Customer Reviews

Open Your Heart/Time Will Tell/Now Picture This (The Sierra Jensen Series 7-9) (Sierra Jensen Collection, Volume 3)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This collection includes the first three books in the Sierra Jensen series written by Robin Jones Gunn.

Only You, Sierra introduces sixteen-year-old Sierra. Flying home from a mission trip in the UK, Sierra has met several new friends, including Katie and Christy, who readers of Robin's Christy Miller series will recognize. Normally outgoing and adventurous, Sierra is surprised to feel anxiety about her family's move to Portland, Oregon during the time she was away. A new home, new school, and potential new love interest challenge Sierra to reevaluate beliefs about herself that she has long taken for granted.

In Your Dreams finds Sierra watching over Granna Mae for a few days while her family is out of town. While it's difficult for Sierra to see her Granna's memory come and go, what seems to be a simple responsibility becomes more than Sierra bargains for when Granna Mae receives a call saying she needs immediate surgery. Meanwhile, Sierra tries to find a part-time job and wonders why, when she was the most popular girl at her old school, she is having such a difficult time making new friends in Portland.

Don't You Wish takes Sierra and her sister Tawni to spend Easter break at the beach with Christy, Katie, and their friends. When Tawni hits it off immediately with Jeremy, and even Katie pairs off with Antonio, an Italian exchange student, Sierra struggles with being jealous and feeling left out. She wants a boyfriend too. She tries to have fun and even learns to surf. But when Sierra witnesses Christy and Todd, to her the perfect couple, going through a difficult time in their relationship, she realizes everyone has struggles in their life. And she learns, as 1 Tim 6:6 states, that godliness with contentment is the greatest gain.

"Have you ever felt as if you were caught between two lives? The one you're living, and the one you wish you were living?" Sierra asks Christy.

Armchair Interviews says: Readers of all ages will understand Sierra's feelings and be ministered to by the timeless truths God reveals to her throughout this collection.

I loved this book. I will admit though, when I firt started reading it. I was thinking 'This book is going to be soo boring' But, the more I was reading it. The more I found I loved it. For any christian girl, or even a girl who wants to learn more about god. This would be an awesome book for them. It deals with a lot of the things that teen girls deal with. And the way Sierra Jensen handles all the things that are thrown at her, is awesome. She can turn and awful mistake, into a chance for god to use her.

All books are intended for young adult readers. Being 36 years old, I would have to say that even as an adult I found them a lot of fun to read. I really like how they all have growing, coming of age, life lessons written in such a manner that many can related and understand. I think a lot of young adults can learn a lesson or two from these books.

Sierra Jensen has just finished the summer of a lifetime. After taking big trips to Europe and California, Sierra's return home to start her senior year of high school doesn't seem to be an exciting prospect. In TIME WILL TELL, the eighth installment in Robin Jones Gunn's Sierra Jensen series, she is faced with a number of challenges that make life far less than perfect.

Sierra learns that her once best friend Amy is upset with her and totally avoiding her. She is not even given the chance to find out what's wrong, let alone reconcile. As she fruitlessly attempts to save the friendship, her family is involved in a drama of its own. Something big is happening to her older sister Tawni, but no one will tell her what's going on.

Frustrated and lonely, Sierra seeks solace in her now growing relationship with long-time love interest Paul. He is attending school in Scotland, and the two write each other increasingly personal and romantic letters. With Paul on the other side of the world and Amy refusing to speak to her, Sierra realizes just how important good friends are.

Things begin to look up when a new friend emerges from a very unlikely place. Sierra also starts spending more time with Randy, who is having a dramatic start to senior year himself. He has defied the rules of their private school and grown his hair out long. While this may seem inconsequential, it has turned the school upside down, with student body and administration at odds with one another.

When Amy finally agrees to talk to Sierra, a family emergency abruptly ends her attempted reconciliation. With things off to a rocky start, will Sierra be able to enjoy her senior year? Will Amy give their friendship another chance? And what is the big secret her family is hiding from her?

In TIME WILL TELL, readers will be glad that the spotlight is back on Sierra Jensen after quite a bit of focusing on Gunn's other protagonist, Christy Miller. Some might find the book to be a bit overly dramatic, particularly in the amount of attention and emotion dedicated to Randy's decision about whether or not to cut his hair. This aside, the author manages to produce another well-written novel in an enjoyable series that will definitely please fans.

