Book Review: Be Thou My Vision

"The church was empty when I dragged myself out of the pew and headed out the door. As I opened the door, the corner of my eye caught a flicker of movement which I chose to ignore. I walked down the steps and was nearly bowled over by two wild boys. With arms grown strong and quick from man-handling two brothers growing up, I grabbed the two boys before they had a chance to escape me.

Anna Stuart is comfortable with her life. She may be a 30 year old spinster, but she has her routine and enjoys taking care of her father and older brother. One letter shatters all her routines, comfort, and enjoyment. After learning of her brother’s death, Anna feels like her life will never be the same again.

Then she meets two motherless boys. Did God place them in her life to lead her to a new vision of life? Can she trust God to give her the desires of her heart before she even knows what they are?"

I picked up this book by Faith Blum partly because I had always been interested in trying out her writing but mostly because the Kindle version is free to download through today. And who doesn't love free books? I wasn’t really interested in reading the first book, so I skipped to this book second in the Hymns of the West series. Here's what I thought...

The Setting:
I loved the Ol’ West setting.

The Story:

Interesting story that can also stand alone without the first book if you choose to read them out of order. I loved the conversations of spiritual matter, Anna’s journey, and the sweet friendship-based and Christian romance. It was also very neat how the song the book is named after worked into the story. I did think that the story ended on an abrupt note, but it seems like it overlaps somewhat with the next book so I’m sure everything gets resolved.

Tbe Characters:

I enjoyed Anna. She was both realistic and interesting, and her eventual servant’s heart was inspiring. I loved how complicated and nice both Caleb and Miles were. Other favorite characters included James, John, and Wilma (everyone should have a friend like her!).

The Concerns:

Parents may want to have caution in considering this book for younger readers because of some mild romance and adult themes. It is mentioned in passing that an outlaw character in the previous book “violated a young woman” and murdered people but nothing in much detail. Also, a father in the story very much hates his children and is a drunkard. My biggest concern, however, was the jealous women of the town are falsely accusing the main character of committing adultery (possibly even with the person she is engaged to), and they go into detail about what they think she did.

 

Altogether, I enjoyed this book for its sweet and hilarious moments where Anna is mothering the boys and for its godly romance!

And it has a great cover!