Aven was a very endearing character, whose past had been filled with heartache and pain, yet who enters the book with a hope for a bright future. This bright future is found in her cousins’ farm on Blackbird Mountain. As a shock, though, their occupation comes from the very thing that Aven detests: hard liquor, made with pride from the orchards on the Norgaard farm.
Joanne weaves a heartfelt story through the lives of Aven and Thor. I must admit, my absolute top-favorite character was Jorgan. His name, his demeaner, his big-brother relationship with Aven… he was spot-on the best character (in my opinion) and I was happy for every good plot point for him.
Thor was a very intriguing character. I know some of the Deaf culture from my sister having taken ASL and been at several Deaf meetings. This was the first time I had really read it in a book—that, as well as hints of the Ku Klux Klan (which was only in the beginning of the book and seemed to fade as the story progressed). With the limited knowledge that I have of both, Joanne seemed to do a very good job depicting them.
I loved the feel of most of this story—the “backwoodsman” appeal as well as rugged living. Though, toward the end, I’ll admit an event happened that made me just want to skim through the remainder of the pages, and the book lost its homey, cozy feel for me.
So, yes, that “aspect” had to do with the romance portion of the book. There was one character that I was always wary of (which Aven was wary of as well—which I’ll put in that the author did a great job helping you feel what she was feeling). Every time he came on the scene, I found myself almost holding my breath, hoping that it wouldn’t go in the direction I was seeing it headed. Of course, it did go in that direction and there was what I’d consider an attempted-rape scene. I kind of skimmed those pages, because it’s not something I’d care to read. So I can’t say exactly what happened, but it was enough for me to cringe and put a word of caution out for girls who don’t like to read that much content. That, and then there are some bent-on-discreet mentions of the marriage bed and such. It just got a little too much into that, as a non-romance reader.
The spiritual content was throughout the pages, but it seemed almost as if they were all baby Christians, and though they made progress physically (for example, one being free from his addiction to alcohol; which seemed very descriptive and accurate, but may also be a little more than some readers would like to read, as it covers the bulk of the center of the story), there didn’t seem to be a lot of actual God-emphasis. Kind of “reassuring pats” that God would help them handle it, cries for God’s help, and a few Scripture quotations. I can’t fault it for being spiritually shallow, I’ve just been really picky about spiritual content lately. Or maybe it’s just that this isn’t along the lines of what I needed in my spiritual walk right now.
The flow of the story was a little jerky to me. I do like fragmented sentences, but in this book, some of them almost didn’t make sense and I had to reread the paragraph two times to get what the author was trying to say. As the book progressed, though, either I got used to it, or she had less. I also found a little bit of the plot to be jerky as well. That could just be me being nit-picky though, as I’ve not read much fiction lately.
Besides the latter quarter of the book (for above-mentioned reasons), this was one that I really enjoyed and will imagine many more mature readers will enjoy it as well.
*I received this book from the publisher and am happily providing my honest review*
Amanda Tero Books 