--- Reviewed by Jennifer Crosby

I had heard good things about the Christy Miller series, but have not read any of this author until I picked up this book - not about Christy, but about her high school age friend, Sierra. I thought it was great that they re-released these books as collections, it makes it much easier to read the series since you don't have to obtain each individual book.
As for the writing, I was reminded a lot of Melody Carlson's "Diary of a Teeenage Girl" series (which happen to be some of my favorite books). The style was incredibly similar, they were simply written in different persons.
I am a nineteen year old girl and in the same place as Sierra - looking for a job, wondering about the future, looking to seek and honor and love God, of course with a little curiosity about boys thrown in. ;) I appreciated Sierra's strength of character and was able to empathize with her as she went through normal life feelings. The book was paced well and never lost my interest - in fact I'm very interested in reading the next volumes to find out more about Paul!! ;)
I would recommend this to all teen girls, 12-19. It's a great, wholesome story of a Christian girl just like you. :)

Technically this review is of the Sierra Jensen Collection: Volume One, the first three books in Robin Jones Gunn's Sierra Jensen series combined in one binding (or in one e-book). But, I ended up only receiving book one in the series, Only You, Sierra. So, I can actually only review the content of book one. Even having only read one book, however, I think I can give you a pretty good idea of what is available with this collection.

I have heard of Robin Jones Gunn's books for teen girls and have wanted to preview them for some time now, considering I have two growing girls who are avid readers. Sierra Jensen's stories actually comprise a companion series to Gunn's Christy Miller books, picking up on a character Christy and her friends meet on a mission trip.

Sierra Jensen is a sixteen-year-old struggling with the balance between wanting to be grown and still needing to mature in so many areas. Having just had a life-changing mission trip experience with older college students, returning to the life of a high-schooler is tough. To make it worse, Sierra's family moved while she was on her trip, and Sierra just can't seem to get settled into her new home, school, and community.

The storyline is definitely one I want to reserve for my girls' teen years. There is nothing overly mature or compromising for a preteen girl. If the rest of the series is like this book, Gunn does a great job of keeping the story pure and encouraging godly relationships between guys and girls. But, the idea that girls should have boyfriends is being introduced earlier and earlier these days. The longer I can keep that longing in the background for my girls, the easier it will be for them to wait and live out God's plan in God's timing. As we do begin to discuss God's plan for their future relationships, however, Gunn's perspective on dating and relationships is one that I think will reinforce a Christ-centered perspective on dating and waiting for "Mr. Right." In addition to promoting the aforementioned purity, Gunn also is not shy about presenting the idea that obedience to Christ comes first, no matter how attractive the guy, how promising the relationship, or even how solid of a Christian the significant other may be.

But, Gunn's writing style presents a problem for me. As I mentioned, both of my girls are advanced readers, and even at eight and ten they could speed through one book in the Sierra Jensen series in an hour or two at the most. I can only imagine how quickly they would fly through these books as teenagers!

While I would love to see similar storylines developed at a more challenging reading level, I think the reorganization of these books into three-volume collections will help. I know I would need to buy at least three books at a time to keep my girls from going crazy while waiting to read what comes next!

Bottom line: No matter what type of reader you are, there's always room for a fun, quick, relaxing read. So, these books will definitely go on our wish list for a few years from now. And, knowing that these are quick, easy reads enables me to encourage teen girls who aren't such avid readers to pick up these novels. The world's perspective on dating is pressing hard on teen girls, and Robin Jones Gunn provides a solid push in a more godly direction with her novels.

This book was sent to me by WaterBrook Multnomah in exchange for my honest review.

This is a young adult collection containing the titles Only You, In Your Dreams, and Don't You Wish.

Only You begins with 16-year-old Sierra on a mission trip to Europe. While Sierra is thrilled to have made new best friends, she worries what will happen to those friendships when she returns home. And, she wonders if she'll ever get a boyfriend, after seeing both of her new best friends with theirs.

Sierra isn't totally thrilled to be going home, either. A move to a totally new town awaits her. Her parents decided to move in with her aging Granna Mae since she was becoming confused and now needed help. Sierra meets Paul on the trip home, and asks him some pretty deep, thought-provoking questions.

Sierra arrives at her new home and starts at her new, private Christian school all within a week. Will she adjust to the larger school? Will she ever see the older Paul again?

