sO this post is a number of hours late but #ohwell. In any case BOOK REVIEW TIME today after quite a long break! I am really excited to talk about Kellyn Roth's new book Beyond Her Calling which is the fourth book in her series, The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy. If you remember my reviews for the three preceding books earlier this year, you'll know how impressed I was with the series and how much I enjoy it ;D
[^^ALSO READ: At Her Fingertips [by Kellyn Roth]]
BEYOND HER CALLING
by Kellyn Roth
At twenty, Ivy Knight feels as if she hasn’t accomplished anything of worth. Her life stretches on before her, empty and pointless. Though her faith in God and her mental abilities have been strengthened, she still doubts herself. Does God have a purpose for a socially awkward, often confused and frightened young woman?
Jordy McAllen has just returned to Scotland after his education in London. Though he has accomplished a lot for a farm lad such as himself, he fears that what everyone has always said about him may be true: he won’t really make a good doctor. Determined to prove himself, Jordy snatches up the opportunity to become the doctor in the village of Keefmore near his parents’ farm.
Helping Jordy with his work at Keefmore seems like the perfect opportunity for Ivy. Still, she doubts herself. Is there a purpose to Ivy’s life?
In this book, Kellyn has written the best work of her series, in my humble opinion. If book one hooked me to the series, and book two thoroughly convinced me of Kell's talent, and if book three destroyed all my feels - then this book has given me the most emotionally relatable characters I've seen in a very long time. Books one and two are about Alice and Ivy as children, and while I could imagine and understand what they were going through, I didn't feel like wow this is talking about me. And in book three, Alice's struggle and growth were rather on a subject I don't yet connect to. But in this book - WOW.
I feel like Kellyn has HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD with a lot things I feel in Ivy and Violet. Which is funny because never would I have compared myself to those two XD But still ... their struggles are mine in a lot of ways, and I've felt the way they did, and yeah this book just tugged at my heart strings and touched really deep. They both deal with problems self-worth (and wow that sounds so contemporary, but it's still generally what it was in the past XD) and the meaning of their lives and what God has planned for them and how much they matter to him - and the struggles were so real and touching and I love how, even though the clear and easy answer was provided, it wasn't easy to TAP INTO IT, so to speak. It's hard to explain. They KNEW what was true, but it was so difficult for them to FEEL and BELIEVE it anyway.
Can I say that JORDY MCALLEN was written so well? I am so dead tired of perfect male characters and while Jordy really IS as wonderful as Ivy thinks, he still isn't 100% perfect. And he's a mischievous tease at that so *thumbs up* And I am very into storylines that deal with doctors on a mission *nods*
AND THIS BOOK WAS SO SCOTTISH. I love how Kell wrote the brogue and I was reading all the Scottish speech in Scottish accent and having so much fun with it XD I really felt the atmosphere and setting and hey Kell, thanks for transporting me to my dream travel destination for a while there :D
THE ROMANCE PART is the absolute cutest and I loved it even more than Alice's #sorrynotsorry
Plot wise ... umm it wasn't terribly action packed or anything. It was about Ivy helping Jordy in Scotland and getting to know people and navigating her own conflicting emotions and trying to help Violet. But it was really engaging all the same!!
Here's list of reasons you NEED THIS BOOK (after you've read the others, of course ;))
- it's a clean Christian historical romance with
- friendship to romance
- mental disabilities rep
- letters and correspondence
- emotional conflict
- letters and correspondence
- emotional conflict
- Scotland
- trying to navigate the meaning of life
- trying to navigate the meaning of life
- awkwardness
- kittens
- a doctor and his practice and his patients and his assistant
- IT TAKES PLACE IN THE FALL (and ha, it's the perfect time for me to read it)
- lots Scottish brogue
- mischievous and lovable boys
- new found friends
- lots of wisdom that's hard for the characters to follow
- a doctor and his practice and his patients and his assistant
- IT TAKES PLACE IN THE FALL (and ha, it's the perfect time for me to read it)
- lots Scottish brogue
- mischievous and lovable boys
- new found friends
- lots of wisdom that's hard for the characters to follow
- cows (and being afraid of cows)
- border collies
-small adorable children
-more Scotland
-awesome families
-siblings and best friends and both at once
- conversations about Jane Austen
I HOPE YOU ALL ARE THOROUGHLY CONVINCED NOW <3
- conversations about Jane Austen
I HOPE YOU ALL ARE THOROUGHLY CONVINCED NOW <3
And here's some more good news for all of you. Kellyn is hosting a GIVEAWAY!! *cue cheering* Enter below, and good luck ;DD
Kellyn Roth lives on an Eastern Oregon ranch with her parents, little brothers, border collies, cats, and a few dozen cows and chickens. Always a lover of a good story, and especially of telling one, she’s been writing since she was seven and published her first novel at fourteen. Now a homeschool grad, she divides her time between penning her next Christian historical novel, creating professionally silly articles at kellynroth.blog, and her actual life. Actual life plays second fiddle sometimes, though.
