Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

award winning books

The long-awaited conclusion: Review of My Hope is Found by Joanne Bischof

This summer, my husband and I drove through the mountains in Virginia on our way to Tennessee and I couldn’t get Lonnie and Gideon out of my mind. I’d read the first two books in this series earlier in the year and I was left in limbo as to how things were going to end for them.

My-Hope-is-Found-665x1024When I finally received an advance reading copy of My Hope is Found, the third book in the Cadence of Grace series, I hesitated to start reading it because I wasn’t sure I wanted to hurt again. The first two books wrecked me in a good way and I ignored my real life to get through them. I was an emotional mess, and part of me didn’t want to go there. (Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book from the author in exchange for my review.)

But I went there, and in a span of 8 hours, off and on, I finished the story of Lonnie and Gideon. And oh. my. word. I can’t–and won’t–give too much away, but here’s what I can say: this story is full of emotion. The ache of longing. The fear of losing. The pain of letting go. I felt it all, and even though I didn’t cry as much as I did with book 2, I was still moved.

I have appreciated Bischof’s willingness to travel the hard road with her characters. As in life, there are no guarantees that things will work out as they have planned (or as we as readers might want!) but there is hope that things work out for good.

If I had an official list of all-time favorite books, this series would be on it, and it would be near the top. Cadence-of-Grace-1-1024x691

Joanne Bischof has created a romance to rival the best classic love stories. I highly recommend this series, but a warning: if you start with the first book, have the next two on hand because you’re not going to want to wait to finish it. Also, stock up on tissue and whatever comfort food or drink you need to soothe the pain. You’ll need it.

You can find out more about Joanne Bischof here.

All I ever learned about Presbyterians I read in a book

A small-town southern church seeking a pastor assembles a search committee of seven parishioners who spend months secretly attending services at other churches auditioning candidates for the job.

A promising premise. Unfortunately, The Search Committee gets lost along the way. That’s not to say there aren’t some highlights of Tim Owens’ debut novel. Owens borrows three real-life sermons throughout the book, and I appreciated the messages in those sermons, as well as the messed-up lives of the committee members. Their struggles are the real struggles of churchgoers and nonchurchgoers alike. I could identify with aspects of several of the characters’ lives.

However, I think Owens spread himself too thin with the characters. I never got a sense that anyone was a main character, and trying to make seven people the main characters in a book left me feeling like I didn’t really get to know any of them. And because I didn’t know them, I didn’t care that much about them. I wanted things to work out well, I guess, but I wasn’t invested in their lives. I was hoping for more depth from one or two of the characters. It just didn’t work for me.

The whole concept of a search committee was new to me. Our church denomination doesn’t do things that way, and I was kind of surprised by it. The committee often admitted that it felt like it was trying to steal a pastor from another church. Maybe that’s more prevalent than I know. I also didn’t know much about the Presbyterian Church. Owens opens many chapters with excerpts from the Presbyterian Church’s Book of Order and Book of Confessions, which I found interesting but not exactly entertaining. I couldn’t decide if Owens was trying to educate readers about Presbyterians or if he was just drawing on his experience. (His bio says he was once a Southern Baptist and is now an elder in the Presbyterian Church.)

I wanted to like this book, but it fell flat. I stuck with it till the end, hoping it would redeem itself, but I was more relieved than rewarded to have finished it.

FAVORITES: One of the committee members keeps a running list of church signs the group sees on their travels. I get a kick (and sometimes a groan and a shake of the head) out of church signs.

FAULTS: Because of all the characters, the individual storylines felt rushed and underdeveloped. Even the resolutions seemed hasty. I wasn’t crazy about the dialogue either. Some of it felt unnatural.

IN A WORD: Disappointing. I was thinking the committee was going on a road trip in search of a pastor, not that they would set out on several Sundays over several months on day trips. Maybe my expectations were too high.

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In exchange for this review, I received a free copy of The Search Committee from Tyndale House Publishers.
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