The Proposal

Title: The Proposal
Author: Lori Wick
Genre: Romance

The Proposal is book one in the “English Garden Series”. The story takes place in the early 19th Century in London, England.

William Jennings is 34 years old and while he has no desire for a wife, he longs for children. The very next day after proclaiming his longing, 3 children are dropped on his doorstep. Apparently a cousin of his (that he hardly knows) has passed away and he is the next living relative to provide guardianship for the children. While he is ready to provide all the love he possibly can to these (seemingly perfect) children, he realizes he is in over his head. He loads up the children to visit his sister and her family in the country.

While visiting his sister, he ends up finding one who can truly be a helper and Savior in that of Jesus Christ. He also discovers a remarkable woman and finds that maybe marriage isn’t a bad option at all.

This post may be biased a little bit because I’m personally not much into romance books, and this one seems to mimic the style of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice. I think I would prefer Pride and Prejudice. This story to me just lacked some of the realism (even though I do understand some of the culture in that day) and left some questions unanswered such as…What happened to the children’s vast estate?…and William Jennings has all this money and it’s probably family money, but he never ever works so where does it come from and how is it maintained?…and if Mr. Jennings is so smart, how many times is he going to propose to this woman before he gets is right? The story was very gentle and nice, but I miss the depth and climax of some of the authors other books such as those in the Kensington Chronicle Series.

However, I do have to say that I actually listed to the unabridged audio version of the book and the narrator, Virginia Leishman, did an excellent job. She did the voicings very good and in a way reminded me of Julie Andrews.

Unspoken

Title: Unspoken
Author: Francine Rivers
Genre: Christian Fiction

Unspoken is the fourth book in the Lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers. This is a “biography” of the life of Bathsheba. Like the other books in the series, the story starts with Bathsheba as a little girl and takes it all the way through to her death. To many people, the name Bathsheba resounds of sin and shame, but do we really know all the facts surrounding that one night stand? The fact is, we just don’t, but the author weaves a story that remains true to scripture while bringing this Bible character to life.

One thing that I found very interesting in the book was that while both David and Bathsheba were forgiven from this sin, they still had to pay the consequences. Not only did the child conceive that night die, it led to a whole string of events that followed them through the rest of their lives. One thing that is brought up on the book was the fact that Ahithophel was Bathsheba’s grandfather. (Ahithophel was the man that gave advice to Abaslom when he tried to take over the kingdom.) I thought it was interesting that the author tied these two characters together giving Ahithopel motivation to assist in the downfall of King David because he is so angry that the king would sleep with his granddaughter. It made sense in the book, however, I could not find reference to it in the Bible. Please feel free to comment on that if you have any thoughts into the history of this. I also enjoyed the author’s liberties of possible conversations that might have taken in the palace between Bathsheba and other wives such as Abigail.


In my previous review of Unafraid, I mentioned what a challenge it was to keep the focus of the book on Mary, the mother of Jesus, who actually is the greater Biblical character. The same is true for Unspoken, once Bathsheba is in the palace; so much of her life revolves around King David of whom we know so much more about. While it would be so easy to be a book about David, the focus remains on this woman who is indeed in the lineage of Jesus Christ. I’m continually amazed at how God used ordinary women such as Bathsheba in His master plan.