Book Review: The Invitation

First book on my summer reading list - done! 

The Invitation is the first book in the Mustard Seed Trilogy by Nancy Moser. I'd read her historical novels (which were excellent!) and when I saw this at Goodwill I thought I might as well fork over the 89 cents to see if she could make up her own characters.

Turns out she can. But she can't name them. I'll address that later.

Synopsis: Julia, Walter, Kathy, and Natalie: four ordinary people with little in common. Until each of them receives a small, white invitation from an anonymous sender. It reads: "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed...Nothing will be impossible for you. Please come to Haven, Nebraska." At first, they all resist. But amazing circumstances convince them that they should heed the call and go to Haven. In this re-release of The Invitation, Nancy Moser crafts a captivating story of everyday people who come to realize that even a small faith, combined with a heart led by God, can change the world.

Plot: The Invitation is almost a creepy book to read. I can't reveal too much about what it contains because it'll give away the plot, but I couldn't help but feel that I wasn't welcome in Haven. I don't know how Mrs. Moser wrote this book because the characters aren't very friendly. They have witty conversations, their problems are believable, the aches and pains of their hearts hit the right spots, but they aren't the kinds of people you'd ever want to meet in real life. 

But, we're talking about the plot. 

The actual story twists and turns and runs and drags. It doesn't find a happy medium in which to sit. It's very, very Christian and the theology is exceptionally sound and solid, but it falls into the slightly tacky category by the end. 

I can't say that I truly loved this book or read it in one sitting or that it will have a prominent place on my bookshelf, but it was good and interesting and provided thought-provoking points on many subjects. 

The idea of getting mysterious invitations to a place no one has ever heard of is intriguing and, since it's not the kind of topic I would ever choose to write about, I wasn't sitting there the whole time wondering why the author did this and why they did that and recreating a new book in my head. Mrs. Moser handles her topics well and has a very fun and witty writing style. I found myself smiling over some of the repartee and there's a very funny description of waiting-room reading material. Her writing is excellent (as it should be, since she teaches it), but I would say that she could have been a little more careful with infusing her characters with heart and her plot with life.

Characters: We'll start with my favorites and work our way down:

Natalie: I mainly liked her because she was a writer and I love reading about characters who write. Her struggles lined up the most with mine and I also liked her outspoken loyalty and spunk.

Julia: I like strong, female protagonists who aren't overbearing and who use their leadership abilities in a graceful way. Julia was like that and so she gets second place. Her part of the story was the most interesting and I found her conversation - like her - to be cultured and interesting. She was also the most Christian character, so she didn't spend as much time with her mentor (rather nice, when you get bombarded with mentors with every other character)

Walter: He's the guy everyone loves to hate. He's obnoxiously egotistical, annoyingly proud, and absolutely uncaring of other people - most of the time.

I found his transformation interesting and I got a kick out of getting angry at him for being such a jerk. He's also caustic, cynical and sarcastic. Definitely well-drawn, if not exactly welcoming.

Kathy: If you have a name like Kathleen, why would you go by Kathy? Was one of my first impressions of this woman. I didn't like her as well as Julia and Natalie (as obvious by the fact that she's down at the bottom of the list...) because she wasn't very stubborn or outspoken, but she definitely had her moments - and her story was interesting. I thought she was a little too soft with her obvious jerk of a husband, but her fire came out on the issue of abortion. 

Del: I thought he was the tackiest character. He had this hanging-back sort of attitude that I couldn't stand and he was always just a little on the annoying side. I didn't identify with him, so that was probably the root problem of the last-place issue. He did have an amazing interesting backstory, so he was worth sticking with to the bitter end. 

As for the other characters, I found Art pretty tolerable - though his dialogue irked me at times - and I wasn't a big fan of the mentors at times. They got on my nerves and provided some long - and occasionally dull - conversations. John especially got on my nerves. Especially towards the end. 

Likes: I loved the sarcastic senses of humor. LOVED them. This book is full of witty comebacks and verbal feuds. It's worth reading for that point alone. 

The solid Christian basis and real-to-life struggles. 

The fact that one of the characters was a writer! 

Dislikes: The character names. One or two were all right, but I thought that they were bland names for the characters and (aside from Julia and a few others) I felt they struck the wrong tone. They just didn't fit the people who walked around with them.

There was some modern vernacular tossed in. *shudder* It's one of my biggest pet peeves in a book.

The unwelcoming atmosphere. 

The rather strange occurrences that bordered on tacky.   

Conclusion: The Invitation is worth at least a one-time read. I don't regret the time I spend reading it, but I'm not exactly going to go rushing off to read the second one (even if my summer reading list allowed it). The characters can sit and wait for a while before I visit them again. It definitely could have been better, but for what it is, it isn't bad. 

  

Till next time!