A Princess Broken

I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to sit down and review this book. I read it in its entirety a few weeks ago, and I am reading it to the girls, one chapter at a time, but I will honestly tell you, the book is so powerful that I could not sit down and review it immediately after reading. My emotions were fully invested, and I had let it sit for awhile before I could actually begin to think about sharing my viewpoint with anyone else. 

I loved this book so much, and it was such a powerful message.  I have wonderful things to say about the story, the characters and their development. 

Please see note below about this section!
****I do have relatively small things that did bug me, and I’m going to mention those first, just to get them out of the way. 

First of all, I am a freak when it comes to proofreading, spelling, word usage and grammar.  I guess that’s what comes from being an English teacher J.  Here and there, there were a few things that had been missed in the editorial cleanup (i.e. in one place the word “here” was more than likely a typo of the word “her”).  It really isn’t a big deal, and it doesn’t affect the story for most people, I just notice things like that.  And believe me, there are errors in textbooks, New York Times Best Sellers, government documents.  If you’re paying attention they are there, so like I said, very small thing. 

Some of the development itself was a little choppy.  I don’t really want to give a specific example, because it would be a spoiler for those of you who haven’t read the book, but it was an interaction between Kate and Sarah, and kind of what was done with Sarah’s character for a while.

Overall, I absolutely LOVED this book.  I do caution you to read it first, if you are planning to share it with your family.  There are some topics that Sarah and Kate both share that are definitely difficult things to deal with.  I would not let my teenager read this alone at this point, but I am reading it with all of my girls together.  I think it’s important that they understand there are things in the world that can hurt you that they know how important it is to show the love of God to others, and they understand what the Bible says about some of the tough topics in the world today.  This is a great discussion platform that opens up opportunities to deal with things that your family may not normally see, but that your kids may see later as teens or adults.

Misty has skillfully woven all of those pieces into A Princess Broken.   She has written the characters so skillfully that I felt as if I was right there holding their hands.  There are always parts of characters that we can relate to in each book that we read.  That’s one of the reasons that we read them, because we see pieces of ourselves!  Sometimes the pieces we see of ourselves are not pretty, and we have to be reminded that God loves us enough to look past those pieces and see the beautiful creation that he made, His Princess.  A Princess Broken is a beautiful reminder of God’s glory, and his mercy, and the plan that He has for each of us

You can find a Princess Broken here:
http://mistygatlin.com/a-princess-broken/

or here:
http://www.amazon.com/A-Princess-Broken-Misty-Gatlin/dp/1470053500/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335295465&sr=8-1.

****Notes to add
-The proofreading errors that I found were corrected before the book officially went to print, so that "thing that bugged me" is gone!

-Also, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that even though I did not like the particular interaction that I said was choppy, if it wasn't there, it would have changed the story.  If Kate had done what I wanted her to do at that moment in time, the rest of the story would not have been able to play out the way it did, and it wouldn't have been as good.   

I hope that my original review did not keep anyone away from the book.  I loved this book beyond words, because I believe that each of us has at least a little bit of Sarah or Kate, times when we’ve felt unloved, unwanted, unworthy.  I think it has a lot of great messages and is a wonderful, wonderful story.  I don’t want to detract from the power and the beauty of the story itself.

Thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoy this book as much as my family has!

 

 

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The interaction that I had trouble with was the transition from sitting in Kate’s house, to her being at the hospital with her dad.  I know it was important for her to go to her dad, there’s no question there.  I felt like Sarah kind of got brushed off.  I know Kate tried to make sure she had a safe place to go, but she then just kind of left her.  I figured she’d just take her with her!  Although, after thinking about it, even though I didn’t like that interaction, I don’t think it could have gone any other way, because the end of the story wouldn’t have been able to play out as it did. 

-Sonja