Maria

Torture not assuaged

Revisado: 07-14-25

This isn't so much a romance as a torturous, loud, dated satire of the society at the time. I endured it believing the romance, barely rising above or focused on the dominating satirical torture, would justify what I was suffering. Wrong. The end tanked big time. I admire the lucid depths of emotions and of and Godly virtues. But, in the end, I was forced to endure the worst of the characters, and none of the true love and fulfillment which never flowered. Honestly, I cannot recommend this novel, unless you want to be frustrated to death.

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Why isn't this a Classic?

Revisado: 05-28-24

I have listened to several earlier works by this author, and for the most part I enjoyed them. This story is one of her earlier novels and it is positively great, REALLY great! I'm usually more eloquent in my reviews, but all I can say is that this is one of the most engrossing, well written and wonderful novels I have read. I'm 63 and have been reading since I was a kid.

I have enjoyed several of the Author's much later books, but they can't compare to the power of this earlier work. I'm very glad Audible has a few more possible gems from early in her career I can look forward to listening to.

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Where was Mary?

Revisado: 05-02-24

As many reviewers have already attested, it is impossible to stop reading/listening to this book. When you love Jesus and you're with Him along with the author, it's the best dream ever coming true. I had just read (and also narrated the audio version) a book about the Viking Saint Olaf, who just before he was killed in battle had a dream in which he ascended to Jesus in Heaven who called his faithful Viking, "Beloved." So when Jesus addresses Randy Kay in this way it rang true, because King Olaf was about to die in the final battle that made Norway a Christian nation. For days I couldn't wait for lunch hour so I could keep listening to Heaven Stormed.

BUT there was a rather large fly in this bracing sacred wine which were the ongoing imperfections in the narration. At first, I was more than willing to tolerate and indulge them, but it became increasingly difficult for me to be patient when the author very naturally but way too often becoming so emotional that it interfered with being able to clearly hear what he was saying. I had to raise the volume and still I often couldn't quite make out what Christ was saying, which after a few days of listening became barely tolerable. I can fully understand why the author would want to narrate the book himself, but I wish he had hired a producer, which would have helped immeasurably. I also feel the author should have pressed pause when emotion overwhelmed his ability to speak clearly.

I personally became a bit lost trying to picture the frequent long and detailed descriptions of the pyrotechnics of heaven. The description of God's throne was especially difficult for me to picture and experience, but then I was not in the spirit as the author was. But he had been with Jesus and listening to his account I was also with Jesus, and that was grand enough. Yet as I drew near the end, I abruptly wondered where Mary was. And once the question entered my mind, I couldn't for the life of me stop wondering where our Lady was in the heaven Randy Kay had experienced.

There were so many sights and scenes in this glorious heaven populated by Angels and souls who, while they lived, truly loved Jesus. And near the end of this NDE we're given a tour of a majestic temple where all are invited for the feast, even the Holy Angels. But no mention was made of Christ's mother or his carpenter father, Joseph. They were noticeably absent from every heavenly location filled with people and events described therein. Of all the human beings who have lived on earth, Mary was uniquely blessed for God conceived Himself in her body and was born into human flesh through her. You would think our Lady would be SOMEWHERE in Heaven. But the NDE ended and Mary, Queen of the Holy Angels (who carried her into Heaven because she did not die like all other mortals) was somewhere in Heaven Randy Kay was not taken to visit. Perhaps because he's a Protestant and that wouldn't have resonated with him for some reason? But for me the complete absence of our Lady, the Mother of God, was a thorn in the proverbial paw of the spiritual pleasure and edification I received listening to this book.

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Dreary in every sense

Revisado: 09-19-23

The writing is completely flat, manufacturing a story with one-dimensional characters that are all lifeless opinionated stereotypes, including the heroine even though she's supposedly somehow "superior" to everyone because she daydreams of a blue castle full of suitors who covet her beauty and fascination, not a drop of which is evident in her actual personality in the real world. I felt imprisoned from the start, but kept listening because it was LM Montgomery, you know, and the reviews were glowing, But I didn't get very far before I simply couldn't stand it anymore.

