Forged In The Fire by Ann Turnbull

2 stars

I...really didn't like this book. First off, I accidentally put this on my queue of books to read at the public library. I was actually keeping it there to remind myself to check out the first book in the trilogy (this is the second). Somehow, it got put in my stash of books so I read it anyway.

Historically speaking, it's ok. The characters are young Quakers who are persecuted in the 17th century. The second book starts off in the middle of a courtship carried on through the letters of Susanna and Will, having only seen each other twice. Will was imprisoned in the first book and was just getting out when this book starts up. He heads off to London to find work, which he finds, but he also finds the bubonic plague and he himself gets thrown in jail and gets sick with ague.

Susanna and Will seem to have a Romeo-Juliet romance going on. His father is against their romance and all Quakers to boot, Susanna is far away from London, Will loses his job, plague kills 100,000+ people, etc. Susanna comes to London, and after a brief misunderstanding, they ahem, 'rekindle' their romance, and sleep together.

As a Christian, this is appalling and exactly why I don't like going into the Teen section of either the Library or Barnes and Nobles. Why do authors feel the need to put this in books? Do they want kids to have sex thrown in their face every which way they turn?

I'm not saying it never happened. Two young Quakers barely in their twenties, in love and anxious to be married, alone in his room, sure, it could have happened. But must our daughters know about it? Is there nothing sacred?

The topics this book brings up are persecuted church of the Quakers, the plague, the great fire of London, and unrequited love.

Writing: 3 out of 5
Morals: 2.5 out of 5
Plot: 3 out of 5

From a Christian's view point, this book is a pass.

More Catherine Cookson

I've seen a gagillion movies recently, all waiting to hear my personal opinion of them. Since it's more than one movie, I'll try and condense the plot where I can.

The Dwelling Place

This one started out interesting. Parents die, their seven children are forced out on their own. Find cave, build 'dwelling' around cave, children go off to work, and the handsome young man in town is in love with main girl, Cissie. There's a catch; handsome young man is dirt poor. So he marries the mill owners daughter, inherits the mill to make money to send to Cissie and the children and then hires some of Cissie's brothers. Another catch, Cissie gets raped by rich young man while his evil sister eggs him on. In front of Cissie's youngest brother.

Yeah. It gets a bit weirder...

Fast forward a bit: Rapist is sent to sea, Cissie becomes pregnant and has a son but ends up giving him to the rapist's family. Fast forward a bit more: Rapist comes back from the sea, finds he has a son and does everything in his power to restore the baby to Cissie. Cissie gets her son back (evil sister is shot somewhere in there), but when the now four-year old boy says 'I don't like you' to Cissie, she immediately returns him to the Rapist's family where he can be with people he likes.

AND THEN. Rapist goes to the Dwelling Place to ask Cissie why she gave him back. Then asks if she ever loved the handsome Mill guy from the begining. Then asks if she could ever love him. At which point my eyebrows skyrocketed ('?!...but you raped her...?!') into my hairline. There are just some things that should never happen, like any kind of contact with the man who raped you, unless you're testifying against him in court. So then, marriage?! Can you imagine what they'd say to people who asked how they met? 'Oh well one day I was walking with my sister and I saw this girl and raped her in front of her little brother. She gave birth, my father bought the baby from her, and when I tried to give the baby back to her, my sister tried to take him back again. So I shot her. It was magical.'

2 Stars

Wingless Bird

This one was kind of iffy. It's probably one of those book to movie transitions that didn't work out very well but still got the point across. Girl has hard parents and works in their shops. Father has affairs with other women. Mother is a bitter hag (no seriously, I'm not being mean). Sister is in love and pregnant. Father dies, Sister marries father of baby, Mother becomes more human, and Girl falls in love with rich boy she meets in shop. Boy gets pneumonia and stays in Girls house. He never fully recovers, they get married, he is still sickly and eventually dies. Then comes the slightly weird part. The Boy has an older brother who goes into the war (WWI) and half his face is burned off. Turns out he's in love with Girl as well, but doesn't say anything until after the Boy dies.
Then there's a law about not marrying brother's widows or something, so they don't get married. All of a sudden you see a photograph of the two of them, much older and several children around them outside a church and you can hear the two of them laughing about living together, having kids and getting married twenty (thirty perhaps?) years later. Credits roll. The end. VERY unexpected ending.

3 stars

Glass Virgin

Really didn't care for this. I've heard a lot about it, but I found it pretty boring. If the lead had been different, I might have liked it more. Emily Blunt's early years seem to be pretty lackluster (to me anyway). The man she falls in love with is played by Laura's father in Lark Rise to Candleford, and is still way older than Blunt's character.

2 stars

Round Tower

Remember Georgiana Darcy from P&P 95? She plays the main girl Vanessa. Remember Sir Timothy from Lark Rise to Candleford? He plays Angus. This one starts out really weird.
To make a long story short, Vanessa is not loved by her parents. She seeks consolation and someone to chat with and finds a friend in their neighbor, Brett, who is the same age, if not older than, her father. So...one thing leads to another, and Vanessa is pregnant. With Brett's baby.

Another eyebrow-skyrocketing moment? You betcha.

Brett goes on trip, Vanessa's parents are upset when they find out she's pregnant and map out a plan of how to get rid of the baby without anyone knowing, uncaring whether Vanessa wants the baby or no. Brett comes back from trip, Vanessa tells him she's carrying his baby, and he hangs himself. Vanessa runs away, and Angus, who has always liked her, finds her and convinces her to marry him. The rest of the movie is all about their ups and downs as a married couple, and ends ok. However, the begining makes it hard for me to recommend to anyone.

2 stars