This is the third volume in the Sierra Jensen series. As always, I'll have a separate review for each of the three books.
Book #7: Open Your Heart
Book Synopsis:
What an adventure! Having Christy Miller invite Sierra on an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe was amazing—but that was just the beginning. Sierra never imagined she’d meet someone like Alex, a dark-eyed Russian college student who’s a Christian. Or that they’d all come face-to-face with disaster. Through it all, one question haunts Sierra: can she learn to love others without expecting anything in return? Will she finally be able to open her heart to others—and to God?
My Review:
5/5 stars. I really enjoyed this book. I liked that Christy was a central character. Because she was a central character, there were a bunch of callbacks to the Christy series as Christy was telling Sierra stories from her past. I also loved the European setting. The books that take place away from Sierra's home have always been enjoyable, and it's even better when it's somewhere in Europe, like this one. Switzerland is not I country I ever really want to visit, but I liked reading about the landscape of it in this book.
Some of the conflict early on about Alex between Marti and the girls kind of annoyed me. I feel like both parties were wrong in some ways. Sierra and Christy shouldn't always be so trusting of people they just met, but Marti shouldn't assume that everyone is not to be trusted and that all men are bad. It seemed like the book was making the girls the ones in the right, but it was hard to tell because they were both kind of wrong.
This book introduces Alex, a character who seems like he won't serve any purpose in later books. The relationship between Sierra and Alex made me realize a general irk I have with the whole series - the insta-love trope. First it was Paul, and now it's Alex. Anytime Sierra has a huge crush on someone, it's immediate. There's no development from just friendship into romantic feelings. She sees someone and is immediately in love with them. I had this complaint a little bit when Christy first met Todd in her series, but that had a lot of development throughout the series. With Sierra, it seems like her crushes are instantaneous and it's unrealistic.
A specific part of the book I really liked was the conversation between Sierra and Christy about how standards can be different for people as long as you're not sinning. Some people can kiss lightly without it tempting them into more, while other people wouldn't have that control so they don't kiss until marriage. In the last book, with Doug and Tracy's wedding, it seemed like Sierra had decided to not kiss until her wedding. I felt like that didn't need to be the case for everyone, so I'm glad Christy gave Sierra something to think about.
A quote I loved from the end of this book is "It's not enough to have all the right answers and obey all the rules. If I don't have love, I'm nothing." It's a good way of articulating that you should do the right things in life, but you should do them joyfully and lovingly. It also kind of relates to the two most important commandments summarized: love God, love people.
There wasn't much action in this book until the train ticket fiasco at the end. I loved the idea of God causing "bad" things to happen to protect people. It seemed like a bad situation for Marti to lose her train ticket, but it ultimately kept them safe from harm. I think this a really realistic way that people can see God working in real life, so I loved that it was in this book.
One other thing I didn't really like about this book is the contradicting views about way bad things happen if there's a God. Early on, Christy said it was the consequences of our sin, but that's kind of similar to the idea of karma, which is not biblical. Later on, this view is challenged when they see all the kids at the orphanage who didn't deserve to be in their situation. There was never really a definitive answer given.
Book #8: Time Will Tell
Book Synopsis:
Sierra’s senior year of high school is here, but after the great summer she just had, how can it be anything but a letdown? Sure enough, the year tanks big-time when the school issues her buddy Randy an ultimatum. Stuck in the middle—Sierra wonders, what’s right? Her friend or the rules? She longs to talk it over with Amy, but Sierra’s best friend still isn’t talking to her. What’s worse, she hasn’t heard a word from Paul! No doubt about it, this school year is totally frustrating! Will Sierra ever understand her friendships or God’s plans for them?
My Review:
4.5/5 stars. I liked this one, but it didn't quite feel like a five-star book. First of all, the description of the book is slightly misleading again. When it says "the school gives Randy an ultimatum" it makes it sound like it's some big dramatic thing that he did wrong, The whole problem is just that Randy's hair is too long, which is not really dramatic at all.
