"Of Men & Angels"

Written by Bodie & Brock Thoene
297 pages
Overall Grade: A

This is the 2nd book in the Galway Chronicles, the first being Only the River Runs Free, which was the last review I did. I wasn't intending to read the 2nd book and do a review so quickly, but the book I was reading before this one was terrible and honestly I couldn't finish it. So after the Christmas festivities ended my mom went to the library and got the rest of the books in the series and we are reading them one after the other. Also be expecting to read the reviews of the other books from the Randy Alcorn series as I got those for Christmas!

This book was just as good as the first! Lots of intrigue, mystery, action, and a little romance sprinkled here and there. The book follows the same characters as before: Joseph, Kate, Mary Elizabeth, Martin, and The Great Liberator. From reading the "About the Authors" and stuff like that I realized that a lot of painstaking research went in to these books and some characters like the Great Liberator were real people. The story takes place during the time in Irish history when they were trying to rule their own lands again instead of being part of English rule. (Basically they wanted to be like Canada with their own government but still a part of the Commonwealth of England).

In the little town of Ballynockanor, Ireland a landlord of Irish descent, Joseph Connor Burke, tries to aide his poor Irish tenants, stand up for the Repeal movement, and gain the love of a young woman named Kate. But the Englishmen don't want the Irish to rule their own land so by any means necessary they will thwart the plans of the Repealers and try to destroy everything that Joseph holds dear.

Most prevalent in this book, to me anyway, was the treachery of those in power who desired to keep the people of Ireland downtrodden and oppressed. Maybe it hit me so hard because of the situation the United States finds itself in today. Where the few power hungry officials ignore the people they are ruling and systematically strip away their rights until they are completely at the mercy of the government. Lord help us. But more important than the schemes of the wicked to ensnare the good was the faith that the characters displayed. I know it is just a book and the characters are fake but their trust in God in the face of dangerous enemies and seemingly unending suffering is enough to make even the most apathetic person want to strive a little harder. It is truly a very inspiring novel.

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." - Benjamin Franklin