Official Review: Their Tangled Hearts by Mary DeWeber
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Official Review: Their Tangled Hearts by Mary DeWeber
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Their Tangled Hearts" by Mary DeWeber.]
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From just reading a brief description about the book and the first few pages, I was immediately intrigued by the concept. Being a Christian myself, credit must be given to the author in choosing to focus her story on an inspiring Christian romance which I feel is largely under-represented in mainstream literature today. Not every romance we now read about has to involve a BDSM relationship!
Their tangled hearts follows the journey of twenty-seven year old Emma a song writer who is plagued by the many demons of her past. Such demons seem to rise to the surface when she is 'set up' by her godfather 'doc' to take up a job on a ranch which specializes in catering to disabled children. The only way it seems that Emma will be able to overcome her past is by being brought to God by her tall and handsome savior Jake, a devout Christian who also has a troubling past. The story begins with Emma travelling to the ranch to begin her job where she meets a whole host of characters, each equally touched by the word of God. As Emma learns to tear away the mask she has used to guard herself for so long, she also learns to forgive and the meaning of true love.
Even though I felt that both the idea of a 'Christian romance' and Emma's sad past experiences would intertwine together to make this book such a powerful read that I would be unable to put down, I am saddened to say that this book did not have a profound affect on me as hoped. The execution of Emma's story was very mediocre and at times painfully boring to read. I kept waiting with bated breath to be irrevocably uplifted by what I read. But that uplifting moment never came. As I continued reading, I kept wandering to myself 'what exciting thing am I waiting to happen?'. But the truth is that there was nothing... no hook... nothing to motivate me to want to read on. It could be argued that the exciting thing to wait and see was whether Emma finally let go of her past and got together with Jake. But I was not excited about this prospect since I had an idea where the story would go. Also there is a difference between being predictable yet engaging and just being predictable. This book was the latter for me. There was just nothing to capture my attention and elicit a 'wow' moment for me. Even the new revelations which we learn about throughout the book, although fascinating did not have enough depth, intrigue or suspense to be able to draw me in. Also we as readers are told very early on about the most interesting parts of the story. Thus it seemed, at times, like we were just suppose to read on to see character's reactions to things that we as readers already knew about. But this was rather monotonous especially since it was obvious what the character's reactions would be.
Unfortunately I also found there to be no substance to the characters or their personal stories. I was told about their troubled pasts and the emotions they experienced but I never felt it. Maybe this was because of the way in which their 'troubled pasts' were explained in the book. The deeply troubling event that happened between Emma and Carl, which is the root of Emma's closed off persona was summed up only in a couple of short paragraphs. Consequently it felt rushed and for me was not able to capture the sensitive nature of what had happened to Emma. I felt that the author should have dedicated a whole chapter to explaining this event with grave detail, given its profound effect on Emma's life, so that readers could more relate to Emma's pain. I was therefore unable to connect with Emma's grief to the level I would have liked. I was also very upset that Emma did not report this incident to authorities because I didn't feel justice was well and truly served. I understand there was repentance but it is never right to commit a crime and get away with it completely just because you repent.
The only two scenes that really stood out to me and swelled any emotion inside of me, were the scenes when Jake was saving Emma from her unsettling chaotic dreams. I felt in those moments that the author captured the essence of Emma's dark past and the connection between her and Jake, so wonderfully. But other than these two scenes, I struggled to fall in love with Jake and Emma's relationship and feel deeply moved by it. I felt little spark between them in their dialogue together, only ignited when they prayed together or he was protective of her. Notably dialogue meant to be comical between them and display their bond was not funny to me and bordered on being cringe-worthy.
Although the author's writing style was sophisticated, I felt that the metaphors used throughout were tasteless and took away from the beautiful story. Furthermore I hated the continuous reference to Jake as being a 'mountain of a man', because it had no appeal and detracted from me seeing him as handsome. Additionally I would like to point out that there is a variety of descriptive words in the English dictionary, therefore I felt that repetitive phrases like 'companionable silence', 'saucy grin' and 'velvet voice' should have been avoided. Lastly, although not many, one typo completely ruined the affect an important sentence could have had because I had to re-read it over and over again to surmise what the author had meant to say. The sentence read 'Emma didn't know it, but wasn't ready to give up on her yet'. I think it was meant to read ''Emma didn't know it, but he wasn't ready to give up on her yet.'
Nevertheless the story had a beautiful underlying message and has inspired me more to put my relationship in God's hands and have the patience that He will deliver His plan for us all. Thus I would definitely recommend this book to Christians and those in search of God's grace or those tired of sexual-driven tacky romances where God is nowhere in sight. I would also recommend it to people looking to overcome their past hurts in life or those who enjoy reading stories based on the above particular themes. Although I must caution that for me personally, reading this book has not been life changing and there was nothing great or spectacular about the implementation of the themes in this story.
However the author's concept was original and the references to God's unconditional love was a dominant theme in this novel which I enjoyed reading about (I even learned new quotes from the bible!). And so for that reason, even though I didn't particularly enjoy reading this book it still deserves 2 out of 4 stars. The concept was brilliant but the execution fell short.
