God in a God-Forsaken Land by Gene R. Stark {Book Review}

~ Description 

"I had never wondered before if I would see another summer. Yet on that day the question crossed my mind." The frontier town of Alexandria, Minnesota in 1874 attracted immigrants longing for land and freedom. Yet the newcomers to this wild, beautiful, and dangerous landscape needed the stability, love, and peace found in the Word of Life.

Pastor August Hertwig, called to this ministry and dropped from a stagecoach into a stunning, yet hostile place, faced isolation, severe weather, and plagues of locusts as he struggled to bring the permanence of Church and Faith to settlers striving to carve out a life in this new land. God led him to the love of his life in the strong, determined Elizabeth and together, in faith, they forged a powerful ministry based on the eternal Word and manifested in vibrant Christian congregations.

Pastor Hertwig tells his own story of immigration which takes him from his childhood Germany to the very "ends of the earth." Traveling on foot and by horse, his ministry covered several counties where he started sixteen congregations, many of which still exist today.

~ My Rating 

2.5 stars

~ My Review 

DNF at 49 pages in—25%. 

I'm literally bored to death. I've been "trying" to read this for over a month, because it's a review book and I feel guilty for giving up on books when there's nothing wrong with it content-wise, but I'm done. Life is too short to read books that are "bad," boring, or just plain ol' bleh. 

A story of a missionary in the midwest in the 1800s. Sounded interesting enough when I nabbed a review copy (mostly for the cover, if we're going to be honest here), but it just...lacked? 

The telling-not-showing writing style grated on my nerves. Like, the main character falls into a raging river in the middle of a snowstorm in Nowheresville, Minnesota, yet as the reader, I felt absolutely none of his fear or panic. (Not to mention, I already didn't really care if he lived or died. I'm just sayin'.) 

And another thing. At one-quarter of the way through, I was still confused on the beliefs and doctrine of the main character. He just decides he'll be a preacher and goes to seminary because it seemed like a good idea when someone suggested it...? Yeah, okay. 

All that to say... If you enjoy based-on-a-true-story missionary books, you may enjoy this one. :)

2/2.5 stars, rounding up to 3 stars to give the remainder of the book the benefit of the doubt. 

**I received a review copy of this book from BookCrash and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.**