Beneath the Bending Skies by author Jane Kirkpatrick is Christian romantic historical fiction. The author tells the story of Molly Sheehan and had me captivated. I was fascinated with all of the tidbits of information about daily life in the 1860s.

Molly was a fascinating lady. It was easy to become invested in her and her story. She was a hard worker and took care of her family. The story became emotional when she fell in love with Peter.

The inspirational message was rather light to suit this reader. It’s there, but it is not very strong. The life lessons are more prevalent.

Kirkpatrick has a nice style of writing. The story is easy to follow, she tucks in a few twists, and her characters are believable. I found the dialog and descriptions to be authentic. It is obvious she did her research well.

I highly recommend this page turner. It was hard for me to put down. Reader groups will enjoy this fabulous novel. It gets a 5 star rating from me. I received a copy from Net Galley, and these are my honest words.

This is one of the dullest books I've ever read. I did read it all the way through hoping it would get better, but it just didn't. Jane Kirkpatrick takes about real people and creates a narrative novel about their lives. Mollie Sheehan Ronan's story reads like a daily diary without much emotion or thought.

Mollie narrates the story beginning when she's about fourteen through most of her adulthood. She moves around a lot with her father, stepmother, and half-sister, runs an "establishment" (eatery) with her stepmother in several of their locations until they ultimately moved to California. While they were living in Montana, Mollie meets and falls in love with Peter Ronan, but her father refuses to accept their love and holds the "Honor your father and mother" over Mollie's head so that she can't marry him. It takes four years before he gives permission, but not his blessing. Finally Peter comes to California to collect Mollie as his bride.

There were characters Jane introduced but didn't really give a good resolution to their disappearance in the account of the story. Granted they weren't characters that would be universally liked, but their passing through the book was just a blip and gone.

Jane has set up the book to where a sequel could be written about Lizzie Custer, who's life and attitudes would be more interesting, in my opinion.

I will give this two stars because there are parts to be liked, Mollie is a likable character and the friends she makes on the reservation are truly special. They are the redeeming features of the book.

Most of Jane's books are based on historical characters and I can find no fault in her research of them. Some of her books are more interesting than others because of the characters she bases them on. This review is solely my OPINION and that just means this wasn't the book for me.

Revell Publishing provided the copy I read for this review. The opinions expressed are totally my own.