About the Book:
Fourteen year old Olivia Wilkerson is left desolate and
grieving when her patriot father passes away. Directed by his will to be placed
in the care of an old friend, Olivia is forced to venture away from all she’s
ever known to make her new life among people who are strangers to her.
Unaware of the new responsibility about to be thrust on him,
Jonas Carmichael lives the life of a reclusive in an attempt to ignore the
painful memories of the past. His heart has grown hard and bitter over the past
thirty years of solitude, and his hatred towards people has only
multiplied.
Suddenly burdened with Olivia, Jonas’s only burning desire
is to shove the girl off on somebody else. But Olivia, still suffering from her
loss, is only looking for someone to love her as her father did-- and soon
realizes that there is more to Jonas than meets the eye.
With the Revolutionary War pressing closer around Jonas’s
secluded bubble of safety and threatening to burst it at any moment, Jonas
discovers that there are choices to be made--choices that will not only affect
himself but those around him as well.
Book information
Inspirational historical fiction
Trade Paper ISBN: 978-0996993821
$9.99
Ebook coming soon
$3.99
My review:
This young lady connected with me in plenty of time before her release to ask if I'd be interested in helping her promote her new book and possibly review. I really should stop hesitating over DIY author requests, as Ms. Minks proves.
Jonas and Olivia is on the surface a simple story about orphaned hearts healing together through a special faith and unconditional love. There is angst, natural grief and a fair amount of grumping from each of the principal characters as they adjust to their changing lifestyle; for Jonas it's a thirty-year wake-up; for Ishmael, the silent servant, it's a journey of several years, and for Olivia, the catalyst character, it's a mere few days. A lot can happen in a fortnight.
Minks shares the theme of her historical novel well in her summary, so I won't elaborate. The story is told through multiple viewpoints, but primarily through Olivia and Jonas's perspectives. I hadn't reread the summary and mistakenly thought the story might be a romance until I realized Jonas was a contemporary of her father and not a romantic figure despite being portrayed as almost a Heathcliff-type character, but that was my fault. Olivia might be an orphaned teen, but even in grief and fear, her maturity shows others who have more reason to feel alone through choice or circumstances that we are never abandoned. As a historian I also scrambled to fact check a couple of aspects of daily life and was pleased to see that all was very much in order.
For such a young author, Minks has done extremely well, showing an understanding of story and character, an excellent grasp of language, grammar and punctuation with only minor lapses I don't even count on mature writers to display, myself included. Well done. Recommended for those who love daily life in the Revolutionary War era in American history, and for any age reader, probably avid readers preteen and up.
A brief interview with the author
Victoria, what do you love about this book?
I love the characters.
Maybe Jonas the best, but they all have a special place in my heart!
Share two things you learned while writing it.
Well
as far as writing goes, probably that sometimes you need to take a step back
and actually pay attention to your characters, to dig a little deeper. And an
important life lesson I learned: To stay dedicated and focused on what God has
you doing right now, even when you might want to do other things or you get
annoyed with what you're supposed to be working on.
What you hope readers will tell others?
Oh you know, I've
never thought about this! I hope that people who read my book will say "It
seemed so real" or "They're the kind of characters that you can't
soon forget". But that's a lot to ask. ;) I'd be satisfied with a
"I thought it was a pretty nice read" too.
What you're working on next?
I have a few things planned.
The next one to be published will probably be another Revolutionary War
book. It's about a young midwife and involves lots of secrets and twisty
subplots. The theme is how courage comes in many different forms, and how we
must stand for right even if we stand alone.
About the Author:
Victoria Minks is an everyday teenage MK in Japan, with
oodles of daydreams and ideas. She loves historical fiction, chocolate, music,
horses, and old books, and firmly believes that there is whimsy and beauty in
any day. She was saved at age 5 and desires to write for God's glory. visit
www.victoriaminks.com.
