A Whisper of Peace by Kim Vogel Sawyer ~ Review

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing A Whisper of Peace Bethany House (September 1, 2011) by Kim Vogel SawyerABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kim Vogel Sawyer is the author of fifteen novels, including several CBA and ECPA bestsellers. Her books have won the ACFW Book of the Year Award, the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, and the Inspirational Readers Choice Award. Kim is active in her church, where she leads women's fellowship and participates in both voice and bell choirs. In her spare time, she enjoys drama, quilting, and calligraphy. Kim and her husband, Don, reside in central Kansas, and have three daughters and numerous grandchildren.




ABOUT THE BOOK

Ostracized by her tribe because of her white father, Lizzie Dawson lives alone in the mountains of Alaska, practicing the ways of her people even as she resides in the small cabin her father built for her mother. She dreams of reconciling with her grandparents to fulfill her mother's dying request, but she has not yet found a way to bridge the gap that separate her from her tribe.


Clay Selby has always wanted to be like his father, a missionary who holds a great love for the native people and has brought many to God. Clay and his stepsister, Vivian, arrive in Alaska to set up a church and school among the Athbascan people. Clay is totally focused on this goal...until he meets a young, independent Indian woman with the most striking blue eyes he's ever seen.


But Lizzie is clearly not part of the tribe, and befriending her might have dire consequences for his mission. Will Clay be forced to choose between his desire to minister to the natives and the quiet nudging of his heart? 


If you would like to read the first chapter of A Whisper of Peace, go HERE.


My Review: 

“A Whisper of Peace” is a story that breaks traditions that might be expected of a Sawyer novel, but one, I believe, I was still pleased with.

            As I read the novel, I thought the romance between the hero and heroine a bit slow, but there were a few different circumstances about this novel that made me think it was more than just a ‘romance’. I was given a glimpse into the mind and struggles of several different characters, besides the hero and heroine. This wasn’t just their story, which I enjoyed. There is a complexity to the secondary characters that gave an added dimension to the plot.

            But it was the love story between God and His children that was the main romance. Simmering beneath the surface was the attraction between Clay and Lizzie, but because Lizzie was not a Christian, I knew their romance could go nowhere - just yet.  

            I wasn’t as swept into this story as in previous novels. I think there were too many different variables from what I expected. It didn’t make it less of a good story, just wasn’t *quite* what I was hoping for.

            There were added complexities of the Alaskan setting, an outcast member of a close knit tribe and a missionary struggling to remember what is truly important to God and an ending that was as sweet as promised.

            This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers through CFBA for my copy to review.