Hello, everyone! I am part of the street team for two books in the Librarians of Willow Hollow series, A Strand of Hope by Amanda Tero and I Love to Tell the Story by Faith Blum! I read A Strand of Hope a few years back and really enjoyed it, and recently I had the chance to read and review I Love to Tell the Story. Both of these books are going to be getting new covers soon (August 18th!), which I will be sharing about, so stay tuned for that, too! But for now, here is the review of I Love to Tell the Story!

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Book: I Love to Tell the Story by Faith Blum

Genre: Historical New Adult Christian Fiction

Blurb:

Her heart is in the right place…

Bored with her life in Castle Town, Montana, Lillian Sullivan follows her friend’s suggestion and joins the horseback librarian program in rural Kentucky. Not only does she anticipate sharing her love of books, but she also wants to spread the gospel among the mountain people.

However, Willow Hollow presents her with one trouble after another and she struggles to step outside her shyness to share the gospel.

What will it take for Lillian to share her love of the Best Story? Can the power of the gospel overcome the shyness of her own heart?

My Rating: 3 stars

Recommended Age: 14+ (with a few caveats; see content notes)

My Review:

My Overall Thoughts: This was an enjoyable, short read, and I loved the message of sharing the Gospel! The setting of the Appalachian mountains and Lillian’s job as a horseback librarian were really neat, too. I thought the writing and plot could have used some more polishing, but overall, it was a good read.

Plot: I really enjoyed reading about Lillian adjusting to her new life in the mountains of Kentucky and her new job as a horseback librarian. It was a pretty typical coming-of-age type story, with her leaving home on her own for the first time and learning to overcome her shyness and adapt to a new way of life. I noticed a few minor plot holes or things that didn’t quite make sense, and the ending seemed very sudden to me, but overall, I thought the plot was interesting.

Characters: I thought the characters were fun! Lillian was a good main character, and I could relate to her a lot, especially how she was kind of shy and enjoyed reading books. I was a little confused about her shyness, though, because sometimes she would act super shy and scared to talk to anyone and other times she wouldn’t even seem shy at all. I enjoyed the supporting characters, especially Crow Wilson and his story, and I liked the other librarian characters, though they did not appear often in the story. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series to find out about their stories.

Writing Style: I enjoyed the writing style. It was a little simplistic, but I think it fit the story and the historical setting well (although I think it did give the story more of a young adult feel than new adult).

Themes: The theme was probably one of my favorite parts of the story. It was all about the importance of sharing the Gospel. I liked reading about how Lena had to overcome her shyness and realized the pride of keeping to herself and not sharing the Gospel with others. I also appreciated how there was a clear Gospel presentation within the story, and there was a lot of Scriptures.

Content Notes: There is a lot of discussion of pregnancy, childbirth, and a baby being stillborn, which is the main reason that I think this may not be a good fit for all young readers. There is discussion of death and grief. The main character finds a man dead in his house and handles his body. There are a few mentions of another dead body later in the story. There are a few mentions of superstitions and the people believing a woman is a witch. There are a few mentions of moonshine/drinking (not condoned).

Before you go, I would like to share a little more about the Librarians of Willow Hollow series, as well as some upcoming changes to my posting schedule! There are four books in the Librarians of Willow Hollow series, and they can all be read for free with Kindle Unlimited! Here is a little bit about the series and each of the books:

I have enjoyed the first two books and would definitely recommend them, and I am looking forward to reading the others!

I am going to be sharing the cover reveal on the 18th, and because of that and another street team I am part of, I have decided to shuffle my schedule around for this week and next week. I will be posting again on Friday, a review of The People Beneath the Petals by H.A. Yang, and instead of my usual Monday post, I will be sharing the cover reveal for A Strand of Hope and I Love to Tell the Story next Tuesday! The following Monday, I should be back on track with my normal schedule.

Thank you for reading! I will be back again on Friday, but in the meantime, I hope you will go check out the Librarians of Willow Hollow series!