Love Comes Calling by Siri Mitchell Book Review

// Love Comes Calling //

 

By Siri Mitchell

 

{Review By Bethany}

 

Source: Review copy from the publisher

Genre: Christian Historical Fiction/Early 1900s

Number of Pages: 360

ISBN: 076421036X

Publisher: Bethany House

Publication Date: March 4th, 2014

Rating: Four out of five stars

 

// Book Synopsis //

 

{Taken from the back cover}

 

"A girl with the best of intentions.
A heart set on Hollywood.
An empty pocketbook.

That's all it takes for Ellis Eton to find herself working as a telephone operator for a look-alike friend. For Ellis, this job will provide not only acting practice but the funds to get her a start in the movies. She's tired of always being a disappointment to her traditional Boston family, and though she can't deny the way he makes her head spin, she knows she's not good enough for Griffin Phillips, either. It's simple: avoid Griff's attentions, work, and get paid. But in typical Ellis fashion, her simple plan spirals out of control when she overhears a menacing phone call...with her very own Griff as the target.

With an endearing heroine as her lead, Siri Mitchell takes readers on a madcap tale
 of love and discovering one's true desires!"
 

// Bethany's Book Review //

 

I've had the pleasure of being able to read several of Siri Mitchell's previous novels including She Walks In Beauty (and absolute favorite novel of mine!), as well as Unrivaled. Being that her writing style is very diverse in time periods and themes, I was excited to see what she did with this new novel based in the early 1920s in Boston. While I did enjoy reading it, I don't think it's a favorite, though I'm glad I did read it. However for sure, She Walks In Beauty takes the cake for being my favorite novel she has written; which quite honestly I don't see changing in the future.

 

This novel was different than I expected it to be in the fact that it was a very fun, light and quick read, that I found very personable and humorous-while at the same time having very serious strains within the pages. I really ended up reading this book with "spare moments". Basically I started it on a day where I had an extra 15 minutes, and then read a bit more a few other times I had a few minutes, and then it seemed like all the sudden I'd finished it without putting lots of time into reading it. I think this was mainly because the story flowed well and the story line was relaxed and not super complex like other stories that take a while to "connect" (no pun intended! :D) in your brain with all the different plots and characters. So in a way, this book was very simple, but also very nice. Since the plot was very simple, it made it easier to read, and also made it a light read, but one I did enjoy.

 

The main character Ellis Eaton's personality was quite honestly a bit difficult for me to "get". I felt like at times I totally related with her clumsiness and difficulty remembering things. I laughed at the situations it brought her into, but also felt a deeply like I could totally relate, being that her character was so real and showed honestly that people make mistakes! However, at other times I felt like her mind may not have been "all there", and I felt like she might almost have a disorder or something of the sort.  Her character is one of very high energy and one of easily forgetting things or loose track of situations. While it wasn't so bad to where I thought she was mental, I did get a feel like there was something not quite right, from ways she would respond verbally to certain situations that reminded me of someone who might have a compulsive disorder. True enough, at the end of the book the author described how she created Ellis's character with ADHD, and I was glad to know that wasn't just a feeling I got, but that the author made the character like that on purpose. So while at times I just loved the "real" situations her compulsive disorder brought, I felt like at other times I didn't quite relate with other bits of her personality.

 

Despite the title which may suggest this novel to be a big romance, it's not. I felt like the title worked perfectly with the story since Ellis fills in for a friend at her telephone job as a "hello girl", where she is constantly connecting and disconnecting calls. I liked how the story mainly focused on Ellis and didn't heavily rely on a romance to make the story interesting. While there was a nice bit of clean romance, I felt like it wasn't overly done, and for sure very clean.

 

The only con I'd mention is that there is a minor-character who is rather immoral, and there was one scene at a bar where she was inappropriately dancing on stage. I'd probably just recommend to skip over that paragraph when it comes, if this is an area you'd rather just avoid. Since it's only one paragraph it makes it easy to just skip over once. There are several scenes at a bar, with people being getting/being drunk, with an over-all not good feeling, and we also learn of the dangerous effects that drinking can give a body, leading to a very good moral to the story.

 

Overall, I enjoyed this novel and loved Ellis's personality and the humorously light style that makes this book easy to read in a short amount of time. I'd highly recommend this book to historical fiction fans, or those who enjoy very unique novels from Christian authors.

 

D I  C L A I M E R :: I received a free copy of Love Comes Calling from the publisher for the sole purpose of this review. I was not paid to write this review, and all thoughts expressed in my review are completely honest and unbiased.