Julie C. Gilbert

Like the author, I am a multi-genre author; however, these days, my writing concentration is that of being Christian. In addition to this, I’m a Christian blogger and a rather voracious reviewer of Christian books, and I especially enjoy reading nonfiction Christian books fraught with the words of the Lord.

In addition, I’ve been known to engage in writing Christian poetry where I write about my feelings about being a Christian woman. The poems can be quite inspirational as they relate to other Christian women finding themselves in what I’ve written, or in other words, inspirational. The 80-odd poems that Ms. Gilbert has included in this compendium of her poetry can be uplifting and thought-provoking as one reflects on what they’ve just read, as they offer inherent realities of one’s life.

Poetry is not a quick read, as one needs to reflect on each one slowly to allow its message to be gotten and understood, for each individual might get something different for themselves than the next individual to read the same poem.

For wanting her readers to become hopefully enlightened by her poetry regarding their lives, I’ve given Ms. Gilbert 5 STARS for her endeavor here.… (mehr)

Like the previous book, Kindred Spirits was written in the style of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, Randy Alcorn's Lord Foulgrin's Letters, and Frank Perretti's This Present Darkness.

The story switches between communication among demons and the experiences of the angels, with humans playing an even smaller role in the story than before.

This book addressed questions such as, Can angels switch sides? What if angels didn't just decide to follow Satan in the beginning, but could still turn to darkness? And what if demons could come back to the light, choosing once again to follow the Glorious King? In addition to deceiving humans, could Satan deceive other angels?

I am struggling with this review, because while I appreciate the questions Julie brings up in her book, the theology is difficult for me. Are there young angels in training? That would surprise me, but that is also the premise of her story. Can angels fall in love and marry each other? While not as problematic theologically as angels falling for humans, it's still problematic because I see no evidence in scripture and it almost sounds to go against scripture. If angels are married and have children, could Satan kidnap the children and raise them as his own instead of God's?

This depuction of angels humanizes them. I am not saying this to criticize Julie's story, which was entertaining and of which she did a good job reminding us that this is all speculation. I bring it up because it might be confusing to people who don't have a clear understanding of what the Christianity teaches about angels and their roles. This book also seemed more focused on the angels' relationships to each other, than on their relationships to humans, although central to all of that was their relationship to God, the Glorious King.

Seen purely as fantasy and not theology, this was an entertaining story, with a lot of adventure, bogged down only by long council discussions, and tedious demons.

The narrator, Reuben Corbett, did an outstanding job.

I received a free copy of the audiobook from the author and have reviewed it willingly.… (mehr)

Written in the style of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, Randy Alcorn's Lord Foulgrin's Letters, and Frank Perretti's This Present Darkness, Julie Gilbert adds an impressive story to the collection of Christian speculative fiction surrounding angels, demons, and spiritual warfare. The story switches back and forth between communication between demons and the experiences of the angels, with humans playing a vital but secondary role in the story.

I had no expectations coming to this book, except perhaps that I doubted it could measure up to the previously mentioned books. But those are some of the best in their genre, and it turns out it didn't matter. This book asked a different question from a different perspective. I had never before considered that the angels might also be asking "the glorious king" (I love their name for God so much!) why he allows evil. It's a tremendous theological dilemma that we don't even consider because we are so selfishly focused on why evil happens to us, to our kind, to our world. But angels were created first. And they were created similarly to us. And at least some of those that chose to continue following God have the task of helping us to do so as well. So while many people continue to be deceived or lost in service to the evil one, the angels must continue to do battle. And sometimes that battle must seem futile while they know, even more clearly than we do, that the glorious king has the power to immediately put thing to right and end the reign of the imposter Satan. So why doesn't he?

The story itself was interesting, fairly predictable, interesting ideas about the nature of angels, although Gilbert introduced that at the beginning, asking us to read with an open mind. Thankfully, there were no weird angel-human romantic relationships (that irks me on a theological level). I am looking forward to seeing how the story continues and what questions will be brought up in the sequel.

The narrator, Reuben Corbett, did an outstanding job.

I received a free copy of the audiobook from the author and have reviewed it willingly.… (mehr)