Customer Reviews

Not by Might (Angel of Mercy Series #8)

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I found it very hard to get into this book. The writing was a bit to "flowery" for my taste. I did start to get into the book and enjoy it more about half way through. There was some excitement added that drew me into the plot more. One thing that I did enjoy though is the author's use of Scripture. Al Lacy quotes many Scriptures throughout this book and the characters pray very often. I found this to be very encouraging a good reminder to pray more in my own life. I would be interested in reading other books in this series. I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Not By Might the eighth book in Al Lacey's Angel of Mercy series is a Christian novel set in the Old West. The product description leads you to believe the novel will be written from the viewpoint of two different women. Breanna, the wife of U.S. Marshall John Brockman, and Natalie Fallon a new nurse at the hospital where Breanna works. Natalie is a supporting character in the novel but has very little dialog in the book and is a non-entity until the last couple of chapters.

I found it extremely hard to develop any interest in the book or its characters. From the drama of revenge from an outlaw-done-wrong to the constant and annoying insipid Christianity spouted by the main characters everything fell flat. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Christian and I am not against novels that have a strong Christian message or with quoting scripture. However, when the same verse is used over and over repeatedly with no real depth behind it, it becomes a turn-off instead of a blessing. These characters were so sugary sweet it felt as if I had eaten a mouthful of frosting with no cake much less a hearty meal beforehand.

I think if the author had concentrated less on beating the gospel/faith message over her reader's heads and more time on developing depth and feeling in their faith the novel would have been a much better read. As it is I could hardly stand to pick it back up to finish in order to write this review. I am exceedingly glad I didn't pay for it.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group does not require a positive review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

About the Book: Set in the Old West, this was the eighth of a series on Christian Western, romance, suspense (loose description) rolled into one. Although Nurse Breanna Brockman and her husband, John, the US Marshall, are the main characters in this series, nurse Natalie Fallon and Dr. Rex Rawlins are sub characters. In this episode, John's death is plotted by a gang of outlaws while his wife Breanna is acclimating Natalie Fallon, the new nurse in the hospital who is still grieving the loss of her true love. Breanna travels to half a day to a mining town to assist a rural doctor, Dr. Rex Rawlins, with one of his special needs patients. While there, Breanna, witnesses to a miner and his wife. All of these threads begin to intersect as the story reaches its climax.
My Thoughts: I have to admit that the Old West I have read about from other writers and this Old West were two different places. The characters in the story were so sickeningly sweet, that the book was hard to read. The characters who were Christians constantly preached at everyone they met and everything always worked out for the Christians in the story as soon as they prayed. I love stories of hope as much as the next reader, but I really don't like stories that are so completely unrealistic. The only positive thing I can think of, is to say that if you are a big Christian-Western fan, you may enjoy the whole Old West scene enough to make this story worthwhile. This book for me was a painful read that I could not wait for it to end. Had I not been reviewing this book I would have put it down and counted my losses. Syrupy sweet, condescendingly preachy, totally unbelievable and I doubt seriously if I read another of the Angel of Mercy series.

I received a free e-copy download of this book from the Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group for review purposes. All opinions expressed are always entirely my own.

Not By Might by Al Lacy jumps into the story without much introduction. It is a novel of historical fiction set in the Old West circa 1860's. It was a little hard to get into this book. After the first 50 pages, I found the story very engaging. The author takes the opportunity to explain faith in Jesus twice. There is also scripture used as encouragement to the characters in the story. The romance in this book is sometimes almost sugary sweet, but always chaste. I was surprised the author was a man. This book is the 8th in a series, but can easily stand alone.

The reader could feel one of too ways about this book. There is a lot of prosthelytizing in the book. I did not mind it. Depending on the reader's faith they could be either encouraged or turned off by it. The doctrine put forth in the book is biblically accurate. While I typically don't read western novels, I would read another book by this author.

I received this book for the purposes of review from Multnomah Waterbrook Publishers. All opinions expressed are my own.

Old Colorado West. Outlaws. Lawmen. Doctors. And the women who love them.

