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tassaria's review
1.0
So, so bad. It takes a few chapters just to get a basic idea of what the leading lady looks like. It's poorly written and just tedious.
zaphod46's review
2.0
This book is split between present and past, with a large part focused on the past. It would have been a much better book (tighter story, fewer distractions) if it had just focused on the past and left out the whole bit about the modern protagonist. As it stands, the main emphasis of the story is on the modern character, even though the bulk of the writing concerns the characters in the past. This sort of split detracts from the interesting parts of the story (mostly a travelogue) without adding much.
Also, the ending was a transparent stretch towards the sequel.
Also, the ending was a transparent stretch towards the sequel.
hooptron's review
2.0
Soooo, I accidentally read contemporary Christian fiction which will teach me to read the Goodreads reviews rather than just looking at the star ratings.
That being said, the premise was interesting but the Christian overtones were so poorly written they actually distracted and detracted from what was otherwise an all-right book. It was like the whole book was already written and then they went back through and added a bunch of unnecessary, heavy-handed garbage.
That being said, the premise was interesting but the Christian overtones were so poorly written they actually distracted and detracted from what was otherwise an all-right book. It was like the whole book was already written and then they went back through and added a bunch of unnecessary, heavy-handed garbage.
dessmarie's review
5.0
I started this book with some imaginings that it might be another attempt to be a religious controversy. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that although the subject took great imagination and the author took great liberty the ending in no way skewered religion or God. The story ended with the possibility of a sequel which I would read with pleasure!
reanne's review
3.0
I got this for free through Goodreads First Reads. This review contains spoilers.
I love a good redemption story, and this book is essentially the story of Cain’s long, slow journey back to God.
I had mixed feelings while reading this book. First, it starts out in the modern day with a character called Amanda. I liked her and related to her pretty quickly, and I looked forward to spending the rest of the book with her. Then, about 70 pages in, her story is put entirely on pause (with only occasional glimpses of other characters from her time) until around page 480. Which basically makes everything about Amanda a frame story. This is unfortunate since, like I said, I liked her.
It took me quite a while to get into the Cain part of the story. For a long while, it seems like he’s just wandering through life. I couldn’t get interested in any of the other characters because none of them stuck around long enough. I think it really started getting interesting for me when it finally got to New Testament times. The scenes between Cain and Jesus were well done, I thought, and actually had several moments that made me laugh. The author wrote Jesus (in the brief time he appears in the novel) as a guy I recognized. He seemed like the Jesus from the Bible, and I like that the author wrote him with a sense of humor. Too many authors and theologians seem to leave that part of Jesus’s personality out.
But yeah, I ended up quite enjoying the story about Cain. And I enjoyed the story about Amanda. I guess I just don’t feel like they were mixed together very well. Even the flashbacks we got about Amanda were reasonably interesting, though there wasn’t an explanation of why we were suddenly getting them (I’m especially curious about the limo driver who it turns out had saved her as a child—an angel, maybe?). There were actually several things that I didn’t think quite made logical sense, but which I was more or less willing to let pass because I was entertained enough otherwise. I almost wish this book had been totally about Amanda or totally about Cain, because I felt a bit jerked around the way it was. Part-way through, I kept expecting that Cain would show up in modern day and have some interaction with Amanda (given his apparently physics-defying talent for makeup, I wondered whether he might show up as some sort of Hollywood makeup artist, which amused me). That is usually the kind of thing that happens in these stories with two unrelated protagonists. But then, in the end, Cain dies long before that can happen, which by that point was kind of a disappointment, and then we’re expected to snap right back to identifying with Amanda even though we haven’t really been with her for 400 pages.
This says it’s the first of a series. I might be interested in reading more, but it depends on what it would be about. Would they all be like this, with the Amanda frame story and the bulk being about an individual who never actually shows up in the modern part of the story? If so, I don’t think I’d be interested because that means I’d never really get enough of Amanda’s story to satisfy, and if the author just wanted to write fictional accounts of Biblical characters, there’s really no need for the frame story. If Cain’s not going to be around in the next book, why did I just spend this entire book getting to know him? It doesn’t really make sense to me as a series if that’s what it’s going to be like. But if the sequels either bring Cain back into it somehow or decide to focus entirely on Amanda and the people from her part of the story, I might be interested in reading it.
I love a good redemption story, and this book is essentially the story of Cain’s long, slow journey back to God.
I had mixed feelings while reading this book. First, it starts out in the modern day with a character called Amanda. I liked her and related to her pretty quickly, and I looked forward to spending the rest of the book with her. Then, about 70 pages in, her story is put entirely on pause (with only occasional glimpses of other characters from her time) until around page 480. Which basically makes everything about Amanda a frame story. This is unfortunate since, like I said, I liked her.
It took me quite a while to get into the Cain part of the story. For a long while, it seems like he’s just wandering through life. I couldn’t get interested in any of the other characters because none of them stuck around long enough. I think it really started getting interesting for me when it finally got to New Testament times. The scenes between Cain and Jesus were well done, I thought, and actually had several moments that made me laugh. The author wrote Jesus (in the brief time he appears in the novel) as a guy I recognized. He seemed like the Jesus from the Bible, and I like that the author wrote him with a sense of humor. Too many authors and theologians seem to leave that part of Jesus’s personality out.
But yeah, I ended up quite enjoying the story about Cain. And I enjoyed the story about Amanda. I guess I just don’t feel like they were mixed together very well. Even the flashbacks we got about Amanda were reasonably interesting, though there wasn’t an explanation of why we were suddenly getting them (I’m especially curious about the limo driver who it turns out had saved her as a child—an angel, maybe?). There were actually several things that I didn’t think quite made logical sense, but which I was more or less willing to let pass because I was entertained enough otherwise. I almost wish this book had been totally about Amanda or totally about Cain, because I felt a bit jerked around the way it was. Part-way through, I kept expecting that Cain would show up in modern day and have some interaction with Amanda (given his apparently physics-defying talent for makeup, I wondered whether he might show up as some sort of Hollywood makeup artist, which amused me). That is usually the kind of thing that happens in these stories with two unrelated protagonists. But then, in the end, Cain dies long before that can happen, which by that point was kind of a disappointment, and then we’re expected to snap right back to identifying with Amanda even though we haven’t really been with her for 400 pages.
This says it’s the first of a series. I might be interested in reading more, but it depends on what it would be about. Would they all be like this, with the Amanda frame story and the bulk being about an individual who never actually shows up in the modern part of the story? If so, I don’t think I’d be interested because that means I’d never really get enough of Amanda’s story to satisfy, and if the author just wanted to write fictional accounts of Biblical characters, there’s really no need for the frame story. If Cain’s not going to be around in the next book, why did I just spend this entire book getting to know him? It doesn’t really make sense to me as a series if that’s what it’s going to be like. But if the sequels either bring Cain back into it somehow or decide to focus entirely on Amanda and the people from her part of the story, I might be interested in reading it.
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