Beauty for Ashes

Oh man. This is a tough review to write...

Book Rating: Here a little, there a little

I really thought this book would be a winner. Unfortunately, I couldn't like it.

Carrie Daly is a young widow--her husband died at the Battle of Shiloh. She's trying to move on with her life although there's an emptiness that surrounds her. As far as leading ladies go, I really hate to say it, but she is one of my least favorites.  First of all, I had a hard time remembering she was a widow--because she hardly talked or thought about her deceased husband at all, whether she liked or didn't like him, missed or didn't miss him. Either way, I didn't get much of a sense of her feelings about it, so in that respect she wasn't established well. And she seemed to move aimlessly through the book without a real established conflict/goal, etc.

Also, there was A LOT of contention between characters many of the characters. Carrie's brother Henry marries at the beginning of the book, and the woman he marries is also a widow who has two boys. *huff* If there is anything that really gets my goat, it's very naughty children who's parents do not discipline them! That's exactly what happens with those boys (arg!), and they do so many bad things, I literally could not stand it!  Sorry, I may be getting carried away, but really--their behavior caused a lot of anxiety for many of the characters and that was a bit of a problem for me. (understatement!)

Griff Rutledge, the leading man, was an honest fellow and a good guy, but I didn't feel like he was in the book a whole lot. I would have liked to see more interaction between the two main characters. This lack of interaction, for me, made the romance pretty "blah".

The spiritual nature of the book was the one very good thing. I enjoyed the references to Christ, scriptures, etc. It was indeed inspiring in that respect, so if you read it for no other reason than that, you won't be sorry.

I really don't like writing reviews that are not glowing, but I find that the more of these that I read, the more particular I get. Do you find that happens to you?

Anyway, if you read this book--let me know what you think. I may be off-base here, so tell me what your opinion about the story is.


Happy Reading!
Buy it!