14 years ago, Duke Foster was shot in the leg and crippled by lawman Chet McCarty, who had tracked Duke following a string of armed robberies in Missouri and Kansas. While doing 10 years in Leavenworth, he secretly became friends with a prison guard. Once paroled, Foster handsomely paid his friend for what he'd done for him during the years he was imprisoned.

Present day, that guard now works in another position the federal building in Denver, and has his ear to the ground. He hears that Chet McCarty is on his way out to Denver. After notifying Foster, it doesn't take long for the gang to come up with a plan to kidnap McCarty; shoot him in the leg, and force him to live out his days confined in their hideout in the San Juan mountains.

The thorn in their side is U.S. Chief Marshall John Brockman, aka known as "the Stranger." John is a preacher gunman, and subordinate to Chet McCarty. They are also friends. John has an uncanny knack for killing those out to kill him, particularly in situations where normal men would be outmanned and outgunned.

Throw into the mix John's wife, Breanna, a country doctor, a new nurse, and a Christian hospital staff, and you have a good mix of intrigue and concurrent plots to keep your interest.

I will say, I was initially thrilled that this book has locales that are my personal favorites in the country- the San Juan mountains in southern Colorado, Gunnison, Black Canyon, and Monarch Pass. (If you've never had the chance to get to these places- GO! You won't regret it! Here's a picture of the Black Canyon area- see what I mean?)

Initially, I was disappointed. The beginning of this book was SO slow going, I was not looking forward to having to plow through it. About midway, it picked up, though, and became quite good.

I appreciated the medical history. I appreciated the suspense. One thing that I thought could have been better was the use of the same Bible story numerous times throughout the book. I understand where the author was going with this; however, I think his point could have been made better had he used more than the single example.

This was an ok book. I have favorite authors and while he is not one of them, I would read another of his titles if it became available to me. I try to keep an open mind and read at least two or three books from an author before deciding whether or not to pursue additional titles. That being said, those that don't know much about Christianity or how to be saved would probably really appreciate this book.

I give this book 3.5 stars out of 5.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah

In Not by Might by Al Lacy, John and Breanna Brockman are a happily married, newlywed couple in the late 1800's. John is the Chief U.S. Marshal, and Breanna is a traveling nurse. There are a couple of plots in this book, but the main one is how a gang of outlaws want to kill Brockman. Breanna has several patients that she cares for; one is a woman who has just had a baby, and another is a newly-paralyzed doctor.

What did I think of this book? Two words: unbelievable and unrealistic. Everyone in this story is so sweet and nice to everyone else, even the outlaws. No one ever says anything mean to anyone else, and at one point, two of the outlaws apologize to each other for arguing. Everyone that Breanna and John talk to becomes a Christian, and men argue over whose wife is the prettiest. The dialogue is disgustingly sweet. Combined with that are unrealistic plot developments. I won't go into these, just in case you read the book because I don't want to spoil anything for you.

In short, the only reason I finished this book was because I had agreed to review it.

I want to thank WaterBrook Multnomah for my (kindle) copy of this book, but my opinions are my own.

Not By Might

Not really being a western fan, I wasn't sure about this book, but after I finally got into the book, I did enjoy it. It turned out to be a pretty good story about John, Breanna and all of the rest living as Christians out west in the early 1800's. The love between John and Breanna did get a bit gooey at times, it was just almost too good to be true. The Christian content to the story didn't bother me; in fact I enjoy reading books such as this with a high content of Bible stuff. The book is based on the Bible verse: Zechariah 4:6, "Not by might, nor by power, but my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." Not a bad verse to write about!

I didn't read the first seven books, but I think this is ok. If you enjoy western stories and Christian fiction, you will enjoy Breanna and John's story. So just go grab a copy and enjoy it!

I received this book free from Waterbrook Multnomah blogging for books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55.

Breanna Brockman and her husband John have recently started their lives together as a married couple, and they keep themselves quite busy with Breanna as a nurse and John being in law enforcement. From deputies getting shot to doctors becoming paralyzed, the hospital is swarming with patients and risky procedures. John is always busy catching outlaws while finding time to swoon his new bride at the hospital.

