I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tyndale and was under no obligation to post a review. No compensation was received for sharing this review and all opinions are my own.
Series: All For #1
Published by Tyndale House Publishers on January 1st 1970
Source: Tyndale
Genres: Fiction, Historical, Love & Romance, Religious, Romance
Pages: 357
Dorothy Lynn Dunbar has everything she ever wanted: her family, her church, her community, and a budding romance with the young pastor who took over her late father's pulpit. Time spent in the woods, lifting her heart and voice in worship accompanied by her brother's old guitar, makes her life complete . . . and yet she longs for something more.
Spending a few days in St. Louis with her sister's family, Dorothy Lynn discovers a whole new way of life-movies, music, dancing; daring fashions and fancy cars. And a dynamic charismatic evangelist . . . who just happens to be a woman. When Dorothy Lynn is offered a chance to join Aimee Semple McPherson's crusade team, she finds herself confronted with temptations she never dreamed of. Can Dorothy Lynn embrace all the Roaring Twenties has to offer without losing herself in the process?
The short description of this book sounded interesting and I really liked the look of the cover. I know very little about the roaring twenties and I thought that this book would introduce me to a new era in historical fiction. Unfortunately, in my haste to select the book—I did not pay attention to the longer description or I would have realized that I agree with very little of the doctrine in this book. It isn’t that I can’t appreciate or read something I don’t agree with when it comes to religion except that this book came off to be very preachy and pushy about it. Though this story is fiction it does have one “real life” character portrayed in the pages—a female evangelist of the 1920s. Now, I honestly didn’t even realize there were female evangelists in that era, so that was news to me but I honestly didn’t enjoy the portrayal. The main character adored her and it seems the author meant to express her goodness and rather I read into it an arrogance and haughty attitude that made me cringe. I won’t get into the discussion of doctrine but I will say that the majority of the books I read as Christian fiction tends to stay pretty non-denominational and that wasn’t the case with this book, causing me to find fault with it as I felt that it was pushy and entirely too preachy. Yes, I know that I already said that but I just didn’t like it and came to the conclusion that this just wasn’t the book for me.
Aside from the issues that I outlined above—I found this book to be incredibly boring. Though I just finished this book yesterday—I found I had to go back and look at the book because I had already forgotten the main character’s name. Lynnie is the main character in this story, or Dorothy Lynn as her family calls her. The book changes perspective from 107 year old stroke patient, “Lynnie” who has lost her voice as a result of a stroke and 18 year old, “Dorothy Lynn.” Dorothy is the daughter of a small town preacher and is engaged to the young man who has been chosen to take his place. She adores music and it is music that leads her to forsake her fiancé and join the crusade of Sister Aimee. She travels the states and learns some hard lessons about life and love. Honestly, the man she takes up with during her travels is downright slimy feeling and it furthered my distaste for the entire outfit that she fell in with. Sister Aimee felt no better to me—which confuses me as the back of the book seems to indicate that the author thinks highly of this historical figure. I wish I could say something nice about this story but I just wasn’t impressed. I think from now on I will be sure to read the longer description of a story when choosing a book. This one just wasn’t a hit for me
About Allison K. Pittman
Allison Pittman is the author of For Time and Eternity, Stealing Home, the Crossroads of Grace series, and her nonfiction debut, Saturdays With Stella. A high-school English teacher, she serves as director of the theater arts group at her church. She is also the co-president of a dynamic Christian writers group in the San Antonio, Texas area, where she makes her home with her husband and their three boys.
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