Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn

When I was reading the Praying for your Future Husband book earlier this month, I kept coming across references and quotes from the Christy Miller series that the author had also written. Snippets from Christy's journal, letters and prayers to her future husband, etc. I kept thinking, I am going to have to read those books. I love books for teens that model good morals and staying pure and other characteristics that I would like to see in my kids. So, on July 13, I downloaded the first volume of three books in the series. My intention was to preview the books for my girls and to review each book for the publisher so that I could up my number of book reviews on the Blogging for Books site. Um, didn't quite happen that way. I finished the first book quickly and thought of some thing things I could say in my review, but really did not want to take the time then, I needed to know MORE! There were two more books to read on my Kindle! I would review later. :-) Um, I have now read all 12 books in the original series and the three books in the "Christy and Todd: The College Years" series. Yeah. That is 15 books in 12 days! They are good! I love these books!

I am a romantic at heart. I love a good love story and I love a good happy ending. I needed to get to the happy ending! This series chronicles the up and down "forever friendship"/romance of Christy and Todd and their forever relationship with the Lord. As they grow, mature, and follow God's path for their life there are lots of questions and twists and turns. I raced through the first series in hopes that it would turn out "right!". :-) It did, but it didn't end. It was a great happy ending, but it stopped too soon. Apparently many other readers over the years felt the same way and begged for more, so the final three books were added. Phew! And, thankfully, readers continued to beg for more info on the other characters introduced in the series, so the author also wrote the Sierra Jenson and Katie Weldon series, the latter of which I have already started.

I love that the characters in these books are so real. Though they are Christians, they struggle with their human and Godly relationships. They must ask God again for direction and forgiveness for lack of trust and for jumping ahead of them. But, they do the right things. You can live a Godly life and still not always be trusting Him fully for everything. I love that they recognize that and continually seek to grow closer to God and trust him more for their earthly relationships. One of the things I really liked about this series was that Todd was not perfect. I love Lori Wicks books. As I said, I love a good Christian romance with good examples. But her heroes are almost too perfect. They always know the right thing to say and do. Todd is human. :-) He can be a jerk, say stupid stuff and be a completely dense male. :-) But he loves God and he honors Him in his relationships. These books show that guys can do the right thing, they can save themselves for marriage, keep their relationships pure and holy and be a servant of God, and yet it is not so unrealistic in making Todd never mess up. I don't think kids will relate to someone who does everything right. And Christy and Todd both mess up plenty!

Though written well before the Praying for Your Husband book, they are like a wonderful illustration of the principles outlined in that book and in so many other books I have read on the subject of purity. Many examples of keeping pure, how to set guidelines to protect themselves from "going too far" and also what happens when you don't guard your heart and your body from going too far. What happens when you give away little pieces of your heart before you should. Different characters live by different standards, so I can see people relating to different people. I like that. It shows how to approach the same goal in different ways. I just think it is a fun way to make real all those things we are trying to teach our children.

I also love the little illustrations that the characters use to explain God's truths. The gospel is shared and God's love and truths are shared over and over through out the series and in wonderful ways that really help people see what it means to become a child of God.

One thing that does bother me about the books, and this is a common complaint from me when reading a series. Continuity. I don't know if it was a matter of so much time taking place between writing the books and just forgetting what was said before, or if it was a matter of over time the author wanted to see things from a different angle, make a different point. But there were many times when I said "what?" that's not how it happened. Or "don't' you remember when?". But, as an (wannabe) author who has struggled with needing to deal with something I already wrote not lining up with what I want to write now, I can see how that happens. Sometimes you just need to change course, and unlike my books, where I have the option still to rewrite, her books are already in our hands. Also, when you read a series of books as they are written you might forget too. But, when you read all 15 books in less than 2 weeks, you remember all those little details. :-)

I may still try to go back and review each book individually, to bring up all the points I liked/disliked about each one, but for now, let's just say I love these books and they will become a part of my daughters' library!