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This has been a long time in coming. It’s been three and a half years since I bought Violette Between by Alison Strobel. I wanted so much to like it but I started reading, got a few chapters in, and wham, bang, The Christian Message hit me. On top of it, I felt that particular chapter ending lacked conflict or a hook to keep me turning the page. I put it down and never picked it up again.
Maybe if I had known it was a Christian novel when I bought it, I wouldn’t have become irritated with the first Christian Message I came to. And this is where I will insert my usual mantra that I believe in a Creator, a Higher Power, a Source of All Things; it’s organized religion that I have issues with, and even a New Age church is organized.
When I put Violette Between down (such a great title), I admitted it might have been the mood I was in at the time, and promised to give it another try at some point in the future. The future finally came. And I liked it a lot. I even cried more than twice. I think that’s a record for me. I had just suffered yet another loss (my beloved kitty, Yoda), so I may be a little over-emotionally wrought, but I think I would like it anyway.
I will say that when I picked it up again, I wanted to stop in the exact same place. I have never been one to “just skip that part,” because I have to continue skimming to find where it picks up again anyway, so it’s either put it down, or go ahead and read until I get there. This time I forged ahead, and the very next chapter picked up the pace and captured my attention again.
Violette Between is not just about the Christian faith, it’s also about loss, grief, and rejoining the human race, which is why I was attracted to it in the first place. Both main characters, Violette and Christian, have lost a spouse to death at young ages, thus they begin with an empathy with each other. It’s been six years for Christian, who is moving on and ready to form a new bond. But it’s only been about two years for Violette, and she’s still holding on. When she takes a spill from a ladder, she falls deeply into a coma, where most of the backstory unfolds.
Whenever reading small books like this one, I always wish the secondary characters could be fleshed out a bit more, but understand why that can’t be.There is one place in the book where the author described the afterlife, and I thought she knows. Yes, indeedy, it’s just like that.
Maybe if I had known it was a Christian novel when I bought it, I wouldn’t have become irritated with the first Christian Message I came to. And this is where I will insert my usual mantra that I believe in a Creator, a Higher Power, a Source of All Things; it’s organized religion that I have issues with, and even a New Age church is organized.
When I put Violette Between down (such a great title), I admitted it might have been the mood I was in at the time, and promised to give it another try at some point in the future. The future finally came. And I liked it a lot. I even cried more than twice. I think that’s a record for me. I had just suffered yet another loss (my beloved kitty, Yoda), so I may be a little over-emotionally wrought, but I think I would like it anyway.
I will say that when I picked it up again, I wanted to stop in the exact same place. I have never been one to “just skip that part,” because I have to continue skimming to find where it picks up again anyway, so it’s either put it down, or go ahead and read until I get there. This time I forged ahead, and the very next chapter picked up the pace and captured my attention again.
Violette Between is not just about the Christian faith, it’s also about loss, grief, and rejoining the human race, which is why I was attracted to it in the first place. Both main characters, Violette and Christian, have lost a spouse to death at young ages, thus they begin with an empathy with each other. It’s been six years for Christian, who is moving on and ready to form a new bond. But it’s only been about two years for Violette, and she’s still holding on. When she takes a spill from a ladder, she falls deeply into a coma, where most of the backstory unfolds.
Whenever reading small books like this one, I always wish the secondary characters could be fleshed out a bit more, but understand why that can’t be.There is one place in the book where the author described the afterlife, and I thought she knows. Yes, indeedy, it’s just like that.
I would give Violette three and a half bookmarks. It’s small and a little too easy to read, but the story is good.
