Today, I have something special to share with you—a spotlight of a series by an indie author I’ve had the privilege of getting to know a little through the medium of her stories!
Whenever I can, I try to help different authors (especially self-published authors) with their publicity work. It’s incredibly difficult to do marketing these days—I struggle with it myself!—and one way we as readers can help authors is to share their books with our own people, which in this case is you!
First, let me introduce Kellyn Roth to you:
Kellyn Roth is a Christian & historical author from North-Eastern Oregon. Kell is a ranch girl, homeschool graduate, proud sister of four, proud auntie of five, and owner of two goofy border collies, two presumptuous cats, and a very active betta fish. Check out her website, kellynrothauthor.com, for more info.
Author Website: http://kellynrothauthor.com/
Blog: http://kellynroth.blog/
Reveries Co: http://reveriescompany.com/
Coach Kell: http://coachkell.com/
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest: @ReveriesofRuby
(Some links in this blog post are affiliate links—your purchases through these links help support this blog at no extra expense to you. Thank you! Also, Kellyn generously sent me free ecopies of all these books.)
Over the past month or two, I’ve taken time to read all the books in this series, except Goldfish Secrets, a short story.
Here are my quick thoughts on the books, in the order I read them:
(And by the way, I wouldn’t recommend reading them in this order…you’ll hear why in a bit.)
I enjoyed The Lady of the Vineyard, book 1. It’s not a heavily detailed plot, by any means, but I enjoyed the lessons it had in it. The editing could perhaps be a bit better, but overall it was a good story. I loved the redemption significance shared in here. A sweet, fairly short story with a delightful little girl in it!
Though there would be a toss-up for me between the first book and the second, I think Flowers in Her Heart is probably my most favorite of the series. Lady is good, but this one somehow touched a bit more of a chord with me and I really loved the story. It’s simple, and sad, and sweet…just the elements I like, with a character or two that really need a good shaking up and heart change. Somewhat of a short book, but I did enjoy it.
From Now ’Til Forever, book 3, unfortunately, did not really do a whole lot for me. It’s a good story, in and of itself, but I struggled with one doctrinal point shared here (nothing against the author personally, of course; I know lots of people who believe what is expressed or inferred here). Since that was a main element of the story, that made it harder. I did enjoy seeing the family grow up a bit more, and the thread of forgiveness that really started to show in the second book was still here in the third one. This is a very short story; I’d hardly call it a novella. If you want a good wrap-up to the series, this would be good to read.
And the last, which I should have read first but didn’t, is Souls Astray, book 0 (or prequel 1). If I had read it first, I have a feeling I would have enjoyed it a bit more; as it was, I had to consciously choose to pick it up, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have finished it. The reason why it was harder for me to read, I think, was because I felt like I already knew the story. Enough detail was needed in the main books of the series that I already knew about all the major events; this just fleshed them out a bit more. I thought the writing style could have been improved somewhat, and I would have liked a better ending, but in the end, that’s all the author’s choice. This was also the longest book of the lot. If you like backstory, you would love this book.
In all, I really enjoyed getting to hear Kellyn’s “voice” through the stories. She has taken some intriguing ideas and set them in a time and place where they work. My favorite parts were definitely the thread of forgiveness through the stories and the family life as it developed throughout the series. They were quite a fun, fairly easy read, but definitely sweet, too, in places. I didn’t understand why certain things were put in there quite as frequently as they were (I believe marital relations were mentioned in every book, and I didn’t think that was needed in some cases), but I was thankful that though things like loose living are mentioned, they aren’t described too much.
If you’re looking for something slightly different on the reading market or a redemption story, you might just enjoy this series. It wasn’t deep, nor was it super fluffy—just somewhere in the middle.
Thank you, Kellyn, for sharing your stories with us! I was thankful for the chance to find out what your books are like, and also thankful for the chance to help out a little!
Giveaway!
Kellyn has a lovely giveaway going. The first prize includes The Lady of the Vineyard and Flowers in Her Heart in paperback and a flower necklace (which goes perfectly with the theme of the books)!
And the second prize is The Lady of the Vineyard in paperback and Flowers in Her Heart and From Now ‘Til Forever in ebook!
What World War I or II fiction have you read lately?
Diana Wallis Taylor was first published at the age of twelve, when she sold a poem to a church newsletter. After receiving her B.A. in Elementary Education at San Diego State University, she was an elementary school teacher for twenty-two years. Diana has also sold real estate, opened two coffeehouse/used book stores, and was a conference director for a private Christian college.
