Three and a half stars for this Christian fantasy. Interesting analogous interpretation of what it means to be part of the family of God in the Oneness, although there is no explicit mention of God in the book. But I think that's very much the author's intention.

I have been wavering between three and four stars throughout reading, so settled on the half star. It was enjoyable, but not so gripping that I'm rushing to buy the remaining two books in the trilogy.

This is going to be a DNF for me. 30% into it and I just don’t understand where the author is going with it. Im not enjoying it, just seems all over the place to me and the characters aren’t really developed well so I keep getting confused. Won’t give up on the author, maybe I’ll try another of her books but this series just isn’t enjoyable at the moment.

wasn't quite as cheesy as I thought it would be. I wouldn't really call it Christian fantasy though, more like religious science fiction

The Oneness is a band of humans that demons hate and angels serve. It is not meant to be broken. Just as a body needs each body part, The Oneness needs each member and each member needs The Oneness. When two young men catch a girl in their fishing nets, they do not immediately realize they have accidentally rescued a member of The Oneness. They know only that a young woman suffering from extreme loss has come to their care, and they are determined to help. No one realizes just how difficult it will be to learn what to do with a member severed from what ought to be an unbreakable band.

As with most of Rachel Starr Thomson's books, Exile is unique. An allegory, it blends the world as we know it into a speculative novel exploring the unity, strength, importance, and fallen humanity that comprises the body of Christ. This is not a story for those not willing to "suspend disbelief" in order to enjoy "weird" fiction, but for lovers of speculative fiction (especially readers looking for clean, Christian worldview) Exile will not disappoint.

Good read, I loved it. Interesting concept

3 Stars.

Oh book, you make it so hard to rate you.

Unfortunately I am going to start off with the things that I didn't like about the book first.

First off, when I started this book I was immediately thinking I would end up rating it one star, maybe two at the most. The story was not bad at all, but the writing wasn't that great. In the beginning it was mostly telling and no showing. It was difficult for me to see some of the scenes clearly because of a lack of well developed descriptive writing, and also the fact that it was a little unrealistic. The first page opens up with these two boys fishing, and they find this girl caught in their net. When they haul her on board their little boat, not only is she completely fine aside from being wet, she's not even unconscious or anything, but the boys don't seem to react that oddly to her being completely unharmed. They pull her out of the water, it doesn't even mention disentangling her from the net by the way, and just ask her why she was in the water. She sits up, perfectly fine, and says she jumped off of a far off and high standing cliff.

. . .

She jumped off of a tall cliff into deep stormy waters, gets entangled in a fishing net, and is in cold water for who knows how long and is perfectly okay? That doesn't even make sense. Also, as I said before, the scene was also confusing because Rachel Starr Thomson barely even described the scene. Not how she looked being dragged from the water, not how they had to wrestle the net off of her, or how she could have been half dead or at least badly injured. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I just found myself twitching to re-write that whole first scene, not because I am a better writer than miss Thomson because, lets face it, I probably am not a better writer in the slightest; but I wanted to do it because I could see how I wanted it in my head, and because the way it was actually written was so lacking.

Secondly, I felt that the POV changed hands too many times and it was kind of confusing to bounce back and forth in. It changed so often and between so many people that it made it difficult to gain any deep attachment to any of the characters. There just wasn't enough time spent on each individual character to build a relationship with them. It became a little easier as the book went on, but I still didn't develop a deep love for the characters. I liked them and I enjoyed getting to know them when I could, but there was still so much bouncing around that it made it hard to truly get connected to the characters, at least not until the very end which is kind of almost missing the point.

On the other hand, the story itself was amazing, and is ripe for so much spell binding potential! The concept was really cool and I found myself intrigued as I continued reading. I did enjoy this aspect of the book and I hope that Rachel Starr Thomson executes the idea in more creative depth and detail as the story goes on. I finished the book quickly, though at first it was just to get through it because I have a hard time not finishing a book once I've started, but then that feeling of wanting to get it over with quickly changed into a genuine curiosity as I continued on.

The beginning of this book was a rough ride for sure, but I was really glad that I stuck it through to the end. Thus this awful confliction where I don't know how to rate this. On the one hand, some of the aspects of this book were kind of terrible, but on the other there were many places where I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

So take from this review what you will! I would say it's worth reading and sticking it out to the end, but be forewarned the beginning is a hard ride.

There was nothing inappropriate in this book, and the phrase "damn it" was only used one time. Other than that there was no other swearing and the story was completely clean. A little violence and mentions of suicide and deep rooted grief, but nothing too graphic.

If you pick up this book I hope you enjoy it but... well... good luck!!

P.S. I really respect Rachel Starr Thomson and this review was in no way intended to put her book down or her writing, it was written with kindness and the intent of helpful criticism.

Happy reading!!

A mysterious girl. A dark night. A frantic rescue attempt. When Tyler and Chris are out fishing one night, little did they expect to rescue a girl from drowning. They expected even less that this girl would have such a huge impact on their lives.

Reese has a story. A sadness so great it consumes her. Little did she expect to find the truth about it.

A story filled with good and bad, light and dark, battling each other in a most real way.

I thought this was a fascinating book. It was nothing like I expected. I got it because a friend recommended it and it was free through Kindle.

I am not sure how theologically sound it was, but it was a fascinating portrayal of spiritual warfare, and I loved how they portrayed Christianity as Oneness. I thought it was a beautiful explanation of irrevocably becoming one with other believers.

As far as clean goes, it was about as clean as you get. There were maybe two minor curse words, but that was it other than the intensity of the topic.

My complaint is what I normally say - I wish it had been longer! I would have loved to get to know each of the characters more and watch them interact. I felt like it needed to be flushed out more than it was.

*Spoiler Alert*

I expected Tyler to be the love interest, which I think would have been cute, but I am excited to see where Chris and Reese go.