A Distant Melody: My Review

Distant Melody, A: A Novel (Wings of Glory) is a Christian romance, written by Sarah Sundin, set during WWII.  It features Allie, the daughter of wealthy parents, but a young woman who, despite her college education, has never been able to please her mother.  Allie is engaged to marry Baxter, the manager of her father's business.  Her parents love him, but she doesn't, and realizes he doesn't love her either.  Allie goes to spend a week with a college friend who is getting married.  While there, she meets Walt, an Army pilot.  Sparks fly, but in the end each decides not to keep in touch with the other.  Luckily, that decision doesn't last long.  Through their letters they get to about each other and about themselves.

As Christian romances go, I'd put this in the moderate category.  It isn't just a basic clean romance that happens to be about Christians.  On the other hand, it isn't one of those where the story is nothing more than a carrier for a message.  It is about very real, very human characters with very real, human flaws, but the religious aspects of the story are front and center.  Walt reads Bible verses to his crew before every mission.  He is the son of a preacher, the only one of three boys who didn't go into the  ministry.  However, he has one character flaw that he just can't seem to beat. One change Allie decides to make in her life after that wedding week is to change churches because St. Timothy's, where her parents attend, has no life.  There is much made of Christians not being yoked to unbelievers.  I took exception to one passage where Allie asked her new church friends what they were giving up for Lent, and they said "nothing" and pointed out that life has enough sacrifices, and that when we choose the sacrifices to offer to God, we may be choosing not to do His will.  While I'm not saying that isn't true in some cases, the small self-chosen sacrifices made during Lent are spiritually strengthening.

Still, it was a good story with a happy ending, but not one too good to be true.  This is the first in a series; I'd like to read the rest.

To learn more about the author, Sarah Sundin, see her website.

I'd like to thank Donna Hausler at Baker Publishing Group for sending me a review copy of the book

“Available March 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”