Great book

This book kept my on the edge of my seat. Thought it was full of suspense and interesting plot. Highly recommend this book

7 people found this helpful

Christian, but not preachy.

I have loved all of the Moses Lake books. They have great stories and mysteries. Most important, they reflect "normal" faith. I get so sick of Christian fiction where characters are breaking into long-winded Gospel-preaching prayers while they're running for their lives or in the middle of a marriage proposal. Seriously? Lisa Wingate's characters feel like much more normal Christians... forgetting to pray until dire moments when prayer is simple and desperate. Bits of sentences sprinkled about that let you know that faith is definitely an undercurrent, without any efforts at preaching. A renewed understanding by the character at the end of a difficult experience that God is always there, waiting for us to come to Him for help and relationship. Other books leave me cringing and rolling my eyes at the unrealisticness of it. Her books leave me gently convicted of neglecting my relationship with God.

4 people found this helpful

My favorite Lisa Wingate book so far

I've enjoyed all of Lisa Wingate's books, but this one is my favorite. Great story, great narration!

4 people found this helpful

Great story and narrators

This is a great book made even better without any foul language. I definitely recommend it!

2 people found this helpful

Wildwood Creek is wonderful!!

I’ve been enjoying Lisa Wingate audibles, listening to one after another and have decided this one is my favorite!! Definitely recommend it to everyone.

2 people found this helpful

Fabulous

Absolutely wonderful !! The characters, the story , the setting , the relationship between history and present day is so interesting ! Just loved it

1 person found this helpful

Much more Hollywood than Holiness

This was my first book by Lisa Wingate, and it has not inspired me to read another. Nothing happens, really. The set-up goes on and on and on, and just when you think things are going to start happening, they don't, the action just picks up a little momentum, not much. And the problem is, we pretty much already know what happens since the narrative switches back and forth from the past to the present. In both time periods, the romance is a tease, flitting in and out like a butterfly and never really developing in a satisfying way, especially in the present. And if it wasn't for the modern protagonist's grandmother's cute little sayings, some of which touch upon God, there is no religion in the lives of the characters at all. At all. Hollywood and mysterious directors shine here in glorious worldly detail, but Jesus is nowhere to be seen, and certainly never mentioned. It's weird. And boring. The climax is strictly out of a Hollywood TV show, and totally anticlimactic, not to mention trite. Very unsatisfying.

There were two narrators. The one who narrated the scenes in the past did a lovely, if sometimes maddeningly lethargic, job. The modern narrator was okay but annoyingly sing-song and fast, like the character was always on a caffeine rush even when she was tired.

3 people found this helpful

Disappointing

I was really getting into this book at first, but I ended up disappointed. There was so much build-up in the present-day section that didn’t really pay off. I didn’t need to know so much about Allie’s time in the costume department, since it barely ever came up after she was cast. I didn’t really feel like I got a good sense of Allie as a character either. The climax, such that it was, was poorly thought-out. How did Stuart drag Allie into the cave, especially of the opening was so narrow? How did he manage to get into Wildwood if it was supposed to be so well protected? What was the deal with him apparently being from a family of survivalists? I liked the Bonnie Rose parts much better, but I found the conclusion of that storyline unsatisfying as well. I’m supposed to believe that Delavan was murdering all the inhabitants of his town because they wouldn’t join his militia? And what, burying them in that cave, leading to the bones Allie found that were never mentioned again? What about the sex worker who ran screaming through the town? Was he trying to conscript her too? And what happened to Bonnie Rose while she was kidnapped by the Comanche? It implies that she gave birth while she was in captivity, but it’s the opposite of a Chekhov’s gun—the baby is mentioned once, then never again.

Lastly, the book is just so, so preachy, both in the sense that every paragraph seems to contain some platitude about how to live and in the sense that it becomes more overtly religious as it progresses. Apparently Lisa Wingate is a Christian writer, but the book wasn’t marked as such on Audible; if it had been, I wouldn’t have downloaded it. My faith isn’t a theistic one, so I found the Christian elements alienating. Overall, I really can’t recommend this book.

good read

a lovely story. I enjoyed this clean, non-vulgar, intriguing take in 2 different lifetime settings.

Struggled to reconcile the new Wildwood with old..

Took me a while to get into the juxtaposition of the current Wildwood story against the backdrop of the old one but eventually came to appreciate knowing that background. Enjoyed the characters and the story & especially appreciated the final epilogue! Thank you, Lisa Wingate!