A Home in Drayton Valley

There’s a Ned for every Nelly.

Book Rating: Here a little, there a little

First of all, I want to thank Bethany House for sending me this book in exchange for my honest review. I always appreciate being a part of their blog tours.

As my opening comment suggests, there’s someone for everyone. In turn, I believe there is an author/book for every reader. Unfortunately, I do believe that Kim Vogel Sawyer and I are not a good match as far as reader/author are concerned. I have read only two of her other books, and even though I rated one pretty high, I think I am done reading her stories. But I don’t say that to discourage you. Because again, she might fit your style just swimmingly.

If you will read many of the other reviews about this book, you will find they are glowing. Honestly, I had a hard time finding many things that I liked about this book. But again, that’s just me I guess. And, I know you hear this from me all the time, but…I think I must have a serious disease when it comes to how I feel about a book’s cover… This cover didn’t help my preconceived notions about this story one iota. Of all the covers of HCR’s I’ve seen so far this is the one I liked the very least.

Tarsie Raines—the heroine in this story—loses her dearest friend on the way to Kansas and promises to care for her children…and her husband.  Pretty fun plot, although we’ve seen that before. Had the potential for fabulous romance. But for me it didn’t deliver. Tarsie wasn’t really a character that I enjoyed. She had a thick accent (as did many of the characters in this book) and for some reason that made me disconnect with her. I’ve read other books where characters had accents and it didn’t bother me, but her accent bothered me. I simply could not bond with her. I tried—I really did!

Also, the stories where mom’s die are always hard for me since I am a mom and the thought of dying when my kids are still so young is just too much for me, so that aspect I didn’t like. 

As for Joss—the leading man… how do I say this nicely…. I didn’t like him at all. He was coarse, and he drank a lot and didn’t care about his kids and was brash and mean at times... Yikes. For me, that’s not the kind of leading man I warm to. Of course, he turns around at the end, but for the most part I was discouraged at his behavior and it made me not care about what happened to him. Does that make sense? I understand that we like to see characters that are flawed, but in my opinion he was too flawed.

The gospel aspect of the story was strong, so if you are just looking for a great "historical christian" you may enjoy it.

I feel bad having to write such a review, but so it is.  If you have read any others of hers and love them, and think I ought to give it a try let me know! Otherwise, I will say "so long" to Vogel Sawyer.

Happy Reading!

Buy it!