Cover Image: Across the Blue

Across the Blue

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Member Reviews

Across The Blue was so much better than I expected. It was full of romance, knowledge, and forgiveness. Once I started reading I needed more and was sad when I came to the end because there wasn’t more. It was one of those books that makes you wish it were a series so you could read more about the characters. This book was so well written and flowed so well. It had the perfect amount of time with each character. I was happy to see that Martha and the Professor ended up together. Also, Bella and James. I was happy that Bella’s father sold two of his newspaper companies so he could take better care of his health and rest. Everything about the characters ended perfectly.

“This book was provided to me by NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and have not been compensated for this. All opinions are my own.”

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“Across the Blue” spans a fascinating event in history: the race to create an airplane capable of flying across the English Channel. The historical tidbits regarding this event (as well as cameos of real people in this time) were very interesting. I enjoyed a glimpse into the creation of early airplanes (or aeroplanes).

Both James and Bella were Christians, prayed, and sought to trust God despite the circumstances that dashed their hopes. It was consistent through the entire book, but I didn’t find it to be a point in which the characters grew.

The romance was sweet—I didn’t find it to be passionate or wrapped around physical attraction, which I appreciate. They did basically go behind her parents’ backs, as if it was more important to follow their love than to honor her parents (when they really hadn’t talked much about it actually to her parents).

I’ll admit I had a difficult time with this book. It just kind of fell flat to me. The characters didn’t seem very consistent and I had a hard time feeling their emotions or sympathizing with them. The writing read a little stilted to me. I’d say it was just my reading mood, except I’ve been reading other books alongside this one and haven’t had the same issue with those. However, I realize others might not have the same preference with writing style as me, so I’m not knocking my rating down for it.

*I received this book from NetGalley and happily provided my honest review*

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As in all her historical novels, the characters grow in faith as she makes a spiritual element essential to the story. There was much excitement with the plane building and air races it was hard not to catch the wind of excitement. The romance aspect left me swooning long after the last plane landed.
This book was given to me by Netgally and publisher. The review reflects my honest reflection.

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Looks and books can be deceiving sometimes. I wouldn't consider myself a aviation fan but this book changed my thoughts about the topic of aviation. This book is a great read. Of course, it is. I've never read any Carrie Turansky books that wasn't a great and enjoyable read. I loved the way she wove together aviation, mystery, suspense and romance. Things I really liked was Bella's courage to seek her dreams and not fall into what others expected from her. James and his determination to fly over the English Channel is great encouragement to reach for your dreams regardless of the obstacles. The Professor and Martha are the ideal neighbors and I hope they move to my neighborhood soon. I enjoyed the mystery that James is out to solve concerning his parents and the way he finds the answer hits when you least expect it. A MUST READ!!!
Blessings,
Karen Rating: 5* I received this book as a gift and all opinions are my own.

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WHY I CHOOSE THIS BOOK

I don’t think I even read the back cover copy to this book. I’ve just heard about it in the on-line bookish community and it sounded interesting and clean, so I thought I’d give it a go.

WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT THIS BOOK

*Slight Spoilers in the Cons Section*

Three Pros:
-The aviation aspect of the book was truly fascinating. It felt very well researched and I learned a lot without feeling like I was being pounded over the head with information. It’s amazing to think of how recently air-travel was something people only dreamed of. How in the world did we get from trying to fly across the English Channel to landing on the moon in such a short amount of time?
-Even though we didn’t get quite as much detail about the newspaper side in the book, that was still interesting to me. The glimpses we saw in the newspaper office, as well as watching Isabella’s emerging journalistic dreams was pretty cool.
-The pace of the book and writing style were both well-done and kept my interest most of the time.

Three Cons (With Slight Spoilers, so read at your own risk):
-It wasn’t really insta-love, but it was far too close to that for my enjoyment. Isabella has a secret she can’t tell anyone, and she feels guilty and like she’s betraying James not to tell him. She doesn’t owe James anything at this point, so even though feeling slightly bad makes sense, the amount of guilt she felt over it made me feel like she’d formed an emotional attachment to him way too fast.
-That said secret was cajoled out of her by someone else far too easily, and then she didn’t respond the way I hoped she would have.
-James’ family secret, and how it all ended kinda annoyed me, but that’s probably not the case for most people…

CONCLUSION

There were aspects of this book that I actually enjoyed far more than I had thought I would. The relationship was kinda meh in my opinion, but it was clean, so that’s a plus.

After reading this book I’d be open to reading more of Carrie Turansky’s books in the future.

RATING

I’m giving Across the Blue three out of five stars and am thankful for NetGalley giving me an e-copy so I could review it for y’all.

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I enjoyed another historical tale from Carrie. Very well written but a little slow. I learned some things about aviation and liked the sweet romance between James and Bella. I liked Bella from the start. I loved her take charge attitude even though sometimes she didn't feel like it.
I loved Jame's determination to do what he wanted to do and was able to accomplish it.
I'm sorry but the anticipation just wasn't there and I was unable to finish the book.

