Brush of Wings by Karen Kingsbury

This novel is the third in the Angels Walking series and to really enjoy it fully, one should read the previous two.

As with the other novels, Kingsbury highlights the role of angels in the lives of the novel's characters. This story centers on Mary Catherine. She is in need of a heart transplant and it looks like the chances of that happening are slim. Convinced the relationship between her and Marcus should not continue, she spurns his love for her and goes to Africa. The angels take on the task of preserving her life and seeing to it that her future is in line with the future God has planned.

Kingsbury has an interesting way of writing a novel. Even though there were suspenseful times in the story, the action moves along at a consistent pace and the prose is almost soothing rather than anxiety producing. The characters' personalities are well developed as there is quite a bit of contemplation by them recorded.

There were a couple of things I found a bit odd in the novel. One was the lack of description. I had a hard time visualizing people and places. We are in the presence of a newborn at one place in the novel and I kept waiting to find out what it looked like. I read much of what people thought about the baby and its importance to them, but I was left never knowing whether the baby had hair, was bald, the color of its skins, etc. I would have liked a little more physical descriptions of the scenes and people, perhaps at the expense of what characters were thinking about the scenes and the people.

The other concept I thought odd was the dislike of carbohydrates. There was a repeated emphasis on avoiding carbohydrates. In fact, Kingsbury writes, “Carbohydrates caused inflammation, illness, and disease.” I did a little investigation on my own and found that research results are really mixed. While refined carbohydrates cause inflammation, some studies found that fats and protein (especially casein) do too. One study found that high fiber intake actually lowered inflammation markers. With the conclusions so mixed, I wondered why the carbohydrate issue was mentioned so often.

I recommend this novel to readers who like a satisfying Christian romance that highlights the possible involvement of angels in our lives. If you like a high protein, low carb diet, your views will be reinforced too.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Karen Kingsbury is a New York Times bestselling author with more than twenty-five million copies of her books in print. Some of her award winning novels are in the process of being made into movies. She and her family live in Tennessee. You can find out more at http://www.karenkingsbury.com/.

Howard Books, 352 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher for the purpose of an independent and honest review.