Customer Reviews

Faithful Heart (Angel of Mercy Series)

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While this review is talking about this book specifically, the points I make aren't directed at Al Lacy exclusively. Most of these issues are common faults found with the bulk of "Christian" fiction.

I received a review copy of Faithful Heart from Multnomah. I thought it sounded like an interesting book, set in the western US in the 1870s. There's basically two storylines following two sisters: one who is making a trek west via wagon train and the other who is struggling being married to a man dealing with violent mental issues related to his Civil War service.

Al Lacy's not a bad writer necessarily, but this book is a great example of Christian fiction gone bad. While Lacy does try to tackle a real-life issue (mental illness) and I commend him for that, he goes about it all wrong.

First, the treatment of mental illness in this book is thoroughly modern. In no way could I picture the discussions happening here happening in in the 1870s, and not just because he used language like "shell shock" that doesn't come about for almost another 50 years. It was like he put a late-20th century story in more attractive clothes to entice more readers.

Secondly, this book is chock full with church-y language. The conversations between characters come off as untrue to real life, like a play written by an amateur (me, for instance). Like most Christians who've been around the church a lot I'm guilty of this as well, but it does make me cringe. There is a way to write a story from a biblical worldview without making it sound like it was written in a Sunday School. The God of the Bible is so much more than that.

My last major issue with this book is that everything is tied up in a neat bow. While that might be the way we would like things, real life doesn't work that way and we fool ourselves when we place hope that it will. Mental illness is messy. Even more so, our sin nature is (which we rarely see in this book aside from the "bad" guys).

To be fair, this was originally published 25 years ago. Perhaps Lacy wouldn't have written the book this way if he wrote it today. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this matter.

I have read books by Al Lacy before. I have also read a couple of books with the main characters of this book. The books are in another series called the Stranger series.

This book has a helpful Prologue, so if you haven't read any books in that series, or Book One of this series, it catches you up to speed.

This book is very action packed. I did find parts of this book a tad violet. The violence was part of a story line, not just violence thrown in for the sake of having violence. One of the characters is a Civil War veteran, who is suffering from shell shock.

I did like this book, in spite of the violence, and will be looking for Book One in this series, as well as additional books in the series.

This book was provided by WaterBrook Multnomah for me to review.

I had a very difficult time with the historical (in)accuracies of this novel. Yes, it is historical fiction, but I expect even fiction to be more historically accurate than this. The main problem lies in the medical terminology used in this book--and there is a lot of medical discussion because Breanna is a nurse and Dottie's husband Jerrod is suffering from psychological problems caused by his experiences in the Civil War. Unfortunately, although the author has done a lot of research on medical conditions and treatments, they don't always mesh with the time period. "Shell shock" is mentioned throughout the book as being the cause of Jerrod's problems. But the term "shell shock" was not adopted to refer to this problem until World War I--in the Civil War era it was called "soldier's heart" or "combat fatigue". After this, I found myself checking on other medical details in the book that seemed too modern to fit the time period. The other obvious (to me) inaccuracy happens when Breanna ties on a surgeon's mask. Surgeon's masks were not really adopted until after 1899, when the droplet theory of infection was developed. Are these important parts of the story? Perhaps. But they are inaccurate enough to bother me throughout the book.

Perhaps these inaccuracies will not bother other readers as much as they bother me. But the story in general just didn't grab me either. At times the romance between John Stranger and Breanna was a bit sappy (this is personal opinion, others might not see it that way). It also took a really long time for Breanna's story to intersect with Dottie's story. And I just could not identify with Dottie. She took way too long to take her children out of an extremely dangerous situation, because she was too concerned about Jerrod's psychological and emotional welfare. I could understand her reasoning if she had been afraid he would kill them if they left, but her reasoning was always that she was afraid it would destroy Jerrod's emotional/psychological healing and she wanted to help him get better. The violence done to the children in the book sickened me, and made me angry that this character would put herself and her children in such a position.

The ending has a frightening climax and struck me as an awfully convenient way to get Dottie out of her marriage and move her on to a new relationship. I just didn't like this book much at all. There was one portion of the story in which Dottie and Jerrod's doctor discuss the reasons why God does not always heal faithful Christians who ask Him for healing that I thought was really explained well. I did enjoy parts of the book, but the weak points were hard to power through.

I think I was probably also at a disadvantage because I didn't read the first book of this series (Angel of Mercy) or the other series that is related to Breanna's love interest, John Stranger (Journeys of the Stranger). I definitely felt like there was a big backstory that I had missed, so readers would be better off starting at the beginning of this series. Ultimately, I don't recommend this book unless you are an Al Lacy fan.

**This book was provided for review by the publisher, Waterbrook Multnomah.

This book deals with a difficult subject--the trauma of war on the mind. The subsequent spousal and child abuse are heart-wrenching. I enjoy any Al Lacy book, but this one, in my opinion, was too contrived.

I have never read anything by Al Lacy before and don't really like Westerns or war stories, but I approached this book with an open mind. I was quite surprised. This was a good book......it wasn't excellent, but it was a good read. While there were parts where I got caught up in the storyline and totally lost track of time, there were also parts where it became quite predictable and tedious. Because this is the second book in the Angel of Mercy series, I wasn't sure if I was missing anything by reading the 2nd book first. (I'm big on reading series books in order.) But overall, I felt that this book was a good read and could stand on it's own.

