I am not Catholic, but a Catholic friend of mine said that I needed to learn about Padre Pio. When I saw this offered on NetGalley, I hit request so I could do as my friend suggested.

Now, please note that this star rating is for the book only, and not a reflection of Padre Pio. He would be an easy five stars. An amazing, humble man, who exemplified Christ in all he said and did. He brought many sinners to the Lord and was a blessing to many. There is no denying that.

This book however, jumped around a lot and wasn't very clear in much of what it was trying to say. For example, his young life was barely touched upon and in one scene where his father blamed him for a miracle, the father started to hit him, but there was no clear reasoning as to why he was responsible for the miracle or why his father thought he was.

Also, the Catholic Church wanted to move Padre Pio from one location to another and the people of the town revolted. Like, were ready to get violent. It was described as causing Padre Pio much emotional pain, yet specifics weren't really delved into. It was very general and kind of confusing the way it was written.

I'm not sure if the disconnect was caused by it really being written that jumpily, or if quite a bit was lost in the translation.

With that being said, I am glad that I read this book and learned a little about Padre Pio, but I feel as if I barely scratched the surface of who he was and is and what makes him so special. I do want to learn more, but am disappointed that I didn't learn it from this book.

3, wish it had been expanded on more and made more sense, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Franciscan Media Servant for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.