***
Buy "Their Tangled Hearts" on Amazon
Buy "Their Tangled Hearts" on Barnes and Noble
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Their tangled hearts follows the journey of twenty-seven year old Emma a song writer who is plagued by the many demons of her past. Such demons seem to rise to the surface when she is 'set up' by her godfather 'doc' to take up a job on a ranch which specializes in catering to disabled children. The only way it seems that Emma will be able to overcome her past is by being brought to God by her tall and handsome savior Jake, a devout Christian who also has a troubling past. The story begins with Emma travelling to the ranch to begin her job where she meets a whole host of characters, each equally touched by the word of God. As Emma learns to tear away the mask she has used to guard herself for so long, she also learns to forgive and the meaning of true love.
Even though I felt that both the idea of a 'Christian romance' and Emma's sad past experiences would intertwine together to make this book such a powerful read that I would be unable to put down, I am saddened to say that this book did not have a profound affect on me as hoped. The execution of Emma's story was very mediocre and at times painfully boring to read. I kept waiting with bated breath to be irrevocably uplifted by what I read. But that uplifting moment never came. As I continued reading, I kept wandering to myself 'what exciting thing am I waiting to happen?'. But the truth is that there was nothing... no hook... nothing to motivate me to want to read on. It could be argued that the exciting thing to wait and see was whether Emma finally let go of her past and got together with Jake. But I was not excited about this prospect since I had an idea where the story would go. Also there is a difference between being predictable yet engaging and just being predictable. This book was the latter for me. There was just nothing to capture my attention and elicit a 'wow' moment for me. Even the new revelations which we learn about throughout the book, although fascinating did not have enough depth, intrigue or suspense to be able to draw me in. Also we as readers are told very early on about the most interesting parts of the story. Thus it seemed, at times, like we were just suppose to read on to see character's reactions to things that we as readers already knew about. But this was rather monotonous especially since it was obvious what the character's reactions would be.
Unfortunately I also found there to be no substance to the characters or their personal stories. I was told about their troubled pasts and the emotions they experienced but I never felt it. Maybe this was because of the way in which their 'troubled pasts' were explained in the book. The deeply troubling event that happened between Emma and Carl, which is the root of Emma's closed off persona was summed up only in a couple of short paragraphs. Consequently it felt rushed and for me was not able to capture the sensitive nature of what had happened to Emma. I felt that the author should have dedicated a whole chapter to explaining this event with grave detail, given its profound effect on Emma's life, so that readers could more relate to Emma's pain. I was therefore unable to connect with Emma's grief to the level I would have liked. I was also very upset that Emma did not report this incident to authorities because I didn't feel justice was well and truly served. I understand there was repentance but it is never right to commit a crime and get away with it completely just because you repent.
The only two scenes that really stood out to me and swelled any emotion inside of me, were the scenes when Jake was saving Emma from her unsettling chaotic dreams. I felt in those moments that the author captured the essence of Emma's dark past and the connection between her and Jake, so wonderfully. But other than these two scenes, I struggled to fall in love with Jake and Emma's relationship and feel deeply moved by it. I felt little spark between them in their dialogue together, only ignited when they prayed together or he was protective of her. Notably dialogue meant to be comical between them and display their bond was not funny to me and bordered on being cringe-worthy.
Although the author's writing style was sophisticated, I felt that the metaphors used throughout were tasteless and took away from the beautiful story. Furthermore I hated the continuous reference to Jake as being a 'mountain of a man', because it had no appeal and detracted from me seeing him as handsome. Additionally I would like to point out that there is a variety of descriptive words in the English dictionary, therefore I felt that repetitive phrases like 'companionable silence', 'saucy grin' and 'velvet voice' should have been avoided. Lastly, although not many, one typo completely ruined the affect an important sentence could have had because I had to re-read it over and over again to surmise what the author had meant to say. The sentence read 'Emma didn't know it, but wasn't ready to give up on her yet'. I think it was meant to read ''Emma didn't know it, but he wasn't ready to give up on her yet.'
Nevertheless the story had a beautiful underlying message and has inspired me more to put my relationship in God's hands and have the patience that He will deliver His plan for us all. Thus I would definitely recommend this book to Christians and those in search of God's grace or those tired of sexual-driven tacky romances where God is nowhere in sight. I would also recommend it to people looking to overcome their past hurts in life or those who enjoy reading stories based on the above particular themes. Although I must caution that for me personally, reading this book has not been life changing and there was nothing great or spectacular about the implementation of the themes in this story.
However the author's concept was original and the references to God's unconditional love was a dominant theme in this novel which I enjoyed reading about (I even learned new quotes from the bible!). And so for that reason, even though I didn't particularly enjoy reading this book it still deserves 2 out of 4 stars. The concept was brilliant but the execution fell short.
***
Buy "Their Tangled Hearts" on Amazon
Buy "Their Tangled Hearts" on Barnes and Noble
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you - Maya Angelou
Latest Review: "Vampire prince" by Iris van Gorp
