Survival In The Wilderness (Love Inspired Promo)

Rating:
Summary: Not "Just" a Romance
Review: The Angelwalk series is an interesting one. The original trilogy of books were unique in their style -- essentially, a questioning angel or, in one case, demon watches the earth and the ways of man, offering the reader a series of vignettes, effectively portraying glimpses into different people's lives. The series explores the way evil has affected humanity and the way humanity either embraces or rejects that evil, and, at it's core, the books are about the love that God has for his creation . . . for us.

Survival in the Wilderness, an Angelwalk book Elwood wrote for Steeple Hill -- a Christian imprint of Harlequin, I believe -- is quite a different creature. It (and it's counterpart, Wendy's Phoenix) is a novel. There is one plot here. One set of characters. But the themes are the same. Evil exists in our world, but still, Christ loves us.

In this case, Christ shows his love by allowing Darien and Stedfast (two angels from the other books) to watch and care for a human couple who have been stranded in -- you guessed it -- the wilderness. The action plays out somewhat like an old Republic Saturday matinee serial in that you know the characters will survive each episode in the wilderness -- the question is "How?"

And it's in the "how" that we are treated to some surprising plot twists and revelations. The book is packed with action, emotion, and hope. (There is one very poignant death scene after the crash -- a touching scene that, honestly, caught me off guard. I don't want to take away from the plot, but it wasn't the pilot of the plane.) Some of the best scenes are the ones in which Darien and Stedfast are relegated to simply watching the events, held back from intervening by God, and it adds the question of "why" to that question of "how".

Don't let the "romance" connection steer you clear of this book, though. I would not have read this if Roger had not written it -- I admit that. Paperback romances, as a genre, are not for me. But the romance in this comes not from watching two characters coming together and ending with wedding bells, but watching two characters trying to STAY together long after the wedding bells.

This is not the best of the Angelwalk books. The first still claims that title. And, like every book, it is not perfect. Some of the plot twists are easy to see, and some of the dialogue comes off as a bit wooden. But in this format, Roger is allowed to take a longer time to develop his human characters and allow the reader to get to know them much more than in the series of vignettes offered in some of the earlier Angelwalk books. And it works.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Not "Just" a Romance
Review: The Angelwalk series is an interesting one. The original trilogy of books were unique in their style -- essentially, a questioning angel or, in one case, demon watches the earth and the ways of man, offering the reader a series of vignettes, effectively portraying glimpses into different people's lives. The series explores the way evil has affected humanity and the way humanity either embraces or rejects that evil, and, at it's core, the books are about the love that God has for his creation . . . for us.

Survival in the Wilderness, an Angelwalk book Elwood wrote for Steeple Hill -- a Christian imprint of Harlequin, I believe -- is quite a different creature. It (and it's counterpart, Wendy's Phoenix) is a novel. There is one plot here. One set of characters. But the themes are the same. Evil exists in our world, but still, Christ loves us.

In this case, Christ shows his love by allowing Darien and Stedfast (two angels from the other books) to watch and care for a human couple who have been stranded in -- you guessed it -- the wilderness. The action plays out somewhat like an old Republic Saturday matinee serial in that you know the characters will survive each episode in the wilderness -- the question is "How?"

And it's in the "how" that we are treated to some surprising plot twists and revelations. The book is packed with action, emotion, and hope. (There is one very poignant death scene after the crash -- a touching scene that, honestly, caught me off guard. I don't want to take away from the plot, but it wasn't the pilot of the plane.) Some of the best scenes are the ones in which Darien and Stedfast are relegated to simply watching the events, held back from intervening by God, and it adds the question of "why" to that question of "how".

Don't let the "romance" connection steer you clear of this book, though. I would not have read this if Roger had not written it -- I admit that. Paperback romances, as a genre, are not for me. But the romance in this comes not from watching two characters coming together and ending with wedding bells, but watching two characters trying to STAY together long after the wedding bells.

This is not the best of the Angelwalk books. The first still claims that title. And, like every book, it is not perfect. Some of the plot twists are easy to see, and some of the dialogue comes off as a bit wooden. But in this format, Roger is allowed to take a longer time to develop his human characters and allow the reader to get to know them much more than in the series of vignettes offered in some of the earlier Angelwalk books. And it works.

Highly recommended.