When I first opened the book Not by Might by Al Lacy, and learned that it was a romantic Christian western novel I was a little concerned that it would be too many genres crammed into one book. In all honesty, it was. I can appreciate a good Christian book even when some of the beliefs expressed are different from my own, but this book was too religious. I felt like the author was pushing his religious beliefs harder than necessary and I started skipping any sections of the book that were preachy. It is most likely due to this that I do not feel any need or desire to pick up another book by this author.

Tangentially, John and Breanna are so in love throughout the book and so incredibly mushy that I still find it hard to believe that the author is male.

All that aside, I enjoyed the book well enough and felt a strange tie to my dad because he was often reading Louis L'amour books while I was growing up. The western feel was a fun twist from what I usually read and I enjoyed the suspense of the story line. Basically, good story line, too preachy.

Rarely will I stop reading a book before the end. Even if I really dislike it, I will stumble on in a determined effort to complete the story. I suppose it is my obsessive compulsive self. I would have made an exception to my rule for this book had I not been reading it for review purposes.

Syrupy sweet, condescendingly preachy, totally unbelievable: this read was almost too much to bear.

Set in the Old West, this was a Christian Western, romance, suspense (sort of) rolled into one. Breanna Brockman and her husband, John, the US Marshall, are the main characters in this series. I gathered that there were additional books from the Prologue. In this episode, John's death is plotted by a gang of outlaws while his wife Breanna, a nurse, meets a new nurse in the hospital who is still grieving the loss of her true love. When Breanna travels to a distant small town to assist a rural doctor, she befriends and witnesses to a miner and his wife. All of these threads begin to intersect as the story reaches its climax.

The characters in the story were so unbelievably sweety sweet, it was hard to read. They constantly preached at everyone they met. Everything always worked out for the Christians in the story as soon as they prayed. I love stories of hope as much as the next reader, and I really don't like stories that are too realistic and depressing. But, neither do I enjoy a story that is so incredibly far fetched. The only positive thing I can think of, is to say that if you are a big Western fan, you may enjoy the whole Old West scene enough to make this story worthwhile. Maybe. But, since I'm not, there wasn't really a redeeming feature here for me. Sorry.

I received a free copy of this book from Waterbrook Press for review purposes. All opinions expressed are always entirely my own.

I was probably around 12 the first time I read what I term as "Christian Pioneer fiction". My Mom had just had surgery and while she was healing our neighbor brought over a book for her to read, thinking she's like to read as she convalesced. A few months later I discovered the book and asked if I could read it. My Mom, knowing me to be a 12 year old tomboy thought I would never enjoy the book and pretty well said so, but handed it to me anyway. I ran away like a kid in a candy store and by nightfall had completed the book and began my quest to beg, borrow or steal (okay, not steal) any books that could possibly be categorized in the same manner. It was many years later that I discovered Al Lacy through his (and his wife's) Mail Order Bride series. Since then I have read many of the books that have Al Lacy boldly printed across the cover.


Not by Might is book 8 in The Angel of Mercy Series and while I have not read books 1-7 I found this to be an easy book to pick up without having a back story.
Nurse Natalie Fallon has brought her ailing mother to Denver for her health and starts a job at Denver's Mile High Hospital, where she meets fellow nurse Breanna Baylor Brockman. In Natalie's past is a relationship with Rex Rawlins, a young medical student. Two years prior she had ended the relationship when she learned Rex was planning a rural practice. She is determined not to marry a country doctor like her father, who died at age 43 from overwork. But she has never stopped loving Rex, and now, little does she know that Rex is a rural doctor in the surrounding mountains. A serious accident brings them together, but it will take a miracle to give them the promise of a life together.
Not by Might did not disappoint although I candidly admit it was a bit difficult for me to get into. Whether it was the book or me, it took me quite a few tries to really get into the story, but I found that about one-third of the way through I was able to really focus and was pulled into the book, up to that point the preaching felt a bit heavy handed and off-putting to me. I suppose I prefer books in which faith and spirituality are more seamlessly interwoven into the story line. I'd recommend the book to anyone who has previously enjoyed Al Lacy's fiction.