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I enjoyed this whole novel that is set in 1909 Edwardian England.

Throughout the pages, you will find light romance, faith, and adventure. It's a story that kept me turning pages.

The storyline, character development, and research put into this novel were excellent. This is another great book by Carrie Turansky.

I highly recommend this book to others who enjoy this time period. As this novel has light romance, it is suitable for young adult to older adult readers.

A special Thank You to NetGalley, Author, and Publisher for a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

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I've heard of Carrie Turansky for EVER, and I've even met her in person once, but I never read a book of hers until just now! And I lOVED it!

I'm so interested in the early 1900s, leading through about WWII, and while there's a lot of books about the latter half of that period, there are a lot fewer about before then. This book is about when airplanes were just starting to become a thing, and it's so awesome!

Bella is the daughter to a well-off businessman, and is supposed to court and marry rich, but what she really wants to do is write for her father's newspaper, although her parents don't want her to. James is an aviator with a broken past who desperately wants to be the first to fly across the English Channel. Both of them want to do things that seem impossible for them to do, and neither of them will stop until they reach it.

This book is so clean and so historical, and I loved it! In addition, there was just so much good faith content, and overall it was just a really really good book!! I enjoyed it so much!

My Ranking-
7/10

Thank you to the publisher, Multnomah Publishing, for providing me with a complimentary e-copy of this book via NetGalley to me; I was not required to write a positive review.

This review first appeared on: https://losingthebusyness.wordpress.com/2018/02/19/book-review-across-the-blue-by-carrie-turansky/

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Across the Blue had quite a different scenario to many books I've read. Early on in the book, Carrie Turansky drops in the historical topic of the Wright Brothers. This immediately grabbed my attention. The story further weaves around the progress of pioneering flights inclusive of some of the difficulties they came across.
Amidst this, she very aptly includes the life of Isabella Grayson, an adventurous young lady, daring to break the social norms of the day and James Drake who had a very intriguing start to his life.

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I enjoyed this book, but I must admit it got pretty long-winded toward the end. It was an interesting look at the beginning of flight, and the characters were interesting. It was just a tad longer than it needed to be.

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I was very fortunate to receive an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was looking into a present for my grandfather, who loves historical romances, and this one was competing with 3 other books. The competition was solved within one chapter. This book was so amazing, I phoned the book store and ordered the Dutch translation, and I continued to read.

Across the Blue has a competition, too! ;) It’s around 1909 and the Daily Herald has offered a huge price to the first airplane that crosses the Channel. James Drake is definitely competing. And handsome, brave, honest and cute. I’m not the only one who thinks so, Isabella thinks it too when they first meet after a tiny airplane crash. It’s quite the introduction! But Bella has set her mind on other things than making a suitable match, she wants to become a reporter like her father (whom actually owns the Daily Herald) and is willing to sacrifice a lot to get to her goal.

I absolutely loved this book. The main characters were so well written, their dreams and hopes and flaws, and how they grow throughout the book - and the secundary characters were also very real and distinct! I loved the professor! In previous books of Carrie Turansky, this has been an issue for me, that secundary characters fell a bit flat, but this book is quite the opposite! The story was extremely compelling, there were many twists and there was another mystery to solve besides the Channel crossing, which makes the book very intriguiging. I couldn’t put it down. I’m not very fond of mechanical stuff like airplanes, but this book gave me such an appreciation for the aviators, it’s so amazing and brave that they actually dare to go into this weird covered fabric flying machines with often faulty motors and just do it. It was amazing to read about it! And even though I paid attention to my history lessons so I already knew who won this race, it was still very much fun to read. I absolutely loved it!

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Set in 1909, Across The Blue by Carrie Turansky has at it’s centre the first flight across the English Channel. Attempting this amazing feat, James Drake encounters Isabella Grayson, daughter of the Daily Mail newspaper’s owner and aspiring journalist. Both Christian, they rely on God’s guidance and support as they strive towards their dreams. Sharing this journey draws them close but several obstacles come up to prevent their relationship and reaching their goals. The book tracks their progress and development of their faith. The story has all it should to be interesting and it’s well-written with developed characters but, for me, the descriptions were too detailed and the progress too slow, I like a faster pace and slightly less intricate prose. It’s a three out for five.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from WaterBrook and Multnomah through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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This was a nice book. I totally called one thing, but other things I did not expect. I'll elaborate in the hidden sections.

I'm reading more in this period of history, but it's still fairly new to me. Carrie did a good job of not putting too much flying and airplane jargon in the story, while still giving Bella what she needed for her articles.

