Bending Toward the Sun

Title: Bending Toward the Sun: The Quilted Heart Novella Two

Author: Mona Hodgson

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Emilie Heinrich is divided between the two loves of her life: her widowed father and the handsome Quaid McFarland, who’s just returned from serving in the Civil War. A childhood friend, Quaid isn’t the schoolboy Emilie remembers. But even as Emilie and Quaid’s affection grows, Emilie’s father becomes more determined than ever to keep them apart.

Although I’m not usually a fan of novellas, I decided to try this one because I wanted to check out this particular author. It almost feels unfair to review a novella, because I always feel as though the author is given an almost impossible feat: make us (the readers) care and be forever attached to the characters in 100 pages or less. With that said, I think Ms. Hodgson did an admirable job. There’s a definite beginning, middle, and end, and I was surprised to see she did get in a very clear “moral of the story” which was probably my favorite part. I also appreciated how she approached the romance scenes-she mentions a kiss and then it’s on to the next thing. Not too detailed, but not too sparse, either.

However, the beginning was slow and it’s just too short of a story to really fall in love with the characters. It’s a sweet story that may be good to pass the time in a doctor’s office, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it for much else. There just wasn’t anything too terribly unique to make this novella stand out. But-and I’d like to emphasize this-short as this story was, I did see some definite flickers of good writing and would very much like to see one of this author’s full-length novels before I completely pass judgment.

(I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for my honest review.)

Let’s Talk Book: What do you think? Are novellas impossible to please because of their length? Which do you prefer-novellas, or full-length novels?