CFBA Review: Songs of the Shenandoah by:Michael K. Reynolds

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Songs of the Shenandoah B&H Books (January 1, 2014) by Michael Reynolds

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael K. Reynolds is a writer with more than two decades of experience in crafting fiction, non-fiction, journalism, copywriting and documentary production. He is the author of a series of Irish historical novels published by B&H Publishing Group. These highly acclaimed books are available in bookstores and libraries across the nation and beyond.

Michael is the writer and producer of an Emmy and Telly award-winning series of documentaries titled, Crystal Darkness. These thirty minute anti-meth films have been heavily promoted and broadcast in cities and states throughout the United States and Mexico. They have been viewed collectedly by more than 10 million people and the message has reached more than 30 million to date.

He also has wide experience as a speaker and on-air personality and has been interviewed on a variety of newspapers, radio stations and televisions networks throughout the nation. Michael earned his B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, San Diego and lives in Reno with his wife and three children. He is active in marketplace, marriage, small group and men’s ministries as a leader and speaker.

ABOUT THE BOOK

At the onset of the Civil War, Seamus heeds his wife’s wishes to return to her beloved family farm in the South, where he takes a post as chaplain for General Stonewall Jackson’s brigade. As Seamus ministers to the troops, his sister Clare ministers in a different way—by being a powerful voice in the Northern cause toward freeing the slaves. All this while their youngest brother Davin, who became wealthy during the Gold Rush, struggles to find love and identity in a fallen world. It’s a clash of loyalties and beliefs that threaten the entire family, each of them trying to hear God’s encouragement in the midst of the tragedy of war. The dramatic conclusion to the acclaimed Heirs of Ireland Series.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Songs of the Shenandoah, go HERE. My Review:
This story so sweetly finalized as the last in the Heirs of Ireland series, is outstanding. I loved the series and this one ends on a strong note. I loved the story of the Royce family and the intertwining of the other people that are attached to them in one way or another.

 I felt closely connected to Seamus and his family more probably because he was a minister and his wife whom he just adores, travel back to her old plantation home--the one in which she had spent her early years to make a go of farming that land. He had grown up poor and nearly starving and had swore to himself he would never be a farmer. My, how life seems to change those things for us in a quick second.

 Davin seems to have let his gold fortune go to his head. Being arrogant seems to not really suit him as well as he thinks. He falls in love with a young girl that is a boarder in his sisters home. Her name-Muriel she is studying to become a doctor and she is very much taken with him.

The Hanley family is also for captivating and there are so many unexpected things always happening the story I could see why it would take over 60 chapter to tell their stories. I loved so many aspects of the book but I really liked the story in the beginning of the family's Christmas. Clare's children Garret and Ella seem like such sweethearts, and the story of Ella going out in the snow to get snowballs for her brother was just pure sweetness.

**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from CFBA.