Find out more on her website: https://kellynrothauthor.com/
CLICK TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE REST OF THE SERIES:
Full schedule for blog tour in case you're interested :
Saturday, October 20th
Intro Post // Kellyn Roth @ Reveries
Author Interview // Molly @ A Sparkle of Light
Review // Lisa @ Inkwell
Review & Character Interview (Jordy) // Amie @ Crazy A
Character Interview (Ivy) // Jo @ The Lens and the Hard Drive
Book Spotlight // Annie @ Letters from Annie Douglass Lima
Sunday, October 21st
Theme Day // Kellyn Roth @ Reveries
Guest Post by Character (Ivy) & Review // Grace M. Morris
Book Spotlight // Erika Messer @ Maiden of the Pages
Author Interview // Angela R. Watts @ The Peculiar Messenger
Monday, October 22nd
Ivy Day // Kellyn Roth @ Reveries
Character Interview (Ivy) // Loretta Marchize @ Just Writing
Review // Andrea Cox @ Writing to Inspire
Character Interview (Jordy) // Liz @ Home with the Hummingbirds
Author & Character Interview (Violet) // Julia @ Julia’s Creative Corner
Review & Character Spotlight (Ivy) // Caroline Kloster @ Inside the Autistic Life
Tuesday, October 23rd
Jordy Day // Kellyn Roth @ Reveries
Author Interview // Faith Blum @ Bookish Orchestrations
Review & Guest Post // Cara @ Jessie Bingham
Guest Post // Lindsi @ One Beginner To Another
Character Spotlight (Ena) // Shannon McDermott @ Shannon’s Blog
Wednesday, October 24th
Violet Day // Kellyn Roth @ Reveries
Guest Post // Germaine Han @ The Writing Mafia
Review // Jana T. @ Reviews from the Stacks
Thursday, October 25th
Real Life Day // Kellyn Roth @ Reveries
Book Spotlight // Gabriellyn Gidman @ PageTurners
Author Interview // Sara Willoughby @ Th!nk Magazine
Review // Michaela Bush @ Tangled Up In Writing
Guest Post by Character (Violet) // Peggy M. McAloon @ Peggy’s Hope 4U
Friday, October 26th
Future Day // Kellyn Roth @ Reveries
Review // Abigail McKenna @ Novels, Dragons, and Wardrobe Doors
Review // Gracelyn Buckner @ Literatura
Review // Katherine Brown Books
Review // Bella Putt
Saturday, October 27th
Wrapup Post // Kellyn Roth @ Reveries
Character Interview & Spotlight (Jordy) // Kaylee @ Kaylee’s Kind of Writes
Book Spotlight // Abigail Harder @ Books, Life, and Christ
And be sure to check out the Facebook party every day this week for exciting updates!
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ALL RIGHT THEN, speak up, my dudes - WHO'S READ SOME OF KELLY'S BOOKS SO FAR? DON'T THE COVERS OF THIS SERIES JUST MAKE YOU LOVE IT ALREADY?
YAY A POST BY LISA.
ReplyDeleteBRILLIANT REVIEW, LISA. And yes! a giveaway. Totally entering that one. Also, I love the new graphics (well maybe they're not new? just they're new to me).
By the way, I have a technical question. xD How do you get the text to go right now to the image (where you put the synopsis)? I use WordPress, so you may not be able to help? But if anyone here uses WP and knows how, pray tell me. xD
Thanks for sharing! ^-^
Lilian
also haha your new profile picture is on point xD
DeleteAwww yay I'm so glad my posts get that response 😊
DeleteGlad you like my graphics too - only my header is fairly new. And yes, do enter the giveaway!!
Ummm ... I'm not sure I get what you mean about the text? I'm so sorry could you rephrase that? And yeah this is blogger and I have like 0% experience with WP 😉
GLAD YOU LIKE MY NEW PROFILE PIC TOO!!
Oh sure! Sorry. xD So right under "about the book" there's an image of Beyond Her Calling's cover, and then to the right of that is the synopsis for the book. How do you get the text to go right next to the image? If I try putting the text next to it it automatically goes under the image to the next row. Does that make sense? :P
DeleteOh YES NOW I GET YOU!! Ummm ... So blogger allows me to drag my image around and position it next to my text. I have no idea how to do it on WP BUT I GOOGLED and maybe try these instructions https://www.templatemonster.com/help/wordpress-wrap-text-around-image.html ?? If not try googling it again and read a few articles that pop up 😊 hope this helps!!
DeleteWOW THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU ARE A GENIUS. (well maybe not because google y'know? but your posts are genius :D)
Deletelet me try that
YAY IT WORKS! thank you so much, Lisa!! *hugs*
HURRAY SO HAPPY I COULD BE OF SERVICE!!
DeleteGOSH DANG IT, NOW I HAVE ANOTHER SERIES I MUST READ. :) Seriously, though, you speak so highly of this series that I have to pick it up ASAP. Great review!
ReplyDeleteYES YOU DO!! it's so amazing I even bought my friend the first book 😂 thanks Nicole!!
DeleteSCOTLAND IS AN EXCELLENT REASON TO READ A BOOK. I'm agnostic, but I've been looking for some good Christian fiction to try to expand my reading horizons. I'll have to check these out!
ReplyDeleteEleanor | On the Other Side of Reality
AHAHA SCOTLAND FANS UNITE!! *jumps up and down*
Delete*restrains myself from recommending you stacks of good Christian fiction* in my opinion, I think the author really wove the Christianity in well and I don't think it came off as pushy or anything, but then, I'm probably biased!! It would be great if you could read them and give a verdict - I don't know if a non-Christian has reviewed these books yet??? Definitely check them out if your interested! The plots are great too!!
Thanks for the comment 💛
No no recommend me all the books! I'm currently in the middle of The Ilyon Chronicles and really enjoying them, so if you know of any other books in that vein I'd love to hear of them.
DeleteThe Ilyon Chronicles are absolutely brilliant and it's fabulous that you enjoy those!!
DeleteIf you're thinking Christian fantasy then I'd tell you to read Ted Dekker's Circle series bc it's AMAZING. and anything by Ted Dekker is worth it, really. The Dragon Keeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul are really colorful and unique fantasy books too! Dystopian - Out of Time by Nadine Brandes. And Frank Peretti has great thrillers!!
Thanks for letting me add to your TBR lol