The Covered Deep

Fans of historical and inspirational fiction may find themselves a little disappointed in this novel by first time author, Brandy Vallance. But before any of you vindictive Christian bloggers bite my head off (you know who you are!), let me explain the pros and cons of this book and how I reached my decision.

What I enjoyed about this book:
The premise was pretty unique; it's 1877, a naive young Ohio woman wins the trip of a lifetime to go abroad to the Holy Land with a carefully selected group of travelers. In the beginning, I even enjoyed the strangeness of Sir Adrian, the eccentric millionaire who creates the contest looking for unique and compatible travelers to journey with him to Jerusalem. The little historical touches were also educational and fitting with the story. It helped bring the travelers and their surroundings to life.

What I could have done without:
Bianca is far too naive and suddenly loses all common sense when journeying to the Holy Land. Walking around the garden in just her nightgown, walking alone with men, letting her hair out, and begging to be kissed are just a few of the things she does that are sharply in contrast to her naive pure, Christian nature which she embodies elsewhere in the book. Her lover, Paul, is thankfully not so pure. He has a dark past filled with stealing and adultery  which he has to somehow has to get Bianca to understand and forgive. Of course, Bianca can't wrap her head around it (can you blame her?) or forgive him so their short relationship is doomed. Speaking of short relationships... Love at first sight? Really?! It was like instant love. Bianca meets Paul and thirty seconds later she's wondering what their children will look like. They both fall head over heels in love and within a week they're talking about love, marriage, and what Bianca's father will say. Thankfully, things don't get too passionate because Paul has awesome timing and etiquette for bringing up his sordid past (yes, that was sarcasm). Finally, the last thing I could have done without was the hidden planning/game of Sir Adrian's. Really? Get a life mister. I can't believe some crazed millionaire would really plan for two years to find the perfect match for Paul just to see if he would confess his dirty past, thus being a true Christian.... I just don't see it. It's not even that exciting. The story would have been much better without all those weird little schemes, that didn't really go anywhere.

Overall, it wasn't awful, but it wasn't great. I enjoyed the historical aspects of it and the writing was eloquently worded but... that was about it for me. For a first novel though, Brandy Vallance has nothing to be ashamed of, this was at least readable and at times, enjoyable, which is more then I can say about most first time authors. I wish her well in future works and look forward to reading any of her upcoming novels :)

I received this book for free from Worthy Publishing in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.