Katharine's Reviews > Candle in the Darkness

** spoiler alert ** The first book in this trilogy about the Civil War is definitely the weakest. It follows a daughter of the South who struggles to fight against slavery, having learned from her Christian faith to realize that racism is wrong. This could be the setup for an interesting story, as she is torn between her own family and loved ones fighting for the South, and her convictions. But instead, the story stays watery and bland, never gripping the emotions. Caroline, the heroine, seems like a cardboard prop -- she doesn't have enough personality to be very sympathetic and all the things that happen to her fail to move the emotions. Her slaves seem like caricatures, unfortunately, especially the wise, patient, and faithful Eli, who has no apparent flaws and does not in fact appear to be human at all.

The romance also annoyed me because of the fact that it seems to endorse the idea of "soulmates" plus a slight edge of missionary dating, as Charles is finally converted to anti-slavery by Caroline's beauty and faith. Hmmph. I thought Robert a much worthier candidate for Caroline's affections, but because of the whole soulmates thing he never gets a real chance.

This is still much better written than most Christian romance fiction, although there are some historical inaccuracies. However, I'd still recommend skipping this first novel and reading the second two of the series, which have a lot more depth.