By Alysa on August 20, 2016 ( Leave a comment )

Courageous

This book by Dina L. Sleiman is the 3rd installment of her Valiant Hearts series. Click here to read my review of book 1: Dauntless. [I have not read book 2: Chivalrous yet.]

Valiant Hearts features strong females in traditionally male roles. Courageous is about a group of men, woman, and children who travel to join the crusades with the mission to free prisoners inspired by a vision young Lady Sapphira had while praying. Rosalind of Ipsworth and Sir Randel Penigree join together to lead, train, and protect the group of children who join the mission. Both of them are haunted by past sins and seek to find redemption by joining the crusades. The group is faced with distractions that could lead their mission off course, battles and encounters with the enemy, sickness and death, and the betrayal of someone who is among their group.

This book has action, suspense, emotion, miracles, and a hint of romance just like Dauntless. The characters are believable and diverse. I recognized a few of the characters from Dauntless and I know several of the characters were also in Chivalrous. Eventually, I plan to go back and read Chivalrous when I have a chance. The author researched the time setting and culture and she explains some of her writing decisions in her historical notes at the end of the book. Although I have not studied the crusades extensively, I feel like the author portrayed a worthy cause for the mission in this book. There are interactions with friendly and enemy people of the Islamic faith. Spoiler Alert: The author addresses the topics of abortion and murder (accidental killing vs. intentional killing for a cause vs. intentional murder). I thought she covered both topics gracefully.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has read the first two books in the series (it could be read without any knowledge of the first books though). I really liked Dauntless but this one fell short for me. It was very slow and hard to catch my attention for the first several chapters. Eventually, towards the middle of the book, it picked up pace and was more engaging. I heard that this is the final book in the series and I feel like it resolved well if that is the case.

In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission I am required to disclose that Bethany House provided this book for free in exchange for my review. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own.

*****

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