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A review by defenders_iris
The Accidental Guardian by Mary Connealy
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Holy "tell don't show", Batman, the amount of times I was simply told things by the characters or the exposition instead of discovering it.
It started out sweet and had some high stakes with getting the group back to the ranch, but quickly fell into a rut after they arrived. I was excited to see a new character show up we'd never seen before, but then literally got a paragraph explaining his relation to the male love interest - which could have easily been handled within the dialogue. And Lake Tahoe's beauty getting distilled down into "there's a lake and trees and the main characters say it's pretty" was wild. Additionally, the willingness of the MC to throw away her interests and career was out of character, especially with what felt like author commentary about how she should have been more polite/more willing to do things around the house.
Also, if I have to read the phrase "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness" one more time, taken at face value like everything else in this book, I will throw something. Crying in this verse (Mark 1:3 for the curious) doesn't necessarily refer to sobbing although it can; it is more accurately translated from the Greek/Aramaic as calling out, as in to shout for someone or to call someone's name. https://www.abarim-publications.com/DictionaryG/b/b-o-et.html Moreover, the verse itself refers more to the fulfillment of prophecy in Isaiah and John the Baptist calling people to come to God, rather than a personal crying out to God. While I'm not going to police how the characters interpret a verse, the singular, void of context interpretation here leaves a lot to be desired for a central theme of the book.
It started out sweet and had some high stakes with getting the group back to the ranch, but quickly fell into a rut after they arrived. I was excited to see a new character show up we'd never seen before, but then literally got a paragraph explaining his relation to the male love interest - which could have easily been handled within the dialogue. And Lake Tahoe's beauty getting distilled down into "there's a lake and trees and the main characters say it's pretty" was wild. Additionally, the willingness of the MC to throw away her interests and career was out of character, especially with what felt like author commentary about how she should have been more polite/more willing to do things around the house.
Also, if I have to read the phrase "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness" one more time, taken at face value like everything else in this book, I will throw something. Crying in this verse (Mark 1:3 for the curious) doesn't necessarily refer to sobbing although it can; it is more accurately translated from the Greek/Aramaic as calling out, as in to shout for someone or to call someone's name. https://www.abarim-publications.com/DictionaryG/b/b-o-et.html Moreover, the verse itself refers more to the fulfillment of prophecy in Isaiah and John the Baptist calling people to come to God, rather than a personal crying out to God. While I'm not going to police how the characters interpret a verse, the singular, void of context interpretation here leaves a lot to be desired for a central theme of the book.