The Christy Awards Gala came and went (and life flew by for me—did anyone miss the lack of a Monday post these past two weeks?) I’ve got two books underway and hope to have a new review up in seven days (ah, the troubles of a book reviewer who also happens to be a slow reader!) That said, the Christy award winners might be a good place to find something new in Christian fiction to enjoy. Here are some of my first thoughts and impressions about the winning entries.
The “Book of the Year” chosen for 2018 was True to You by Becky Wade. I’m kind of surprised the ECPA chose this book, though I haven’t read it. I feel as if I could rewrite the synopsis on the back cover to say “Cliché story about nerdy book lover falling for a hunky military guy and in the end they both realize they are perfect for each other when they overcome his tragic illness”, but maybe there is some sort of twist of clever writing I’m not aware of…I could be really surprised. I’m probably too skeptical of most romance novels. True to You was also the Contemporary Romance category winner. Have you tried this? Would you have picked this for book of the year?
I was also a bit disappointed that The Man He Never Was by James Rubart won best Visionary – this one wasn’t my cup of tea. Then again, this might be the perfect flavor for you. 🙂
The winner of the First Novel category looks promising! Written by Valerie Fraser Luesse, Missing Isaac is set in 1965. It is the story of a little boy who will stop at nothing to find his friend, a black field hand, when he goes missing from the tiny unassuming town of Glory, Alabama.
Also grabbing my interest is the winner of the General Fiction section—Life After, by Katie Ganshert. This book may not be my next read, however, just because the subject matter is rather tragic—a woman lives through a train bombing and deals with survivor’s guilt. As she tries to move through the grief, her life intersects with the husband and family of one of the victims of the event. Right now I just don’t feel emotionally up to reading this story, but I’ll definitely keep it on my radar.
Not many of the other award winners jumped out at me, but a number of finalists did. There’s The Space between Words… and also Catching the Wind. Isaiah’s Daughter and Many Sparrows have both been checked out on my library card at various times but haven’t been read yet.
So grateful for good books and fellow reading friends, among many other blessings, this Thanksgiving—
Rebekah
a page out of her book 
I’ve read True to You and the sequel that follows it. It was more interesting than I initially thought it would be, but I didn’t think it would be a Christy award winner. That being said, you should definitely read it! I think you’ll be surprised
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I just finished reading True to You and I have to say, I was about 80% of the way through before I could see how it could considered for book of the year for the Christy awards but I was glad to see the characters spending a little time wrestling through tough questions with God. I don’t usually like romance novels but this author has a way of including little details like character quirks, descriptions of outfits, houses, and meals that made this fun to read, at least for me. Also a fun element that made the book stand out was frequent excerpts of text messages and emails between different characters. Still, I just wouldn’t call it a book of the year 😬
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Thanks, Emily– I LOVE hearing feedback on what you are reading! True to You sounds as if it would make a nice porch-swing lazy-day read 🙂
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