Ellenvale Gold is currently being featured on the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance. Information about the author and more details about the book can be found here.
Ellenvale Gold is an enjoyable story, set during the gold rush days in Victoria. The story revolves around the developing romantic relationship between two unlikely people. Amanda Deed does a great job in creating a believable characters and a realistic context.
Penelope Worthington, the main character, faces a number of trials trying to run a property after her father’s death – the most dangerous of these being a flood and her dubious neighbours. She is offered help from an ex-convict which severely challenges her principles. Through these incidents Penelope finds faith but doubts also plague her as she faces difficult choices.
One of the reasons I enjoyed this book is because Amanda has handled the Christian aspects of this story particularly well. Through the characters we are given insights into some of the less obvious issues confronting some people when they convert to Christianity. Prejudices and preconceived ideas can cause some to stumble in their faith and it was interesting to see this fleshed out in the story.
A good read.
Thanks to Even Before Publishing for providing a free book for review.
