Review by FallingDream14 -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon

FallingDream14 · Post by **FallingDream14** » 01 Jun 2018, 22:23

[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]

4 out of 4 stars

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Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon is a combination of fantasy, historical and modern fiction. It follows Tom, William, and Myra as they are joined by Tom's granddaughter, Sarah, and embark on a journey of history, storytelling, self-discovery, and ancestry. The novel is well edited, I didn't come across any obvious grammar issues.

The beginning of this story is quite full on with most of the characters being introduced in the first chapter and maybe into the second. It took some sorting out in my head to get the relationships of characters to each other memorized, even those who are just mentioned by name in the dialogue. The information provided in these initial chapters is important to the rest of the story as the main characters refer to them often. By the time I reached chapter 3, everything was clear and the personalities of the main characters were even starting to become prominent.

Very quickly, the focus of the first part of the novel was revealing itself. Sarah, the granddaughter of Tom, had been abruptly left at his house as he's about to head out on a long hike to a family member's grave with his friend William and his daughter, Myra. It's eventually decided that Sarah will come with them as this trip has been planned in advance and is important to Tom that it's done. The author managed to portray a troubled teenager, who would rather be anywhere else, in a way that wasn't cumbersome to read. It felt real, with moments shining through of Sarah possibly even enjoying the activities at times.

I feel it would be giving too much away to write in too much detail of the rest of the plot, after all, it is one of discoveries and intrigue. I loved the amount of information about Native American culture and history specific to the area that was woven into the story. It's a central element to everything that happens but didn't feel forced or too wordy. The author put a lot of effort into researching this and it shows.

There is another story told alongside the main plot. It's where this book takes on a very spiritual and historical feel. It's broken into parts that are quite long on their own so there isn't an excessive amount of back and forth that could get confusing. The novel includes characters debating over theoretical history. I found myself sometimes lost during these moments of dialogue as I lost track of who was saying what. Often, the same thing was said several times at different points. However, they did argue good points and made me think of both sides and why they think this way or want to believe certain things.

There are some great foreshadowing moments early in the book and in the adjacent story that comes into play late in the book that is really well done. They created a thrilling feel to the closing of the story. The author took a lot of time detailing a mystery to unfold as the tale progresses. It does end somewhat abruptly to me personally and there are a few things I wish were resolved in this book. I learned after reading it that there is a sequel to be released in 2018. This makes the unresolved plot make more sense to me as it's probably going to be present in the next installment also as a driving force behind the novels.

I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. Having noted no grammatical or editing errors and knowing that the sequel, Adrift, will continue the story, gives my rating the fourth star.

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Strong Heart
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