I wish there would have been a prequel to this title. I haven't read the Christy Miller series for teens, where Sierra was introduced, but it would have been nice to have a stand-alone book to really introduce Sierra, and then have it included in this series.

I haven't read young adult books in a while, but am always looking for titles for my kids, so I thought it was worth a shot. Some of the situations and attitudes just didn't resonate with me. I get that the book is about Sierra changing her attitude and making an effort to adapt. I feel like, though, that it's kind of one-sided in that what Sierra changes about her behavior isn't modeled by the other kids at school. For me, it's easier to see a "wrong doing" or attitude adjusted when there is the opportunity for comparison.

I'm giving this title 3 out of 5 stars because it didn't seem realistic enough to me. I will have my oldest daughter read this once I get the hard copy and see what she thinks. It's entirely possible that my spin comes from being an adult.

This is a partial review because I had issues with the file I received from the publisher to review.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

There are 3 books in the Sierra Jensen Collection, Vol 1 book: Only You, Sierra; In Your Dreams; and Don't You Wish.

Book One: Only You, Sierra
16 year old Sierra Jensen is peppy, friendly, and she's following God! In the beginning, she is coming home from a missions trip in England with her friends Katie, Tracy, and Christy. After sadly leaving her friends, Sierra meets a man named Paul on the plane. They find out that they have a lot in common. Sierra also gives her opinion on how Paul's life would be better, but when she states her age, Paul doesn't care for her opinion. When Sierra gets to her new home in Portland, Oregon, she finds that making friends isn't as easy as she thought... Will she ever be able to adjust to the new school and town? And will she see Paul again?

Book Two: In Your Dreams
Sierra is back again! In the second book in her series, Sierra has made some new friends, Amy, Vicki, and Randy. They like her style and hang out with her, but she doesn't really have any connections with them, and she doesn't open up. Sierra gets a letter from Paul, too. She impulsively writes an angry reply... but she later has regrets. Will Sierra be able to open up to her friends? And will she get to apologize to Paul?

Book Three: Don't You Wish
In Don't You Wish, Sierra Jensen is going to go on a trip to California over spring break to see her friends again. She accidentally invites her older sister Tawni to come, and Tawni says yes! When they get to CA, everyone there has a relationship, including Katie and Antonio, Tracy and Doug, Christy and Todd, and (Sierra doesn't like this) Tawni and Jeremy. Sierra is the only one without love! Can Sierra handle having her sister over? And will she ever find true love?

My Opinion
I am 10 years old so this review is based on a 10-year-old's perspective. I would not recommend this book to preteens/teens because it wasn't very exciting. It was just about someone's life. Almost everyone has to deal with moving and adjusting to new schools and environments, including me. The book might have been more interesting if it took place in the past, if it was humorous, if it was a mystery, etc. It was somewhat interesting with Paul in the story, though.

Overall, I would rate it 2.5 stars.

**I received an e-copy of this book from Waterbrook Multnomah in exchange for my honest review**

The book: Sierra Jensen collection was refreshing. It brought me back to the past of teenage years. Of course, I never dated anyone, but I have snuck looks at guys in middle and high school. I have also read these books in middle school from my church library. These books have such good morals, that I'm going to let my daughters read them too.

It guides young teenage girls onto the right path, when they are starting to look at guys with a new interest in mind. I downloaded the book into my kindle and brought it everywhere with me.

I am so excited that Multnomah publishing has re-released The Sierra Jensen Collection. During a time when teenagers are inundated with werewolves, vampires and witches, Robin Jones Gunn's classic series is a breath of fresh air.

I remember reading both the Christy Miller and the Sierra Jensen series fifteen or twenty years ago. Re-reading The Sierra Jensen Collection Volume 1 was refreshing. There are three books in this collection, OnlyYou Sierra, In Your Dreams and Don't You Wish.

The books follow the main character, Sierra Jensen, as she comes back home to a new home, a new city and a new school. She has to deal with making friends, changes in her family dynamic, boys and strengthening her faith.

If you have teenage girls, The Sierra Jensen Collection is an honest, faith-based story that they will love. Even though the books were initially written several years ago, the issues that Gunn deals with in her writing are still real to most teenage girls.

****Multnomah Publishing provided me a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for either a positive or negative review.