All the Way My Savior Leads (Book Review & Blog Tour!)

Today, I’m participating in the blog tour for All the Way My Savior Leads, a great new story by author Faith Blum! I loved this book, and am looking forward to sharing it with you! (Find out more about the author here.)

I made a mistake last week. I had been planning to read All the Way My Savior Leads, but since I was still smack-dab in the middle of the adventures of two sisters in Suit and Suitability (a retelling of the classic Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, but set in Depression-era Ohio!), I decided to wait a bit and see if I could finish the other book first. This book was just a novella, right?…or so I thought. So when I tapped to open it in my Kindle Sunday morning, I realized differently quite quickly. Thankfully, even though this book is a novel, it’s a shorter one in the range—but I still enjoyed it immensely.

About the Book

Caroline and I walked out the back door and went into the barn. “What are we going to do?” Caroline asked.
“Head out on our own. Saddle Whitey, please.”
Caroline’s mouth gaped open. “They’ll find us.”
“I know.”
Caroline sighed. “What can we do then?”
I shook my head. “We can stick together. Always.”

Tragedy stole everything from him…except her…

Three years ago, an illness orphaned Henry and Caroline Sullivan. The harsh years at the orphanage have forged a strong bond between the pair.

But Henry’s about to age out.

He must choose whether to leave his only family behind in relative safety, or take her with him as he pursues dreams of owning a farm. Henry trusts that God has a plan for him, but little does he know that others have plans for him and his younger sister as well. He will need all his faith to find the right path.

Although this is the second book in the series, it can be read as a standalone.

Note from the author: 50% of my income from this series will go to the World Orphans organization.

My Review

I’ve been fascinated by orphan’s stories ever since Mom recorded the Orphan’s Journey Series by Arleta Richardson onto tapes back when I was 5 or 6. I listened to those recordings so many times that I’m sure she got quite tired of hearing her voice over and over, but I loved the books—and still do, although it’s been years since I last listened to it (a great excuse to re-read an old favorite in order to review, I reckon). So I was quite delighted when I found out that this book by Faith Blum was about an orphan. (Seeing as I didn’t even know that much basic info about the story illustrates the fact that I hardly read any description about this book before I requested to review it!)

So, going into a brand new book that I hadn’t read much about was somewhat of a new experience for me right there. I had heard of author Faith Blum before, and looked at her books with the hope that one day I could read them, and I must say…even though this is the second book in the series, and I haven’t read the first book (yet; she kindly gave it to me, though, so that will be remedied soon!), this one was enough to make me want to try other books that she’s written.

I was highly impressed by the story. As far as the plotline goes, I’d consider it average; there wasn’t anything intensely exciting, adventuresome, sad, or even unpredictable about it (although I wouldn’t have predicted some of the things that happened!). In some ways, it was highly predictable—but for some reason, I enjoyed that this time around. To me, this book felt like the kind of story you’d pick up as a cozy read on a chilly winter day or a lazy Sunday afternoon—it didn’t meander pointlessly, but it didn’t just rush from one place to another, either. It had a nice, even flow—so if you’re one for adventurous reads, this probably isn’t for you.

As far as the characters, I think Hope was my favorite. She was cute, had endured a tremendous amount, and yet still dared to love where she felt free to do so. I really enjoyed little Jimmy, too—he was hilarious when he wasn’t being naughty! The main character felt pretty “perfect” (one fact that did annoy me at times), although it wasn’t overt AND it was told in first-person point of view so that is a lot more understandable.

The Christian element to the story was both fairly well-done and annoying. The title song for the book cropped up about 4-6 times, and personally I found that a bit much—almost as if the author was trying to make a point about the title of the novel. Probably not, and it did normally fit the circumstances, but after about the third time I was getting annoyed. As far as the other parts of the story, the faith is talked about at times, but usually in a very normal setting. There was one point where the gospel message was presented to a boy, and it felt somewhat long-winded, but other than that it was fine.

I laughed out loud several times while reading. Thankfully, one of the places is fairly easy to quote; I loved the way she described this:

“Tommy, Edward, and Jeremiah spun around, and I think I saw at least one jaw bounce off the floor.”

In all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It wasn’t super-exciting, but it pulled me in this afternoon (so much so that when I needed to do a job for Mom I had to repeat the instructions about three times to be sure I got it!), and to me that’s a big win there. I also don’t remember noticing any typos or other errors—which is a big pet peeve of mine toward self-published authors! In all, if you’re looking for a cozy, not-too-long historical fiction, this might be a good fit for you.

Thanks, Miss Blum, for giving me a copy of this book to review!

Other Notes

For May 26-31 only, get both books in the Orphans of the West series for just $0.99 each! They are both available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, and more. Buy now: Savior, Like a Shepherd and All the Way My Savior Leads

There’s a giveaway! Go here to enter and also see links to the other blogs participating in this tour. 🙂

Remaining tour stops:

May 30
Frances Hoelsma—Book Spotlight

May 31
Rachel Rossano’s Words—Guest Post: How I Pick Hymns
Written Rest—Review

June 1
Bookish Orchestrations—Giveaway Winner