Do You Know the Benefits of Complaining?

“Pack the pictures, bowls, and quilts.  Oh, and the books.  Then finish Wrong about Mr. Wright. Oh, and 12 Dates of Christmas and Christmas on Breakers Point. What else…?”

My email answered.  A friendly reminder that a book I didn’t know I’d signed up for needed to be reviewed.  By tomorrow.

Oops.

I took one look at the cover, read the title–Haven of Rest–and tried not to cry. Most of it was okay, but the font hinted at something that did nothing for me.

If I’d been twelve, I would have wailed, “Why me!!!”

Then I decided that I hadn’t done that enough when I was twelve and did it anyway.  WHY ME?

And the complaints began.  I don’t like Biblical fiction.  I don’t have time. I have to drive to Springfield and swap cars. I… I…

But there was nothing to do about it.  I had to read the dumb book. So, I complained all the way to my inbox, all the way to opening it, and all through the first few paragraphs.

At about that point, I forgot to complain. I was too engaged in the story.

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Do You Know the Benefits of Complaining?

Well, read Haven of Rest and you’ll learn them.  No really, you will.

I own that I was completely wrong about the book.  I hadn’t expected to enjoy it, and I did.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I plan to purchase the entire series in paperback. I didn’t remember requesting a review copy of the book, so when the free book had arrived, I didn’t know that it was a mashup of a fairy tale retelling and Biblical fiction.  Brilliant.

Well written, full of delightful details that never weigh down the story, Blum creates characters readers fall in love with. Though full of speculation, she manages to keep the story from feeling too much as if rewriting the Bible. That is my usual complaint with Biblical fiction.

Recommended for lovers of Biblical fiction, fairy tale retellings, and anyone who is curious about why complaining has its benefits. Adah will teach you.