Fine Print (Meddlin' Madeline, #3)

by Chautona Havig

[phyllish]

Chautona Havig’s books are about relationships. Relationships between people and relationships with God. While they are never what I would consider preachy, each one tends to highlight an aspect of the Christian life in a new way, or maybe at least in a way that makes me think.

Russell from Fine Print is my favorite character. I have a feeling that he would have been my favorite in the previous books from the series, had I read them. His relationship with God is so natural and he seems so comfortable with who he is and so steady. His love for God and for God’s word is so real. I really appreciated the advice that he gave to Madeline regarding reading the Bible and truly appreciating it and falling in love with it. I am really looking forward to reading more about him.

While the overall tone of the book is not overtly humorous, the author injected several things that made me chuckle. Characters wishing for things that are yet to be invented (like auto-correct for letter writing) may have made me snicker, even though snickering is quite unlady-like, as I learned.

This story is jam-packed with history. Not as much about events as it is about technology, mindset, and dress. I really enjoyed being inspired to think about things that I hadn’t before from the time. One example is when they were riding in the cab, at night, in the snow, and Madeline was so chilled from the ride that they had to take care that she didn’t get sick from exposure. In all my years of my reading and watching old movies, I’ve always assumed carriages were plenty warm, but why would they be? Hmm. Another example was their amazement at being in Edward’s mansion when they had the lights blazing there. The miracle of technology that the circuits were not overloaded is something we wouldn’t even consider today.

Without giving any spoilers, there was a twist (related to the newspaper article) at the end that felt either unfinished or unclear. I have not decided whether that was intentional or not. Knowing this author’s work, though, I am guessing it is an unfinished detail that will be resolved later in the series.

This is the first of the Meddlin’ Madeline series that I have read. I do want to go back and read the others, especially now. Though this book stands alone, I think the reading would have been enhanced by knowing some of the details from the previous books.

This review was originally posted on Among the Reads Visit the post for a guest post from the author

I would like to thank Celebrate Lit for giving me this item. My opinion and review were not influenced by this gift.