The narrator is one of my favorites when she reads Grace Livingston Hill, but no one could redeem this dismal "story" which felt more like being trapped in the author's mind, who uses the heroine to promote her world view, which is decidedly not Christian. In her own words: "So far, my creed is the old Persian creed of the eternal conflict between Ahrimanes and Ormuzd." Whatever. As far as this book goes, IMO it's NOT good.

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Enthralling

Revisado: 08-31-23

It's amazing what a warm-hearted lucid spirit and excellent writer can accomplish. Having thoroughly enjoyed "The Virginian" I had been searching for another Western I could truly enjoy. I read a handful of other authors and was ready to give up on the genre, then I discovered Alan Le May. The narrator is fabulous. All the positive reviews are justified. But what I personally wanted to say is that the last line of this story is the BEST I have ever experienced. Because I DID experience it,not just listen to it. It is my favorite ending of any novel I have ever read/listened to. I was absolutely satisfied in the deepest sense.

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Awful ending

Revisado: 05-31-23

I enjoyed this book in some ways, especially because it's intelligently written, with characters that really seem to feel and think, so that I care about the romance. And yet overall the story was not as gripping and believable as I had initially felt and hoped it would be. It soon began to drag a bit, and It didn't help that the hero had a most unmanly voice. The narrator overall did okay with the other male voices, but the hero deserved far far better. The heroine was also oddly two-dimensional, and her behaviour toward the book's end was simply unbelievable (to me anyway) except as a means to an end. And the climax of the story was simply AWFUL. I honestly can't recall a worse ending to a novel ever. It would have been laughable if it hadn't been SO disappointing as to feel like a joke, dark humor from the author deliberately making fun of the whole business and the reader's romantic expectations. I'm not inclined to try another D.E. Stevenson any time soon.

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Made me laugh cry think

Revisado: 04-29-23

Ann Hancock is in my top three of favorite female narrators. Her male voices are excellent, which a lot more than I can say for the majority of female narrators. She's also totally convincing as a precocious child. I LIVED this story which felt totally real to me. Certainly the emotions, experiences, issues and heartaches are as real as can be. I seriously wish I had been given this book to read when I was a teenager.

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shallow and biased

Revisado: 04-24-23

This great woman and ruler was neither a feminist or a Catholic fanatic. The POV of this very short bio is hopelessly contemporary. Feminism and political correctness is threaded through very dry facts, which completely fail to capture the intensity of the personalities and events, The narrator doesn't help; amateurish reading lacking all luster. Truly underwhelming audiobook. And Columbus is barely a footnote at the end.

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Hauntingly great

Revisado: 04-11-23

I finished listening to, LIVING this audio book yesterday, and it's going to be a long time before I stop waking up in the middle of the night, and first things in the morning, repeating in my mind the dark-haired heroine's plaintive cry, "London? London?!" David Case (aka Frederick Harrison) doesn't simply read books he PERFORMS them and I, at least, FEEL every emotion the main character experience. I was ready to weep toward the climax praying everything (the most important thing in life) would work out as I fervently hoped in the end. The characters didn't feel like made-up people to me they were all written so real and, sublime icing on the audio book cake, splendidly brought to life by the narrator. IMO they don't write great sweeping and true-to-the-facts (no nauseating revisionist history) historical novels these days, and one that is also a totally engaging romance,

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Magnificent

Revisado: 03-04-23

Great books like this are sadly not written very often anymore really. And I never would have read it if my mother hadn't once told me that "The 39 Steps" was a great Hitchcock movie. So when I found the book on Audible performed by one of my favorite narrators, I listened to it. I was surprised and very impressed by the quality of the writing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So I kept on reading the series, which gets better and better.

To categorize these books as spy thrillers doesn't do them justice; they are literary history and as deep as they are engaging. In an increasingly materialistic world, the God & eternity-centered POV - openly and very naturally expressed by characters that live and breathe - is refreshing in the extreme. The beginning was a bit slow but the story swiftly gets better and better and the end is fantastic.

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