The Covered Deep, di Brandy Vallance

The Covered Deep by Brandy Vallance
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Covered Deep was my first christian romance. I had high expectations. Some of them have been accomplished, some not.

The book presents an interesting story, with beautiful settings, from Appalachian mountains to London and the British museum (at night!) and to the Holy Land. The characters are well defined and the dialogues vivid and smart.

But I have found that there are some discrepancies or imprecisions.
- For example, in the Holy Land, at 1870, there was presumably no one that spoke hebrew as modern language, as common language, in everyday situations. Eliezer ben Yehudah only in 1881 came to Palestine with the hope to give new birth to hebrew language.
- It’s not possible for a non-Jew to say a prayer in a ritual setting, and it’s formally impossible to change a ritual prayer, as in the book is done by Paul.
- It’s very improbable that a protestant preacher was at England in 1868 in such a famous and public way.
- The Palestine described in the book is more similar to the land pictured in some non-historical films, as Kingdom of Heaven, than to the real places.

The faith and the sense of forgiveness are well shown in the book, and this is the major quality of the story. Faith is not to pray for having patience or becoming worthy, it’s having patience and love, as the characters slowly understand in the book. Paul and Bianca are in a voyage not only to the Holy Land, but to become better persons.

The message of the book is about forgiveness and renewal.

So we have to forgive the author for some mistakes, and have faith that her talent will flourish more and more in the future, since we have so many good signs here.

*ARC provided by the author and the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*



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