A Texan’s Promise: The Heart of a Hero, Book 1 by Shelley Gray
Beautiful Story but Drags a Bit for the Climax
3 Stars
“A Texan’s Promise” is a love story first and foremost, but it is also a story of the pioneering days in the West after the Civil War and people were still settling into new territories. For that alone, I would have would given the book 5 stars. But, I had to take 2 stars away and I will explain.
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS HERE***
I understand that this is a Christian book and it has to be PG. In fact, by the way the book was going, it was a surprise to me that the word rape was used. That said, I would like to say that keeping the book PG made the book drag. The drama was high, gosh Clayton and Vanessa are such great characters, but I could not empathize very well because a very serious situation like rape and abuse had to be written with a PG rating. If it was explained at least with PG 13, then the redemption, the cleansing due to faith and the existence of God would have been more exhilirating. In short, if faith in God is what the message is about (which I believe it is), then giving the cruelty of the abuse and the brutality of rape the truth of its atrocity will send the message better. No, it does not have to be graphic. But it sure needs better than a PG explanation. After all, this book is not meant for young adults because of the subject.
That said, I had to take 2 stars away though I really loved the way Vanessa and Clayton were fleshed out and how the other characters added to the story.
Rated M for Mature because of subject matter
