bcbartuska's review against another edition
4.0
Lead Me Home is a novel about hope when life's circumstances leave you feeling hopeless.
Noble Burden and James Horton are both at the end of their rope. Noble has inherited a farm and responsibility that he never asked for, and Pastor James has lost a wife and is about to lose his church. The small town life they find themselves in seems like a dead end road with nothing to offer. They feel like God is silent when they need Him most. Will they be able to see His grace all around them?
I enjoyed the characters in this story the most. Amy K. Sorrells does an excellent job in making them relatable and real. These are people of faith that have had to struggle with the hard questions about life and God. I appreciate that they were not painted as perfect Christians who never doubt.
One thing I did not particularly like about this book was the picture it painted of bigger churches. That could simply be me reading into it too much because I happen to attend a big church though. I can appreciate that God is still working and moving through smaller churches like the one in this novel, but He is also not limited to one kind of church.
While this book has a slower pace, I give it a hearty 3.5 stars because it is one which has a message that stays with the reader long after the last page. Who can't relate to feeling hopeless at one point or another? The whisper between the lines of the story is to keep on hoping. Look intentionally and see the grace God has given right where you are.
Noble Burden and James Horton are both at the end of their rope. Noble has inherited a farm and responsibility that he never asked for, and Pastor James has lost a wife and is about to lose his church. The small town life they find themselves in seems like a dead end road with nothing to offer. They feel like God is silent when they need Him most. Will they be able to see His grace all around them?
I enjoyed the characters in this story the most. Amy K. Sorrells does an excellent job in making them relatable and real. These are people of faith that have had to struggle with the hard questions about life and God. I appreciate that they were not painted as perfect Christians who never doubt.
One thing I did not particularly like about this book was the picture it painted of bigger churches. That could simply be me reading into it too much because I happen to attend a big church though. I can appreciate that God is still working and moving through smaller churches like the one in this novel, but He is also not limited to one kind of church.
While this book has a slower pace, I give it a hearty 3.5 stars because it is one which has a message that stays with the reader long after the last page. Who can't relate to feeling hopeless at one point or another? The whisper between the lines of the story is to keep on hoping. Look intentionally and see the grace God has given right where you are.
shelfesteem's review against another edition
5.0
I read Lead Me Home as a message to the church, an S.O.S of sorts. A wake up call for all believers, regardless of denomination, to set aside our petty preferences and preconceived notions of how church should be and start being the Church.
Amy Sorrells descriptive writing planted my feet back in the Indiana soil where I spent my childhood. Not only did it remind me of the sights, smells, and muggy weather of home, it also had a way of weaving these characters into my heart. I am keenly familiar with Reverend Horton's way of looking at situations retrospectively and wondering what he could have or should have done differently. Furthermore, Sorrells wrote of Horton's ministry burn out as someone who has experienced it first hand. Perhaps you will relate and this book will be an encouragement to you to press on or take time away in order for God to refresh your spirit.
Despite the sad demise of Sycamore Community Church, this story was laden with examples of God's grace. Grace in our grief. Grace to redeem broken relationships. Grace towards our doubting and wandering hearts. As far as contemporary Christian fiction goes, this is one of my favorites of 2016.
Amy Sorrells descriptive writing planted my feet back in the Indiana soil where I spent my childhood. Not only did it remind me of the sights, smells, and muggy weather of home, it also had a way of weaving these characters into my heart. I am keenly familiar with Reverend Horton's way of looking at situations retrospectively and wondering what he could have or should have done differently. Furthermore, Sorrells wrote of Horton's ministry burn out as someone who has experienced it first hand. Perhaps you will relate and this book will be an encouragement to you to press on or take time away in order for God to refresh your spirit.
Despite the sad demise of Sycamore Community Church, this story was laden with examples of God's grace. Grace in our grief. Grace to redeem broken relationships. Grace towards our doubting and wandering hearts. As far as contemporary Christian fiction goes, this is one of my favorites of 2016.
daphself's review against another edition
3.0
What started off as a strong novel quickly gave way to something less than stellar.
The novel kept my interest for a little over halfway. After that I found myself skimming. When I read the back book cover it talked about a storm and I thought that would play a pivotal role in the book. Sadly it did not. The storm was there, but it was downplayed and not enough that warranted a mention on the book blurb.
I did like Noble, but Shelby seemed too one dimensional. I would have preferred that her character had been fleshed out more to accommadate for her behaviour.
As for James, I didn't really understand his sudden depression and lack of faith in God. This is something that many people face, but in the book it was not a natural occurrence. His thoughts and emotions needed to be deeper for the reader to understand the sudden impulse toward suicide. This part fell flat and completely unnatural to the character.
The backstory of each character and the off-on-a-tangent writing kept me skipping ahead to the guts of the story.
The ending was rushed in my opinion. To me it seems weird for Laurie (Noble's mom) and James (Shelby's dad) to marry and then a year later the kids marry.
On a positive note, the writing flowed well and the book showcased small town living extremely well. Amy Sorrells is a good writer and I look forward to trying another book of hers.
The novel kept my interest for a little over halfway. After that I found myself skimming. When I read the back book cover it talked about a storm and I thought that would play a pivotal role in the book. Sadly it did not. The storm was there, but it was downplayed and not enough that warranted a mention on the book blurb.
