally won't finish them again

Join the Christian Fiction Challenge! Next month is April-Read Oldest book in TBR!