Review by Kaylee123 -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon

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Kaylee Elmer
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Review by Kaylee123 -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon

Post by Kaylee Elmer »

[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon is a magical story of legend and family. The main story revolves around Tom and Sarah. Sarah is a troubled young girl who is dropped off without warning at her biological grandfather, Tom’s house. Tom didn’t know she existed until that night, but he lets her stay with him. Tom had been planning on going on a hiking trip with his Native American friend William and his daughter Myra to return an artifact to Tom’s grandfather’s grave. They decide to take Sarah with them instead of canceling the trip. While they are hiking, Sarah goes missing and mysteriously reappears. They later return to try to find the artifact Sarah lost while she was missing. While in the woods, they come across people from the Buckhorn Corporation who want to start mining in the area and have a confrontation.

The secondary story in the book centers around a vision Sarah has while she is missing. She describes a journey she goes on after being taken by a group looking for wives to take back to their home. They spend most of their time on a canoe but stop on islands occasionally. Along the way, they deal with many challenges, including wild animals, death, injury, leadership struggles, and running out of food. It sounds like a dream, but it was very real to Sarah.

What I liked most about the book was the debate between science and legend and how long people have lived in North America. Myra firmly believes in the legends of her people. Sergei, a scientist William knows, firmly believes in facts and data. They have heated discussions that really made me think. Can everything be proven with data? How do we know things just haven’t been discovered yet?

What I disliked most about the book was the part of the book that focussed on Sarah’s vision. It was very unrealistic and seemed to drag on forever. I think it would have been more interesting if it wasn’t so long. There was also a gory part where a character’s head gets ripped off. It seemed unnecessary. It could have been told without being so graphic.

I would give Strong Heart 3 out of 4 stars. I couldn’t give it a 4 because I was bored for a good portion of the book. I wouldn’t give it a 2 though because I enjoyed the main characters and wanted to find out what happened to them.

I would recommend Strong Heart to people who like reading about legend and can suspend belief when reading a story. People who don’t like unrealistic stories may not want to read it.

Strong Heart is well written, and I didn’t notice any errors. It is a very interesting story that makes you think. If you read it and want to read more about the characters you should definitely read the next book in the series, Adrift. I enjoyed that book even more than Strong Heart.

******
Strong Heart
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Kibet Hillary
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Post by Kibet Hillary »

Thanks much for this enthralling review. This was one of the books I enjoyed reading and I have not forgotten about Sarah's experiences. Nice to see your thoughts on the book.
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Post by Letora »

What an awkward way to meet your granddaughter. That makes for some good writing though! I can just imagine the conflicts and resolutions that had to happen. Doesn't seem like my kind of read though. Thank you for reviewing!
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Post by YL_Eytka »

Thank you for the review. I really love Sheldon's Adrift so I was curious to see what strong heart was like, its still seems like a strong book, despite the fact it can be boring.
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Mai Tran
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Post by Mai Tran »

Thanks for the review. I've been wondering about this book ever since I review its sequence. It sounds like the author likes to include at least one shocking factor in his books because Adrift has a gory scene as well (yikes).
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Kaylee Elmer
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Post by Kaylee Elmer »

YL_Eytka wrote: 16 Jun 2019, 10:07 Thank you for the review. I really love Sheldon's Adrift so I was curious to see what strong heart was like, its still seems like a strong book, despite the fact it can be boring.
It's definitely worth reading, even though it wasn't as good as Adrift in my opinion.
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Post by kdstrack »

I enjoyed your comments on the debate between science and legend. Sarah's vision/dream did take up a large part of the book. This is an interesting synopsis of the book. Great job!
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Post by cornelia_SD »

Wow, after reading Adrift, it's nice to read a review about the first book. This is a very comprehensive review. Thank you so much.
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Post by Maria_Kubicova »

Thanks for the review. It looks like an interesting story.
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