Speaking of that Randy-school board hair conflict, that part was a little annoying. On the one hand, it's a weird school rule and I understand why some students were making it a big deal, but on the other hand, I like what the book was saying about respecting authority and having unity among the student body. I don't know why, but that plot annoyed me a little bit.
One plot point I really liked was Tawni discovering her birth mother and reaching out to her. That's a very real thing that people who are adopted could go through. I like that this plot was never resolved, at least in this book. It never had a happy conclusion where Tawni's birth mother responds and they share a nice moment. Instead, it was left open-ended with Tawni feeling happy that she said what she wanted to, even without a response.
There's not much action in this book, but it's not boring. It feels very realistic and slice-of-life after Sierra being in Europe last book. Little moments like Sierra and Vicki mowing lawns or Sierra serving coffee to people at work were lighthearted and simple. If a standalone book was like this, it would probably be boring, but since I'm 8 books into the series and I've grown attached to all the characters, it's nice to read about their everyday lives.
At the end of the book, there was a tiny bit of Sierra getting a heart for missions when she thought about all the people in other countries who have never had access to the Bible. I love that. That's a very true, sad reality and I wonder if that will come into play more in the last few books as Sierra is graduating and moving on with her life.
Book 9: Now Picture This
Book Synopsis:
Why can’t everyone just leave Sierra alone? All she wants to do is find a place to read the letter she just received from Paul—to soak in every word and memorize the photo he sent her—but Thanksgiving at the Jensen house means relatives everywhere! Sierra hides out, immersed in her ideas for Paul’s birthday and Christmas gifts, especially his requested gift: a photo of her. Sierra’s determined—the photo has to be spectacular! But a small voice of doubt nags at her. What does God think of her ignoring her family and friends this way? Is her picture-perfect relationship with Paul really all she thinks it is?'
My review:
3.5-3.75/5 stars. This was another one of the less enjoyable books in the series. There were some things that I liked, but I was mostly just annoyed the whole time I was reading this book.
One thing I really liked was the large family dynamic on Thanksgiving. Having that many people over - trying to find sleeping space to occupy them all, everyone bumping into each other while they get food, the general crowd and noise of the house - felt very realistic and fun to read about.
This book takes place around the holidays, which lines up with real life for me, so I liked the Christmas-y vibe of the book. There wasn't too much of a focus on Christmas - besides Sierra thinking of presents for Paul - but it was still nice.
On the topic of Paul, that whole plot - the main plot of this book - is what annoyed me. Sierra writes letters to Paul way more often than he writes to her, and she's always daydreaming about him.
First of all, Sierra's feelings for Paul felt very inconsistent to the previous books. A few books ago, when Paul moved to Scotland, Sierra was over having a romance with him and knew she was just meant to keep praying for him. She kind of reverted to that by the end of this book, but there wasn't really an explanation for why she was suddenly in love with him again after seemingly being over him.
Secondly, Sierra was SO irritating with the way she was obsessing over Paul. Anytime she had the thought of "I'm sure he misses me and thinks about me just as much as I do" or "he wrote me that beautiful poetry, it must be true love" - even to the point of considering Paul to be her boyfriend, when they only write letters and he hasn't indicated anything like that to her - made me want to scream at Sierra for being so oblivious. Keep in mind that Paul is THREE YEARS OLDER than Sierra. He's a 20-year old college student and Sierra hasn't even graduated yet. I like Sierra as a character, but this book was not her best look.
One of the bigger subplots of this book is Tawni learning more about her birth mother and possibly going to a specific college just to meet her. It turns out that her birth mother is also a Christian. This feels way too coincidental and perfect. I've said this before in some of my Christy Miller reviews, but having certain characters just be like "well, what do you know, I'm Christian too!" is kind of unrealistic. It kind of takes away some of the drama or conflict by making every important character be a Christian.
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