Julie Cantrell

Historical fiction and coming of age story about Millie, a poor girl living in Mississippi in the 1930’s-1940’s with her abusive alcoholic father and depressed drug-addicted mother. She interacts with the Romany travelers that arrive each spring and longs to follow them out of town, but the responsibilities and love she feels toward her mother make it difficult to leave. Her life is further burdened by a series of tragedies.

This book is about decisions we make in life and the ramifications of those decisions. Oftentimes decisions must be made when very young and incapable of fully anticipating the consequences. It is also about the human responses to hardship and abuse. I thought the characters were well-drawn, especially the protagonist, and the writing flowed smoothly. This book contains an element of Christian theology, which was culturally appropriate for the time period in the American South. It shows both positives and negatives associated with “religious” people. I didn’t find it overbearing, but it will not be to everyone’s taste.

The primary difficulty I had with it concerned an immediate “bouncing back” from trauma. Horrible things have happened Millie and I found her actions afterward difficult to believe. I felt something was missing in helping the reader understand her responses. There were also several historical inaccuracies, especially with respect to references to WWII, which were not necessary to the plot and could have easily been omitted. Content warnings include domestic violence, rape, drug abuse, and scenes involving animals that may be disturbing to sensitive readers.… (lisätietoja)

Two things I wasn’t fully aware of when I was given this book to read; one, it was the second in a series and two, it is classified as being Christian literature.

Maybe my inability to connect with any of the characters in this book was due to the fact that I hadn’t read the first one in the series, and because of this I didn’t understand some of their personality traits and motivations behind the things they did and said throughout the book. Those I did connect with, and thoroughly enjoyed were characters, which obviously from the way they appeared in the novel, were making a debut on these particular pages. Maybe because I read this out of sequence, there were many times I just didn’t find the characters believable at all, and this really disappointed me to a point where I nearly consigned this book to the ‘to be finished later’ pile.

The saving grace in this novel, and the one that kept me reading through to the end was the vivid way in which the Author describes the small corner of Colorado the main protagonists call home. When the main character sees the scenery before her for the first time, and it takes her breath away it also takes the readers breath away too, such is the skill this Author shows when writing about the locations in which the novel is set. The Author has also obviously done a great deal of research into the local plants and herbs of the area, as well as the crafts of quilting and knitting and this shines through when she explains the use for the herbs and plants encountered. In many ways this book could have so easily become preachy as it is full of references to God, but it didn’t. While staying true to its genre it still managed to portray a harsh and gritty way of life for those who were trying to break ground and start new lives not only partway through a world war, but so close to the end of the depression era.

As much as this was an enjoyable read it didn’t make me want to backtrack and open the first, and I highly doubt I will read anymore in this series. I would recommend this to readers of Christian literature, but I would also advise they read Into the Free #1, before tackling this book.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/01/17/review-when-mountains-move-into-the-free-2...
… (lisätietoja)

The cover is beautiful. The story wants to be deep but the character's behavior and thoughts seem shallow and unrealistic. It's basically about a modern-day Cinderella emotionally abused by her older sister to such a degree that she left her beloved hometown Oxford, MS to pursue a seemingly successful but actually miserable life. Then after many years of trying to convince the modern Cinderella to come home, finally Cinderella's parents succeed. (Why did they fail for so many years?) Then Cinderella have a girlish crush on the fiancee she dumped 20 years ago before leaving home. (But surely people change over 20 years? How can romance just pick up like that, like nothing has happened?) Then she's abused by her evil sister again. Then everything resolves, Cinderella finds her true home is still Oxford, MS, and declare mutual love with the former fiancee. Evil sister repents. Happy ending for all. I think I would enjoy this book more if the main protagonists were in their 20s, or early 30s, rather than in their 40s, because the way they behave strongly reminds me of YA books. Except these protagonists love Oxford, MS, and are really into gardening and party decor.… (lisätietoja)