Book Review: The Passion of Mary-Margaret by Lisa Samson

Mary-Margaret yearned to dedicate her life to the Lord. Jesus had another idea.

When Mary-Margaret Fischer met Jude Keller, the lighthouse keeper's son, she was studying at a convent school on a small island off Chesapeake Bay. Destined for a life as a religious sister, she nevertheless felt a pull toward Jude--gorgeous, rebellious, promiscuous Jude. But Jude, driven by demons no one really understood, disappeared into Baltimore's seamy red-light district. Mary-Margaret moved on with her life, preparing to serve God with her sisters as a teacher and artist.

Then Jude comes home--but now he's bitter, dissolute, and diseased. And Mary-Margaret receives a divine call that shakes her to the core, a call to give up her dreams for the troubled man who befriended her so long ago. For Jesus' sake, can she forsake the only life she ever wanted for a love that could literally cost her life?

My Thoughts...

Lisa Samson is one of my favourite authors and a Christy award winner. (What is a Christy Award? It is an award given annually to novels of excellence that are written from a Christian worldview.)  I had already read her book “Quaker Summer” and loved it so I was ready for “The Passion of Mary-Margaret.”  This book is a bit gut-wrenching for the reader as we follow Mary-Margaret through her life; first as an orphan, in love with the wild boy Jude, then as an idealistic young woman seeking to follow her vocation as a nun, and finally as a mature Christ-follower who is not afraid to obey that which God has told her to do, especially as it concerns the man that Jude has become. Mary-Margaret was an inspiration to me and hopefully will be to each of you who read about her.

-Bookworm55

Book Review: A Captain for Laura Rose by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Laura Rose White's late father taught her everything he knew about piloting a Missouri River steamboat. He even named their boat after her. Despite that, it seems that Laura will forever be a "cub pilot" to her brother Joe, because in 1867, a female riverboat captain is unheard of. That is, until tragedy strikes and Laura must make the two month journey from St. Louis to Fort Benton and back in order to save her family's legacy, her home, and the only life she's ever known.

The only way for her to overcome the nearly insurmountable odds is with the help of her brother's disreputable friend Finn MacKnight, a skilled pilot with a terrible reputation. Laura loathes having to accept MacKnight as her co-pilot, especially when she learns she must also provide passage for his two sisters. Straight-laced Fiona has a fear of water, and unpredictable Adele seems much too comfortable with the idea of life in the rough and tumble environment of the untamed river and the men who ply it. Though they are thrown together by necessity, this historic journey may lead Laura and the MacKnights to far more than they ever expected. 

My Thoughts...

This novel surprised me more than I would have ever expected. Seeing that it was a popular hoped for book that released this last spring, I was excited for it. Readers thought this a fantastic book for the most part. My thoughts were actually quite different. The very first page starts off slowly. Knowing how many books take time but can be delightful reads, I kept reading. But characters took forever to come to a conclusion and seemed stuck in situations. I was looking forward to the endless, dangerous action that was supposed to take place on the Laura Rose. Finding little to no action and characters needlessly dying, I started to doubt that this was a worthwhile book. 

Beginning with the first character, Laura, she was brave and a very intelligent woman. She was the only character with any depth. She was determined and possessed no silliness in some situations, unlike Fiona and her sister. The two were too annoying and too clueless to figure any situation out without the help of someone else. The author had tried to paint some kind of wild adventure, but instead, seemed too boring to enjoy. There was a small amount of action, but hardly any that interested me for any amount of time. There is a mention of God and how He teaches the main character a special kind of lesson, which was thought provoking. In the end, I labored hard to finish this short novel, dragging through some scenes. It was overall an neutral type of book without much emotion poured into it. It just did not suit my taste, whereas, it might suit others!



-ShewolfLia17