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Friday, March 2, 2018

The Sea Before Us | First Line Friday, Book Review

When I think of WWII fiction, the name Sarah Sundin comes to mind. I've only read a few of her books, but she has capture WWII perfectly. I am completely transported back in time!


First Line:
Wyatt Paxton never realized coming home 
could be so bittersweet as leaving.



My Review
Wyatt had me from page one. He was more of the quieter hero, the one who made terrible mistakes, was overly-protective… YET… he learned. He was a hero with flaws, but not without progress. He understood forgiveness, but still had to learn it on other levels. He understood the importance of God’s love more than human love. I totally liked Wyatt.

But this story was only half of him. The other half was Dorothy. She made me want to both knock sense into her and kindly point her in the right direction. Her character was very well done. She was naïve in some points, but believably so.

So when you combine two amazing characters like Wyatt and Dorothy into a story, you’ve got a pretty good start. And then, there was WWII. Sundin does such a fantastic job at capturing the inner workings of various groups in the WWII. I find that very intriguing.

The spiritual side of the story was very solid. Wyatt was a firm believer in Jesus Christ, and he honestly desired for others to follow Him too. In fact, I was impressed, because Wyatt yearned more for Dorothy to have a right relationship with God than for them to be together as a couple.

At the same time, there were a lot of kisses and romance was kind of a strong thread in the story. Unlike some of Sundin’s other books, there wasn’t detail on compromising moral situations. There was a rather shocking revelation of a side character, but it didn’t go into detail and was portrayed as the heartache that it was.

I’d recommend this for conservative readers above twenty.

*I received this book from Revell Books and happily provided my honest review*

Purchase on Amazon
Connect with Sarah online
                                                                 




 Connecting with Hoarding Books for First Line Friday! Hop over and connect with your first line!

6 comments:

  1. Happy Friday! I’ve never heard of this author so thank you!😁

    My First Line Friday comes from a book I will be reading soon, Before We Were Strangers by Brenda Novak!

    As far back as Sloane McBride could remember, she’d been told she was an ice-queen. Even the people closest to her, especially the people closest to her, complained about her reserve.

    Have a great weekend!😁

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  2. I adore this book!!!! Sarah is so fabulous!!!

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  3. I'm also sharing from a title set in WWII on my blog today, Firing Line by Mike Hollow. It's a murder mystery set in London during the Blitz.

    But here's the first line from the book I'm currently reading, Change of Heart by Courtney Walsh:

    Evelyn Brandt stood in her kitchen, the sound of uptight laughter filtering in from the dining room.

    It's excellent!

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  4. I agree, though I've only read one of Sarah Sundin's books (so far). I’m sharing from Karen Barnett’s The Road to Paradise on my blog today, so here I’ll share the first line from another book I hope to read soon, The Alliance by Jolina Petersheim:

    “Buffered by grassland, the collision is strangely quiet.”

    Have a great weekend!

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  5. I love the cover of this book! Happy Thursday!

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  6. @ Susan – you’re welcome! She’s a fantastic WWII author!

    @ Rachel – yes!!

    @ Iola – how fun! That sounds like an amazing series!

    @ Yvette – ooh, wow; first line!

    @ English Mysteries – me too!!

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