Book Review The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest

The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest is a Christian medieval fairy tale by Melanie Dickerson. This author has written quite a few Christian medieval fairy tale stories, all with girl main characters. So I thought, I have to check these out.

Odette Menkels is a sweet rich girl who lives with her uncle. She has privileges that others do not, such as learning to read and write, and in particular, learning from the Bible.

She loves hunting, and she has a heart for the poor... having once been in that state herself. She often teaches the poor children their letters. Yes she is a young woman with a good heart. Misguided somewhat, but her intentions were in the right place.

In other words... in order to feed the poor, she sneaks out at night and poaches the king's deer! She feels it's the only way she can feed the poor.

Just to complicate matters, Jorgen Hartman, the margrave's forester, is becoming attracted to her at all the parties they meet at... and he just happens to be doing his best to track down the poacher. Little does he know!

To make matters worse, Odette discovers that her uncle (who was suppose to be helping her) has been taking the meat she poaches, and is selling it for a profit! It's not going to the poor at all!

And so the plot thickens!

There were many things though that disappointed me greatly about this book and the author.

Out of all the reviews I only saw one mother who gave a 1 star rating... I should have listened to that one voice. All others praised this author and her books.

Sigh!

Here's my pet peeve. This is a Christian book, and yet there was a lot of dancing in it. (I know, I know, not everyone would see that as wrong). And then there was one very described kiss.
These are books for our teenage daughters! What kind of example are we setting?
My pet peeve with Christian books for youth and young adults is the sensual content that is put in there to appeal to the audience. With all the junk our kids get from elsewhere, must we put it in Christian books?  If this causes readers minds do go down paths they should not be going down, we are causing fellow Christians to stumble. And that is a sin.

So I give this book 1 star.
It did not meet my hopes or expectations.
I want books that really encourage my kids to live for the Lord and uphold to high standards.

The one good thing about the story, was Odette sees her mistake in poaching, and is willing to make things right. This occurs are she strives to truly follow the Lord.


S.L. Kliever