My Review of A Place Of Abundance by Julie Bell

I had the opportunity recently to try a debut novel from a new author. A Place of Abundance is Julie Bell's new book and I was excited to try it out.

'Look!' a voice in the train car rang out. Richard looked out the window to see five horses riding alongside the train. Oh God, Richard inwardly cried. What are we going to do? Richard heard the sound of guns fired and slid his eyes shut. His last thought was of home. Three years later, eighteen-year-old Alicia Barnes is still dealing with the death of her father. When she suddenly loses her mother in an unfortunate accident, Alicia is devastated and promises to never trust God again. She decides to start a new life in a new town as a schoolteacher. There she meets Caleb Carter, a young ranch owner whose parents were killed three years ago. As Alicia begins to make friends with Caleb and his younger sister, Claire, she wonders how a loving God could allow terrible things to happen to good people. Then, an unwelcome band of outlaws appear in town, and Alicia is faced with two choices, holding on to a bitter heart or accepting the peace of forgiveness. Will Alicia learn to trust God and allow him to bring her to A Place of Abundance?

This was a kind of interesting blurb about the book and it made me really want to dig in. I have a love for new authors and their debut novels. But sometimes I feel like throwing the book across the room. The writing is bad, the language is worse and the characters are horrible. Glad to say this was not that type of book. I really felt a draw with Claire. She is fun loving, wonderfully in love and very supportive of Mark. Her stint with the wheelchair had me laughing:) (Not going to tell you about that, you have to read the book yourself) I liked Alicia but at times I wanted to slap her. Caleb and Claire did a wonderful job of showing the Lord to Alicia and the Gospel message is clearly given. I like when a book has a lot of Scripture in it and this one did just that. If you want a book that does not preach, then this is not your type of book. But if you want a book that has lots of scripture, then pick this one up.

I did see some of what I normally see with a debut novel. At times the writing went very slow and other times it jumped from one thing to another. This is something that often gets better with the next novel though so I am very eager to see what Julie brings next.

Thank you Julie for sending me a review copy of this book. I received a copy for review but I did not receive any monetary compensation. All thoughts are 100% mine.