Customer Reviews

A Gathering of Angels

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A lot of books claim to provide the warm characters and small town comfort of The Mitford Series, but Katherine Valentine's new series truly does.

In her follow up to A Miracle for St. Cecilia's, Katherine Valentine brings us back to the charming New England town of Dorsetville, with her quirky yet lovable characters and a host of new adventures. As the community faces some unexpected turns they come together to get through the tragedies that are thrown their way. You'll get to know the local townsfolk a bit better and appreciate the sense of community as they help one another in trying situations.

Valentine has a very cozy writing style, so if you're looking for a book you can sit back and relax with, this book is for you. Full of small town charm and lovable people, you'll want to return to Dorsetville as soon as you can.

Katherine Valentine novels of faith and a small New England community make me want to pack my bags and go live there! In "A Gathering of Angels", Dorsetville folks confront a wide range of challenges. A businessman is left with a mountain of debt when his partner runs off with the money; a bag lady is wrongly accused of setting the fire that levels a church and Father James is recovering from a hit and run accident and learning to be the recipient instead of the giver of grace.

Unlike the Mitford series which is mostly fluff, the Dorsetville series digs into the questions that we all ask about the workings of God and faith..Where is God when tragedy strikes? How are we to find the faith that will help us to keep on believing when prayers go unanswered?

Besides being well written, the things that sets Dorsetville aside is that it leaves the ready with some deeply moving answers to some of the most difficult spiritual questions.

Karen Valentine's characters in this book are people I know!! Not really...but her book is lively and entertaining and quite inspirational. If you are looking for a book that challenges your spirituality gently this book is for you! I'd recommend it.

I loved "A Miracle for St. Cecilia's" and couldn't wait for this, her second book. If Katherine Valentine keeps writing so convincingly about miracles, I just might become a believer!

I love this book! In fact I love the whole series and will read it over again and again when I want a feel-good read. The town, the people, the situations are all easy to identify with and to feel emotionally connected to.

from page 180...all faith begins as a choice. You can either choose to have faith or you can choose to doubt.
When I 'discovered' this gentle, faith-filled series, I discovered that each book had something in particular that spoke to me. I don't know it this was the author's intent, but I actually printed up the words that 'spoke' to me so I could look at them often, and pause, and slow down, and think about them.

I was given this book as a gift. Having not read any of the author's previous works, it was immediately apparent that her series borrows closely from the Mitford books. But my take on this is: Who Cares? Speaking as someone who is tired of reading books on incest, domestic abuse, rape, and other horrors (which we read about daily in our newspapers) just having a new series to read that brings pleasure is most welcome. I could not put this book down. It's a simple story, with simple charactors, but the plotlines were many and knowing that they would all be tied together in a happy bundle at the end of the book was reassuring. The small town charm, the way Ms. Valentine teaches nuggets of the faith by sprinkling learning episodes throughout the book is a nice touch. As a practicing Catholic, it's wonderful to have a series of books that reflects my faith, even if she sometimes makes a mistake or two. Granted, the Rent-a-Nun concept is troubling, but other than that, it's a wonderful read and highly recommended.

Though I had looked forward to reading this book based on Katherine Valentine's first novel, I came away from it disappointed and even a bit disturbed. Initially, I was pleased to see Valentine addressing tougher questions about God, faith and suffering; but as the novel progressed it seemed as though every distressful situation was miraculously remedied by the presence of an angel or the rosary at the center of the story. While I realize that this was part of the plot device--people being inadvertently touched by holiness which then passes by--it nonetheless completely voided any realism in the novel whatsoever. And I, too, was troubled by "Rent-A-Nun": it conjured up the notion of indulgences and seemed to invoke the very worst stereoptypes about Catholicism. In terms of stylistic merit, I continue to prefer the Mitford novels, which are so artfully put together while deceptively seeming simple and which address difficult issues of faith in a subtle yet revealing fashion.

I'm sorry to have to give another negative review to one of Katherine Valentine's books, but again, this is just a rip-off of the Mitford books. She even has a big, unruly dog....just like Jan Karon's books! The characters are such obvious copies of the characters in the Mitford books that it becomes a real annoyance.
And again, her version of Catholicism is a little skewed. She acknowledges several priest friends in the preface to her book....did she get them to read it carefully? For example, she refers to "The Sacred Heart of Mary". What?? It's the "Immaculate Heart of Mary"....we only refer to Jesus' Sacred Heart. These and other errors just jump off the page to an even moderately well-educated Catholic. "Rent A Nun"???? Give me a break.

In this second book of the Dorsetville series, many events take place in the lives of the people.

For starters, Barry Hornibrook has himself in real trouble. He is in very serious debt from trying to start a hotel and is at the point where he cannot even pay his contractors anymore much less anything else. The gentleman that gave him a loan turned out to be a bad person, and escaped, leaving Barry in limbo without the money he needed. These two men are after him for money as well, and if Barry does not come through with the money he owes which is a couple million, they are threatening to kill him. As he is under the gun with time running out, he desparately searches for a way to get out of the terrible situation he is in.

Nellie Anderson is another example of faith here in the book. She has a threat hanging over her head on foreclosure with her home. She has been struggling hard to try and make ends meet, while having fallen behind on the bills. She is working a teaching job during the day, and doing another job at night. Nellie has also been working on a children's Christmas book for a very long time. And the book is her last hope to save the house. But it will have to be a quick save since time is running out for her too.

There is a huge fire at the church opposite Saint Cecilia's, and the Galligan twin boys started it during the week of bible school. Sara, Lori's daughter was down in the basement, and couldn't find her way out. She falls asleep there in the basement when the fire gets going, but luckily gets rescued just in time.

The Galligan twins are always full of pranks and also set off a firecracker that caused some major problems. The boys own up eventually after Father James makes them confess to Sheriff Bromley all their recent
pranks.

Father James gets run over by two men who take off without even stopping, knowing too well what they did. Father has a broken leg for a very long time and has to stay on bedrest pretty much, putting up with his cranky housekeeper Mrs. Morris whom is driving him nuts.

The two men that hit Father James are the two guys that have threatened Barry Hornibrook for the money. The answer to Barry's prayers will come when the sheriff captures these two men who have been up to no good for a long time.

This book was great all the way through, and I look forward to Grace Will Lead Me Home, the third book in the series.