I’ve been blessed to be on Kim Vogel Sawyer’s street team again, this time for Beneath a Prairie Moon. I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I. Here’s my honest review of this upcoming release.
A Lighthearted, Atypical Mail-Order Bride Story
FTC DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review, which was NOT required to be positive.
After reading Ms. Sawyer’s previous novel, Bringing Maggie Home, I wasn’t sure if I should expect another gut-wrenching story. Just a few pages into Beneath a Prairie Moon revealed that I was in for a delightful treat. While not a typical mail-order bride tale, it is filled with laughter, adventure, and unique characters that claim space in the reader’s heart.
It was really neat to see a sunburn featured through the story. That’s a different sort of aspect that I quite enjoyed. It brought back many memories of sunburns I’ve had, some more painful than others. This was a really creative thing to add into this wonderful book.
Ms. Sawyer didn’t ignore the fact that saloons and brothels were prominent parts of prairie towns in the late 1800s. Instead, she took a fresh tack on it by turning a former place of sin into a diner and bed-and-breakfast combination. This worked really well for the story line, and it played beautifully against Miss Grant’s uppity background. The way Ms. Sawyer turned a bad thing into a good one reminded me of the way God takes the bad in our lives and turns it into good, as we are willing to leave behind our past and step into His ordained future for our lives. One story from the Bible that comes to mind is how God took Rahab and her history of harlotry and turned her life into a piece of Jesus’s lineage as well as allowing her son Boaz to become a well-respected member of the community. (Joshua 2; 6:16-25; Ruth; Matthew 1:5)
If it weren’t for two old-time expletives, this would have been a five-star read for me. Those two words added nothing to the plot, and they tried to stick in my mind for a couple of days—forcing me to work extra hard to take every thought captive and renew my mind (2 Corinthians 10:5 and Romans 12:2). That type of wording is unusual for a Sawyer book, and I’m hoping it won’t be a repeated offense.
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| Kim Vogel Sawyer |