I did like Noble, but Shelby seemed too one dimensional. I would have preferred that her character had been fleshed out more to accommadate for her behaviour.
As for James, I didn't really understand his sudden depression and lack of faith in God. This is something that many people face, but in the book it was not a natural occurrence. His thoughts and emotions needed to be deeper for the reader to understand the sudden impulse toward suicide. This part fell flat and completely unnatural to the character.
The backstory of each character and the off-on-a-tangent writing kept me skipping ahead to the guts of the story.
The ending was rushed in my opinion. To me it seems weird for Laurie (Noble's mom) and James (Shelby's dad) to marry and then a year later the kids marry.
On a positive note, the writing flowed well and the book showcased small town living extremely well. Amy Sorrells is a good writer and I look forward to trying another book of hers.
fiction_aficionado's review against another edition
4.0
This novel was a little slow to get started, with the first 20% or so setting the scene and filling the reader in on the background to the story and its characters. That being said, there was a kind of soothing lilt to the writing and a nostalgic quality to many of the reflections that quietly drew me in to the characters’ lives, even as I wondered when the story would really start to go somewhere.
The novel opens with Reverend James Horton being informed that the bank is foreclosing on the church’s loans and auctioning off the building in three weeks’ time. It is yet another death in James’s life, and just one of many symptoms of a town that is slowly dying, with local farmers struggling to compete against the corporate farms taking over the industry. Noble Burden is one of the lucky ones – so far – even if he wishes he could leave town and pursue his dream to go to Nashville. His family’s dairy farm has survived despite abandonment by his abusive father, despite the last three years’ drought, and despite having no say in the price they get for each gallon of milk. But it’s an existence, and little more.
Both James and Noble have known grief in their lives, and this is the background that is filled in over the course of the opening chapters. James’s wife was killed in a car accident two years earlier, returning from a statewide voice contest with their daughter, Shelby. After recovering from the accident, Shelby abandoned her singing, her friends, and especially her closest friend, Noble Burden. Instead, she has taken up with Cade Canady, a boy who shows all the signs of following in his father’s footsteps as the town bully.
Noble’s father was an abusive man, and his mother has closed herself off from the community since their father’s abandonment. His older brother, Eustace, is unusually strong, but does not speak and often seems oblivious to the world around him, prone to wandering and being unable to find his way home. But perhaps the hardest thing of all is watching the girl he has always loved push him away in favour of a guy who’s definitely no good for her.
It is against this backdrop that the real story begins to unfold as James and Noble struggle to reconcile their dreams with their reality, and find the peace God promises amidst life's storms. James must come to terms with a life that has been ripped out from under his feet, and Noble is given the opportunity of a lifetime when a talent scout hears him play at the local bar and offers him a visit to Nashville. And through it all they are bound by a common thread: their love and concern for Shelby.
Despite its slow beginning, this was an enjoyable read. It was a more reflective style of writing that was a little slower than I generally prefer, but it combined with the gentle cadence of the words in a way that was redolent of the quiet, small-town atmosphere. My heart ached for these characters as they worked through the changes confronting them, and just like them, I felt a real sense of homecoming at the novel’s conclusion.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for my honest review.
The novel opens with Reverend James Horton being informed that the bank is foreclosing on the church’s loans and auctioning off the building in three weeks’ time. It is yet another death in James’s life, and just one of many symptoms of a town that is slowly dying, with local farmers struggling to compete against the corporate farms taking over the industry. Noble Burden is one of the lucky ones – so far – even if he wishes he could leave town and pursue his dream to go to Nashville. His family’s dairy farm has survived despite abandonment by his abusive father, despite the last three years’ drought, and despite having no say in the price they get for each gallon of milk. But it’s an existence, and little more.
Both James and Noble have known grief in their lives, and this is the background that is filled in over the course of the opening chapters. James’s wife was killed in a car accident two years earlier, returning from a statewide voice contest with their daughter, Shelby. After recovering from the accident, Shelby abandoned her singing, her friends, and especially her closest friend, Noble Burden. Instead, she has taken up with Cade Canady, a boy who shows all the signs of following in his father’s footsteps as the town bully.
Noble’s father was an abusive man, and his mother has closed herself off from the community since their father’s abandonment. His older brother, Eustace, is unusually strong, but does not speak and often seems oblivious to the world around him, prone to wandering and being unable to find his way home. But perhaps the hardest thing of all is watching the girl he has always loved push him away in favour of a guy who’s definitely no good for her.
It is against this backdrop that the real story begins to unfold as James and Noble struggle to reconcile their dreams with their reality, and find the peace God promises amidst life's storms. James must come to terms with a life that has been ripped out from under his feet, and Noble is given the opportunity of a lifetime when a talent scout hears him play at the local bar and offers him a visit to Nashville. And through it all they are bound by a common thread: their love and concern for Shelby.
Despite its slow beginning, this was an enjoyable read. It was a more reflective style of writing that was a little slower than I generally prefer, but it combined with the gentle cadence of the words in a way that was redolent of the quiet, small-town atmosphere. My heart ached for these characters as they worked through the changes confronting them, and just like them, I felt a real sense of homecoming at the novel’s conclusion.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for my honest review.
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