Customer Reviews

Courage, Love and the Meaning of Christmas: A Magical, Insightful, Adventure-Romance Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT! If you are too late for this year, purchase for next year!
This book has touched my life in a way that I hope you will discover for yourself.
It is one of those books that you might think it could be ordinary but it turns out
extra ordinary. I think Oprah should put this in her favorite things to give for Christmas!
That is how much I loved it!

I usually buy at least one special book to read and/or give to friends to read over the holidays. After these very positive reviewers I selected this one. I barely finished it.

In fact I skipped many pages due to the somewhat confusing narrative and Spencer's lack of focus. I understand that that was what the book was about partially: His search for the meaning of life and the meaning of Christmas, but the author seemed to be searching (and needs to find!) a better way to approach his readers. So now I'm at a loss who to loan this out to?
If you want a better Christmas "read" I suggest Christmas Joys, Everyday is Christmas, Christmas Gift, Christmas Box, The Gift of the Magi, Mrs. Miracle, and my all time favorite book for bringing out the Spirit in all of us "A Stranger for Christmas" by Carol Lynn Pearson. You will know more about the Meaning of Life and become part of Myrna's journey to find out if her family learned what she had taught!

Or you could just re-read the Gospel of Luke for the truest meaning of Life!

I laughed.
I cried.
The story stuck with me and made me think. I, like Spencer, thought about the meaning of life. As I read this thoughts and the characters wriggled their way into my heart. After I finished, I found these thoughts had blossomed and I will be better for having read this.

The Meaning of life is experimented thru out life.. Varies on one soul to the next.. But I love the variety and detail this book gives to such a meaning.. I really enjoyed this book. It made me feel alive and free spirited after.. A wonderful feeling for days to come. Thanks for the soul finder.

Everyone from Utah gives this five stars; everyone from elsewhere gives it three, so I'll buck the trend and give it two. I might have given it three if the poor proofreading hadn't dropped it a star--the main character "pours" over a book, and the author does have some confusion concerning the difference between "its" and "it's," which really is inexcusable in a book that has been published.

My main problem is with the characters and all that happens to them. Each of the main characters always seems to have the nicest thought, the most pure motivation, and never seems to question any of the other main characters. This in itself isn't bad, but it just doesn't seem completely believable, and I can't put my finger on why. I had the feeling all along that the narrator was telling me the best possible version of a story, whereas someone else might have mentioned some things that he left out. This is basically a story of a likeable young man who's very insecure finding his confidence and security through a girl, not through himself. It also reads often as an excuse to throw in some philosophy here and there--really profound wisdom coming from the mouths and minds of kids in their early 20's. Things just never fit for me.

I actually only reached the end because I was curious to see if there would be anything redeeming in it, but as someone pointed out, it's an extremely abrupt and uncomfortable ending that leads into a sales pitch for book two, which costs $2 more than this first one. I really didn't care if the two main characters ended up together, and I cared even less for his two friends at college, especially the liar who was proud to be a liar.

All in all, this left me feeling empty and a bit dismayed that I had spent so much time on it for no really good reason. The writer has talent with his prose style, but the story-telling and the flow of the narrative and the character development all seemed forced and formulaic.

I ordered this on my Kindle, and expected a warm, sentimental Christmas read, which it indeed was. That part is fine, although there are some problems with the novel in my opinion. First, I like the main character/narrator very much. He is very friendly and believable. and comes across as someone it would be a real pleasure to know. HIs character is also quite well defined. His concerns are believable, realistic and draw the reader into his thoughts and actions. ( The novel spends a large portion of its 150 pages concerned with life philosophies and religion which are interesting but do tend to bog down the plot.) The female main character is good, but less believable. I ended up with way too many "how come" questions for Netta. For example, she's 22 so, when the biggest crisis of the book appears for her character, why does it never seem to cross her mind that, as an adult, she could make an independent choice from the one her family makes? Other characters are not well defined, especially Jim, who seems slated to be established as an rival for the narrator, (and possibly not an entirely stable person) and then changes without sufficient reason. The motivation for this change is enough to maybe make him calm down, but not enough to totally make him graciously withdraw from the competition.) The narrator's college friends are interesting but underdeveloped in this book but apparently come into more action in the later books. For me, THAT was the real problem. The book is designed to be part one of a trilogy ( but we are not told that until the very last page of this book), the information at the end of the book indicating the 3rd book is not even finished yet. The last quarter of the book seems to meander a bit, disengage from the feelings of the characters and then ends so abruptly I was strongly reminded of the end of Kindle samples more than the conclusion of a book. Where the narrator seems to be headed in Book 2 seems totally out of character for what we have seen developing in this book, especially considering the change occurred in less than a week! Not sure I will continue as I am now being asked to accept way too much that is inconsistent with the character I thought I knew.

I really loved this book. I read it in two nights -- practically couldn't put it down. Roundy is a pro in this genre. He really captures the heart of interpersonal interactions and relationships, and mixes in the right amount of suspense and adventure. And he takes a much needed and profound look at the real meaning and purpose of life. An excellent read! (And I'm excited that this story about Spencer is a trilogy!)

In so many ways. The story is interesting and moving, the writing is vivid, the characters are well defined, I learned a lot about the meaning of life, but mostly, it was really fun to read. I rarely read the same thing twice, but this once I certainly will.