A Miracle for St. Cecilia's

Rating:
Summary: Five Plus Stars for this Wonderful Book!!
Review: As a fiction lover and fan of inspirational books such as the Mitford series, I was overjoyed when I heard about the publication of A Miracle for St. Cecilia's. Why? Because in today's world, there is always a need for books emphasizing the theme of Hope - hope in times of despair when it seems that the odds are stacked so staggeringly against us. Katherine Valentine manages to spread the good news that there is good cause to believe in Hope, and she manages to tell a great story while sharing this good news.
Set in the charming but declining mill town of Dorsetville, A Miracle for St. Cecilia's unites a cast of characters who, while engaged in their own personal struggles, come together to fight for a cause close to their hearts. Their beloved Catholic church, the focal point of their spiritual lives and social structure, and a source of financial and emotional support for their decaying community, is about to close. The book brings together an unlikely band of heroes: a dad with a deadly disease, a troubled young computer genious, three aging retirees (one of whom is Jewish, but a good friend to the church), a retired hunting dog, an elderly Irish priest, and the Pastor of St. Cecilia's who has great intentions but just can't seem to pull his parish out of the red ink.
The story moves along nicely and pulls the reader in quickly. I fell in love with the people of Dorsetville and found myself thinking about the many communities across our country who find themselvs facing these same troubling circumstances in their own places of worship.
As a Catholic, I appreciated this book for its attention to doctrinal and liturgical detail. I feel, however, that its message has broader appeal and that it will touch the hearts and souls of many. Katherine Valentine has created a wonderful book here and I look forward to reading the next in what I hope will be a series of books related to these charming characters. Treat yourself to this book, and buy it for a special friend!

Rating:
Summary: Five Plus Stars for this Wonderful Book!!
Review: As a fiction lover and fan of inspirational books such as the Mitford series, I was overjoyed when I heard about the publication of A Miracle for St. Cecilia's. Why? Because in today's world, there is always a need for books emphasizing the theme of Hope - hope in times of despair when it seems that the odds are stacked so staggeringly against us. Katherine Valentine manages to spread the good news that there is good cause to believe in Hope, and she manages to tell a great story while sharing this good news.
Set in the charming but declining mill town of Dorsetville, A Miracle for St. Cecilia's unites a cast of characters who, while engaged in their own personal struggles, come together to fight for a cause close to their hearts. Their beloved Catholic church, the focal point of their spiritual lives and social structure, and a source of financial and emotional support for their decaying community, is about to close. The book brings together an unlikely band of heroes: a dad with a deadly disease, a troubled young computer genious, three aging retirees (one of whom is Jewish, but a good friend to the church), a retired hunting dog, an elderly Irish priest, and the Pastor of St. Cecilia's who has great intentions but just can't seem to pull his parish out of the red ink.
The story moves along nicely and pulls the reader in quickly. I fell in love with the people of Dorsetville and found myself thinking about the many communities across our country who find themselvs facing these same troubling circumstances in their own places of worship.
As a Catholic, I appreciated this book for its attention to doctrinal and liturgical detail. I feel, however, that its message has broader appeal and that it will touch the hearts and souls of many. Katherine Valentine has created a wonderful book here and I look forward to reading the next in what I hope will be a series of books related to these charming characters. Treat yourself to this book, and buy it for a special friend!

Rating:
Summary: Much better than Mitford series
Review: I am at a loss for words. This book is one in a million. It has been compared to Mitford, and that would be accurate! I recommend this book to everyone. Your faith will strengthen and be reaffirmed over and over. This book reminds us, that we are NOT on our time, but the Lord's. Don't hesitate to pick this read up and add it to your library!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding story of faith and hope!
Review: I have to agree with another reviewer that this book is much, much better than the Mitford series. The characters come alive on the pages of this wonderful story of faith and hope in a small New England town. The miracles that happen to several of the parishoners are an added bonus and crackle with spiritual electricity. The author's afterward relating events from her own life blew me away. If you're in need of a little hope or just a boost to a flagging faith, then this book is for you. I plan to buy copies for both of my daughters to read.

Rating:
Summary: A Miracle for St. Cecilia's
Review: If you are a fan of The Mitford Series, I think you will also enjoy A Miracle For St. Cecilia's. Set in a quaint, charming, New England town, you will meet an endearing set of characters, both parishoners at St. Cecilia's, as well as the towns folk of Dorsetville. Leading the parishoners of St. Cecilia's is Father James, who learns that St. Cecilia's doors will be closed due to lack of funds. Heart-broken, Father James is distressed at what will happen to his St. Cecilia's family, who rely on the church and their friendships there, to get through life's struggles.

