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A review by daybreak1012
A Quiet Strength by Janette Oke
4.0
The books in this series are like a warm hug. These are my people. I would love to sit on the porch swing with Virginia and Belinda, sipping lemonade and chatting. I also fully enjoy the Christian values that are presented. And so I chuckled at Martha's antics and shed a tear or two with Virginia as she matured, and I breathed deeply in familiar, comforting space.
What I liked about A Quiet Strength:
Once again, there are good life lessons - It's no surprise by this point in the series that Jenny is headstrong and wants to have things her own way, with a hair flip and a foot stomp. But sometimes we get so caught up in having our own way that we fail to see how we're really just hurting ourselves. We are prone to thinking, like Jenny, that old fashioned morals and walking the "straight and narrow" means God has a goal of ruining our fun; it isn't until we experience true faith that we see what God is really about and how it's always to our benefit.
The passage of time feels realistic - Navigating new marriage, motherhood, friendship, faith. The path Virginia travels isn't always tied up in neat bows. There are growing pains and missteps, and, man, if they don't just strike a nerve deep in my gut. I love that Virginia isn't perfect, despite Jenny's assessment, and that she isn't afraid to face it on her knees in prayer.
What I didn't care for:
Some structural "stuff" - More hesitating speech (though not as troublesome as previously encountered) and a few issues that should have been caught by proofreading. Nothing major.
Worth noting:
This is definitely Christian fiction. It isn't preachy or in your face (if you've read any of this series or the Love Comes Softly series or really anything at all by Ms Oke, this is par for the course), just people living out their faith and seeking forgiveness and comfort from life's struggles. Mostly, it's all just very wholesome, but know that Ms Oke does not shy away from placing faith at the very heart of her characters' lives.
I devoured this book. My soul was hungry for it. After all the weight the of the previous three books I picked up (one of which I couldn't even make it through twenty pages), I needed something that would feed me and this was it. Not to say that Virginia doesn't struggle, because Janette Oke's books are not stranger to suffering and challenges, but the way it is approached is like a balm to me. I identify with it; I am bolstered by it in my own walk of life. It won't be long before I'm reaching, with some regret, for the final book in this series, and what I assume will be my last time spent with the ever-expanding Davis clan.
What I liked about A Quiet Strength:
Once again, there are good life lessons - It's no surprise by this point in the series that Jenny is headstrong and wants to have things her own way, with a hair flip and a foot stomp. But sometimes we get so caught up in having our own way that we fail to see how we're really just hurting ourselves. We are prone to thinking, like Jenny, that old fashioned morals and walking the "straight and narrow" means God has a goal of ruining our fun; it isn't until we experience true faith that we see what God is really about and how it's always to our benefit.
The passage of time feels realistic - Navigating new marriage, motherhood, friendship, faith. The path Virginia travels isn't always tied up in neat bows. There are growing pains and missteps, and, man, if they don't just strike a nerve deep in my gut. I love that Virginia isn't perfect, despite Jenny's assessment, and that she isn't afraid to face it on her knees in prayer.
What I didn't care for:
Some structural "stuff" - More hesitating speech (though not as troublesome as previously encountered) and a few issues that should have been caught by proofreading. Nothing major.
Worth noting:
This is definitely Christian fiction. It isn't preachy or in your face (if you've read any of this series or the Love Comes Softly series or really anything at all by Ms Oke, this is par for the course), just people living out their faith and seeking forgiveness and comfort from life's struggles. Mostly, it's all just very wholesome, but know that Ms Oke does not shy away from placing faith at the very heart of her characters' lives.
I devoured this book. My soul was hungry for it. After all the weight the of the previous three books I picked up (one of which I couldn't even make it through twenty pages), I needed something that would feed me and this was it. Not to say that Virginia doesn't struggle, because Janette Oke's books are not stranger to suffering and challenges, but the way it is approached is like a balm to me. I identify with it; I am bolstered by it in my own walk of life. It won't be long before I'm reaching, with some regret, for the final book in this series, and what I assume will be my last time spent with the ever-expanding Davis clan.