So, what I called was James' mother being Laura Markingham. I kind of thought that was the angle that would get him "worthy" for Bella, but it turned out to be his dad. I wondered about the man at the top of the cliff, but didn't expect the explanation it had. What I didn't expect was for James to lose both competitions. I guess he had to lose the Channel because of historical accuracy, but I really thought he'd win the other one then. It's kind of unique for a story to have the "hero" fail at two things

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Across The Blue Starts off with "For great is YOUR love; higher than the Heavens, YOUR faithfulness reaches to the skies. Bie exalted, O GOD above the Heavens and let YOUR glory be over all the Earth." Psalms 108:4-5 now how was that for starting off the book in the dedication page? The book a Spiritual - Faithful and trusting in the LORD and HIS direction. It is also about dreams coming to fruition. It is also about secrets which is a shame because nothing good comes of secret and is about money( Social standing as well) This is a wonderful book - full of wonder.

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My Thoughts

Personal Rating: 4.37               Star Rating: 4/5

"Across the Blue" was the first book I've read by the award winning author, Carrie Turansky.  The book cover captured my attention and the story didn't disappoint my expectations.  "Across the Blue" was set in the early 1900's and focused on aviation developers, especially those who competed in a contest.   A newspaper, The Daily Mail offered one thousand pounds to the first group of developers to design a plane and fly it across the English Channel.  This aspect was fascinating and based on historical events.

Bella Grayson, daughter of the owner of The Daily Mail, wants to be a journalist at a time when women were expected to be successful only at socializing, marrying well, keeping house and child rearing.  When Bella witnesses James Drake crash land his plane on their property, Bella's interest in the pilot and his aviation attempts strengthens her goal of becoming a  journalist. This is a difficult thing to accomplish seeing that her mother is against it and wants her to marry a socially acceptable man.

Carrie Turansky did an excellent job incorporating faith. Even though the romance seemed to be instant love, the progression of the story showed that the characters respected their parents, elders and each other. They continued to pursue their own interests while waiting for God's timing and approval from parents. There were plenty of  other positive character developments as choices had to be made and a mystery needed solved.

History, romance, mystery, familial relationships and competitions all worked well in "Across the Blue".  There wasn't a dull moment to be read and the interest level remained high throughout my reading experience. I highly recommend this book for an individual read or a book club choice.  Questions are included at the end of the book for additional discussion.  I'm pleased to say that I'm so glad I chose this book because I've added a new author to my "Want to Read More From This Author" List.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from WaterBrook & Multnomah through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Title: Across the Blue
Author: Carrie Turansky
Publisher: WaterBrook & Multnomah
Published: February 2018
Reading Format: Kindle Ebook

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Award-winning author Carrie Turansky pens a new historical romance set in Edwardian England featuring aviation pioneer and a young woman who longs to be a journalist.

In Across the Blue, Isabella Grayson, daughter of a wealthy British newspaper owner, grows up with her parents’ expectations of a suitable marriage, but she has career aspirations of her own — to follow in her father’s footsteps in the newspaper business. She begins to secretly write letters to the editor for her father’s paper, and her desire continues to grow.

Meanwhile, American aviator James Drake is trying enter and win a race across the English Channel sponsored by Isabella’s father. Success would enable him to build airplanes and a reputation. When they meet, it will take all their faith to reach their dreams.

Turansky excels in rich characterization and descriptive narrative, with a clearly evident presence of faith without being preachy. Her characters struggle with doing the right thing even when it is hard, and following God’s plan for their lives.

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https://medium.com/@michellereneekidwell_95261/book-review-across-the-blue-872c91971aaa?source=linkShare-fc43cf21e946-1521549588

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This is the story of James Drake and Isabella Grayson. James is an early aviation pioneer trying to win the race to be the first to fly across the English Channel. Isabella is not a typical girl for this time in history. She wants more than a home and marriage. She wants to be a journalist and write articles about all the aviation pioneers. She makes a bet with her parents-if they let her write a series of articles for her father's newspaper she will get married in a years time. This is how she meets James and becomes involved in his aviation career.
I like to read stories about early aviation, and this story was one of the best. Even though James was a fictional character, this story is based on real aviation pioneers. This story involved so many things I like to read-history, romance and even a little mystery thrown in. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

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I seldom call a book enthralling, but this book earned that title. Set in a timeframe that I enjoy, Edwardian Egland, Turansky takes us on a riveting tale of bravery, adventure, and so much more. The messages in this book are worked into in a very natural way and the focus on forgiveness and letting go, and opening up to what God has in store for you wasn't lost on me. From the scenery to Belle's search for the right husband in her third season, I didn't want this book to end. I loved the aviation, something I became fond of because of my own spouse. This is a fantastic read.

My copy came from Celebrate Lit. This review is my own, filled with my thoughts and opinions. I leave this review of my own free choosing.

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Across the Blue by Carrie Turansky is a novel set in Edwardian England. This is the first book that I have read by this author and I look forward to reading many more after this one. The author has an amazing ability to bring a historical setting alive and this book will make you marvel at airplane travel like you were really experiencing it for the first time. This book is set in the time when the Wright brothers were introducing the world to air travel. In particular, this book highlights the race to be the first person to cross the English Channel by plane. I highly recommend this book! I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher. These opinions are entirely my own.

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