Katherine Valentine is a gifted writer, though her style is simple, it is wonderfully easy to read, and creates a true warmth and feeling of comfort. Even though it did seem a lot like the Mitford series, it was still creative in the story lines, entertaining and insightful. For those with Christian roots, it provides some strong messages of faith & hope.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Reading
Review: Katherine Valentine sets her first novel in a tiny New England town -- one that seems even smaller than Silver City and certainly more homogeneous. St. Cecilia's church fills a critical role in the lives of many townspeople, even those who aren't Catholic. They face problems ranging from life-threatening (beloved husband Bob Peterson needs a bone marrow transplant to live) to semi-comic (teenager Matthew Metcalf has been suspended from high school after hacking the teacher evaluation files).

Father James Flaherty must announce the Archbishop's decision to close St. Cecilia's on Easter Sunday: the building needs expensive repairs and attendance is dwindling. Flaherty will be transferred, the eighty-two-year-old former pastor will be placed in a far-away nursing, and parishioners will be swallowed up by the five thousand members of a nearby congregation.

The book's title, as well as the delightful primitive-art style cover, give away the ending. We know that the church will be saved or else the loss will be turned to triumph. We know everyone will have a happy ending.

Still Valentine masterfully provides suspense on every page with the one question remaining: How will we achieve a happy ending while maintaining a twentieth century credibility? While the ending does require a couple of coincidences -- plausible, but not likely -- the author's ability to pull together the diverse strands of the story is the real miracle. It's a feel-good story that made me wish Bing Crosby could play the leading role.

In an endnote, Valentine suggests the story was inspired by her own near-death experience and was written to create a miracle in her own life. Therefore, it's understandable that portions of the book (easily skipped by the uninterested reader) offer a hard sell on the Catholic religion that will remind older readers of The Silver Chalice or the final pages of Brideshead Revisited. A few pages, such as Father Flaherty's deathbed discussion, could have been omitted.

Still, this well-written book offers escape entertainment as well as a message that will be welcomed by many who want to go back to the basics. At times I felt as if I had walked into a Norman Rockwell painting, but the lively style and sympathetic characters keep the pages turning. This book will find a place on many Christmas gift lists -- but I'd choose the recipient with care.

Rating:
Summary: Cute story but....
Review: the woman needs an editor who knows basic English grammar and punctuation. I'm not a stickler online, but in a published novel? The three errors on the second page alone were so distracting that I almost gave up.

The young man who's been suspended from school for his computer hi-jinks and his holographic adventures with two older gentlemen are fresh and welcome additions to the salt-of-the-earth-folks-in-a-quaint-small-town genre. I hope that the author rounds out her main characters a bit more in future installments, because they have potential.

Rating:
Summary: Cute story but....
Review: the woman needs an editor who knows basic English grammar and punctuation. I'm not a stickler online, but in a published novel? The three errors on the second page alone were so distracting that I almost gave up.

The young man who's been suspended from school for his computer hi-jinks and his holographic adventures with two older gentlemen are fresh and welcome additions to the salt-of-the-earth-folks-in-a-quaint-small-town genre. I hope that the author rounds out her main characters a bit more in future installments, because they have potential.

Rating:
Summary: Good Read, But .......
Review: This is a good read, but for those who have read the Mitford books it will seem like a blatant rip-off. There are just too many similarities...the small town, the coffee shop, the village carmudgeon, the romance between the senior citizens, finding the lost family members, etc.etc. Personally, I found these "plagiarisms" irritating and they definitely detracted from my enjoyment of the story.
In addition, and more importantly, she misrepresents Catholic doctrine and Catholic rituals several times. For example, the words used in the rite of Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) are not as she represented them. And although to non-Catholics that may seem like nit-picking, orthodox Catholics would see this as a very important point. Without the use of the proper words the sacrament is not valid. For practicing, orthodox Catholics, some of her mistakes are jarring, to say the least. She gets the Hail Mary wrong, for pete's sake!
All in all, a pleasant read, but should be read with the knowledge that it is just a "Catholic-lite" version of the Mitford books, and not completely accurate in its portrayal of Catholicism, at that.