I read this book fairly quickly in a very busy week. It was easy to read. However, I have mixed feelings about this book. I liked the history of it, I enjoyed many of the characters. I feel some characters we got to meet and get very involved in their lives, only for them to disappear entirely and we have no clue what happened or why they were even relevant to the story at all. These characters either should have had their story told all the way through or not brought into the story with such detail…….this, for me, bothered the flow of it. The book could have been longer if it had finished up all these loose ends. The read felt choppy to me in parts and needed a bit more polish. The emotion of the story comes through beautifully and learning more of this culture and time in history a bit more was good for me. I did have a fair bit of knowledge under my belt, so this was a good story to put in with what I know. I feel like part three of this book was rushed. I loved the beginning of this book, and maybe had this book been written in one setting with that feel, I would really have enjoyed it more than I did. None of the content bothered me and thankfully the Protestant faith was shown fairly accurate to the time that this book takes place in. I would still recommend reading this book, for me it was 3 out of 5 stars.
Books that I absolutely loved that were long in length such as this book and told over long periods of time with the same people are The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See and The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne. Both of these I’d give 5 stars.
Peace.