The opportunity to review this book was provided by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

This was a good story. There were times that it was predictable but I think that every story has those points. I liked Breanna very much. She was very independent and strong willed. The things that Jerrod was dealing with were very interesting. I liked how Lacy put us into his head to show us the two sides of Jerrod.

The story was pretty fast paced. I got caught up in the story a few times and didn't realize how long I had been sitting reading. I didn't finish it in one setting, but it didn't take me very long at all.

The story was unique. It dealt with a few tough subjects but that didn't make it hard to read. Everything was tastefully written and the outcomes were plausible.

Overall I liked this one. It was enjoyable and I wanted to find out what was going to happen next.

Faith Heart by Al Lacy - Book Review

Press Release Portion:

Faithful Heart

By Al and Joanna Lacy - The adventures of certified medical nurse and dedicated Christian Breanna Baylor continue as she travels by wagon train to visit her sister, Dottie, in California. Little does she know that her most dangerous encounter might be with Jerrod, her brother-in-law, who's suffering from dementia caused by combat fatigue.

This book was provided to me by [...] for my review.

My Thoughts on this book:

This is the first book of the Angel of Mercy series by Al Lacy. It is, however, the second book of the series. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I did not have an issue having not read the first book. The author did an excellent job there. Most of the time when you start a book out of series, you have a hard time understanding what is going on. The author in this case provided you with a prologue which helped me to feel comfortable starting right off.

The story is set in the 1870s traveling between Breanna Baylor and her sister Dottie Harper. Breanna spends most of the story on the way to California to her sister serving as a nurse for the wagon train she is on. There was a nice romance going between Breanna and John Stranger throughout the train ride which was very nice. Unfortunately, I had a lot of issues with the medical terminology that was used throughout most of the book. Not that I'm an expert there but I don't believe that nurses were allowed to perform surgery back at that stage of history. I think a lot of the technology was more modern medicine and since there was a lot of dialogue regarding it. It made the story hard to believe. This is a Christian based book and there was a lot of reference to religion in it.

I was able to connect with Breanna but never really had the chance to connect with Dottie since most of the story was on the ride to California with Breanna. I had an issue with how long it took Dottie to take her children away from a violent situation with her husband who was suffering from a mental illness. In my mind, she did not have a reason to put her children in harm's way. The violence that the children endured in this book was hard for me to stomach.

Although I do believe if all the technical verbiage was not in the book, it would have been a better read. I did enjoy parts of the book. Just not all of it. I found that I was easily able to figure out the plot which makes it hard for me to continue to read. I want a book that makes me wonder what is going to happen next to make me want to continue to read. For someone else, it might be the perfect read. I'm not that much on Christian or war books.

This book is about the trials and tribulations of the main character, Breanna Baylor, and her sister, Dottie Harper, during the time after the Civil War. It follows Breanna as she travels from Denver to San Francisco to visit her sister, Dottie, whose husband Jerrod is suffering from shell shock brought on by his experiences during the war. There is an underlying Christian theme among the characters as they go through life's challenges.

The book has an interesting subplot around the mania that the Civil War veteran suffers from. However because quite a bit of the dialog concerning his problem appears to be taken from modern medicine, rather than what would have historically been little known about, the story is quite unbelievable.

As a whole "Faithful Heart" is not historically accurate. Not only does it not convey the time period very well the contrived ending has soap opera written all over it. I'm sure that with a more time specific narrative, descriptive scenes, and less modern medical jargon this story would have been much more appealing.

A very young mind might be naive enough to find this book enjoyable. I found that it lacked plausible plot and was predictably uninteresting with the end scene bordering on outrageous.

[This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.]

Faithful Heart is Book Two of the Angel of Mercy Series which is a spin-off of The Stranger series. The book opens with the author giving the reader a back story on the main characters. That was a turn-off to me. Even though I like reading series books, I don't like feeling like I HAVE to read another book to feel like I can understand the book currently in my hand.

The main story line of Faithful Heart deals with Shell Shock of a soldier after the Civil War and the wife that stands by him during the ordeal. She is faithful to her wedding vows and truly loves her husband. Extremely admirable traits, and I truly cared about her and her plight. This book also continues a romance between two characters introduced in the Stranger series. How many times can you bring a couple extremely close to being together to only allow circumstances to pull them apart again? I can't handle it on t.v. sitcoms and I don't like it in my books. Give us a resolution already! I almost feel like it is purposely crafted to get to the next book, and the next, and the next.....

My first disclaimer MUST be that I really dislike Civil War/Western stories. I also have not read the previous books in this series.

This book was very predictable...I nailed the story line well ahead of time and that just doesn't do it for me anymore. I want to be intrigued...to wonder, to not want to put the book down.

This was a story about being a nurse around the Civil War years and the left over horrors of war through the dementia suffered by one of the characters from shell shock.

It was all so sanitary. It just isn't my kind of book. I appreciate that many love
stories like this...and would probably thoroughly enjoy reading this next segment
in the lives of John and Daria but the predictability is too much for me.