Tag: Karen Barnett

As long as said hero was safely ensconced in the pages of a novel, she was happy. That was how she liked her men—imaginary.

Book Review | When Stone Wings Fly by Karen Barnett

When Stone Wings Fly is a dual-timeline novel set in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in the present, and in the 1930s when the park is still being established. One of the first Christian novels I read was Christy by Catherine Marshall, which was set in the Great Smokies before it became a National Park (and I also enjoyed watching the TV series in the 1990s).

So I was keen to read another Christian romance in the same setting.

The historic story is about Rosie McCauley who doesn’t want to sell her family land, the land where she and her sister were born, and where her parents and grandparents are buried. She meets Benton Fuller, who is studying birdlife in the mountains. They form a friendship.

In the present, Kieran Lucas is trying to make ends meet while working two jobs and taking care of her grandmother in her spare time. After growing up in care, she wants to learn more about her family while there is still time. After Granny Mac tells Kieran about her early years in the Smokies, Kieran tries to find her grandmother’s childhood home with the aid of National Park Service guide Zach Jensen.

I’ve read a few of Karen Barnett’s earlier historical novels, although I haven’t read any of her previous books about America’s National Parks. I enjoyed the historic aspect of When Stone Wings Fly, particularly setting up the National Park. I was interested in how the park was set up—by buying the land from the legal residents, using money donated from everyone from schoolchildren to the Rockefeller family.

I liked the romances—both of them—and I thought the novel dealt with the problems of age and dementia in a sensitive and appropriate manner.

There were a couple of plot points that I didn’t think were necessary. Sure, they needed to happen to set up the novel’s climax, but I didn’t think events had to happen the way they happened. I don’t want to say so much because that would be a #spoiler but it’s like baking. It’s not great if you take the cake out of the over before it’s cooked, but you can always put it back in the oven to finish cooking. Don’t leave it sitting on the the table then complain it’s not cooked.

But that’s a small issue overall. I liked all the characters – they were intelligent, hardworking, and willing to fight for what they wanted. The writing was excellent, and I was left feeling as though I knew the characters and had visited the Smokies, and seen the good and the bad.

Thanks to Kregel Publications and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Karen Barnett

Fueled by a passion for research and learning, and a secret desire to travel in time, author Karen Barnett creates historical romances that draw readers deep into a story. She’s fascinated that even though human history is constantly changing, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The point where those two facts collide forms the basis for her writing–finding those moments when an ordinary person brushes up against the eternal.

A graduate of Valparaiso University and Oregon State University, Barnett’s debut novel, Mistaken, was released in 2013 and earned her the Oregon Christian Writers “Writer of Promise” award and a Cascade Award for best historical fiction. She also won the coveted “Writer of the Year” title from the prestigious Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference in 2016. The Road to Paradise was a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writer’s Carol Awards in 2018.

Karen spent several years working in outdoor education as a park ranger and naturalist for Mount Rainier National Park and Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park before becoming a stay-at-home mom and professional writer. She spends her free time hiking, taking photographs, and decorating crazy birthday cakes.

Karen and her husband live in western Oregon and are trying to adjust to the empty nest life now that both kids are in college. Well, their home isn’t entirely empty––they still have three mischievous dachshunds underfoot.

Find Karen Barnett online:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter

About When Stone Wings Fly

Kieran Lucas’s grandmother is slipping into dementia, and when her memory is gone, Kieran’s last tie to the family she barely knows will be lost forever. Worse, flashbacks of her mother’s death torment Granny Mac and there’s precious little Kieran can do to help.

In 1931, the creation of the new Great Smoky Mountains National Park threatens Rosie McCauley’s home. Rosie vows the only way the commission will get her land is if they haul her off in a pine box. When a compromise offers her and her disabled sister the opportunity to stay for Rosie’s lifetime, her acceptance sets her apart from the other mountain folk. And the bond she’s forming with ornithologist and outsider Benton Fuller only broadens the rift.

Eighty-five years later, Kieran heads back to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to find answers to her great-grandmother’s mysterious death and bring peace to Granny Mac before it’s too late. Park Historian Zach Jensen may be the key to locating both the answers. But what Kieran needs clashes with the government regulations Zach is sworn to uphold. Can she trust God for a solution to heal this generations-old wound?

Find When Stone Wings Fly online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads

Read the introduction to When Stone Wings Fly below:

Book Review: Mistaken by Karen Barnett

If you’ve signed up for my monthly Newsletter, you’ll already have received my entirely biased list of 50 novels from my favourite Christian authors. If you haven’t, sign up on the right!

Today I’m reviewing Mistaken by Karen Barnett, an original historical romance with echoes of Pride and Prejudice.

Excellent Debut Novel

Cover image: Mistaken by Karen Barnett
Laurie’s brother is involved in a local gang running illegal booze from Canada during Prohibition, and the new man in town, Daniel Shepherd is involved as well. Laurie hates the business the effect alcohol has had on her family, and she hates the fact that all the men in her life seem to be controlled by alcohol.

Yet she finds herself attracted to Daniel.

Things get complicated when another new face arrives in town: Samuel Brown. Brown is a handsome federal agent working to eliminate the illegal trade in alcohol, and he’s also interested in Laurie. Although her head says Samuel is the better choice, her feelings are conflicted, not least because of her brother’s involvement in rum-running.

We get a hint of one of the main plot conflicts in Mistaken’s subtitle:

First Impressions Are Never What They Seem.

Literary buffs may recall that the original title of Pride and Prejudice was First Impressions, and there is something of the Lizzie Bennett in Laurie Burke (not merely the initials). Like Lizzie Bennett, Laurie is embarrassed by her family: in her case, by her alcoholic father. Her initial impressions of people are incorrect, and she makes other errors of character judgement in the same way as Lizzie did. I’ll let you figure out the other similarities yourself.

Mistaken is Karen Barnett’s debut novel, and it’s excellent.

I find that a lot of Christian fiction, especially historical fiction, starts to get repetitive in the themes, plots, characters and settings. Mistaken is set in a small coastal town about twenty miles south of the Canadian border. It’s set during the Prohibition era, so alcohol plays a major role in the story. It’s an original time setting, and an original plot, and I liked that.

And the author doesn’t shy away from the problems alcohol causes and the effect it has on family members. Her writing is more challenging than most Christian fiction, as Laurie has to negotiate some difficult moral choices with no black and white answers. The characters are real, facing problems in a world where the right thing to do isn’t the easy thing to do. And while this is Christian fiction and Laurie’s faith ultimately helps her in finding the answer to her conundrum, the Christian aspect is very understated.

Recommended.

Thanks to Abingdon Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Karen Barnett at her website, and you can read the introduction to Mistaken below: