Sometimes the past reaches forward to bring hope to the future.England, 1944With the world at war yet again, Alice Galloway rejects her father’s traditional expectations and offers her piloting expertise to the Air Transport Auxiliary. She may be a woman in a man’s world, but when she overhears key intelligence, she must find the strength to transcend boundaries and her own fears…or countless … fears…or countless people may die.
Maryland, Present Day
Jacquelyn Rogers can rebuild anything…except the shambles of her past. A restorer of vintage planes, she’s worked hard to earn the reputation of being one of the guys. The last thing she needs is a cocky former Navy pilot fighting his own inner demons stepping in to defend her from dangers she thought she’d outrun long ago. Some battles must be fought alone.
After a freak accident severs Lieutenant Michael “Finch” Carrington’s military dreams, as well as two limbs, he’s left with nothing but a fragile faith and a duty-bound promise to watch out for his friend’s baby sister. A promise she insists is as unnecessary as it is unappreciated. But when she turns the tables and begins to weld together the broken parts of his life, it may be his heart that is in need of protection.
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All of You is one of the most brilliant Christian novels I’ve ever read. Why?! Because of Michael Carrington. Michael is an exceptional hero. He’s handsome, disciplined, and so, so honorable. He’s a strong man with uber-confident faith in God. And, he’s cool. Like Maverick from Top Gun cool. At the start of this novel, Michael looks like he is the perfect man with the perfect life — the all-American Golden Boy! And then EVERYTHING changes in the blink of an eye.
The best part of All of You is watching as a strong Christian acts out his true faith during a life-altering experience. It has been my experience that often in Christian novels, a non-beliving or struggling-with-his-faith hero goes through a rough moment in his life then turns to God. But in All of You, Michael already loves God when trauma strikes. Does his faith fall by the wayside in light of his traumatic moment? No. Does Michael act like everything is OK when it clearly isn’t? No. What Michael does is go to God time and time again asking God to help him understand his next steps. He’s often in prayer throughout this story, and his prayer life is a genuine example of a solid relationship between man and God. Michael never hesitates to bring God his shock, confusion, anger, pain, or fear. As Hezekiah laid out a really scary letter from his enemies to the Lord in the Temple in 2 Kings 19:14 so they could have a chat, Michael lays out his soul to God day by day. Michael begs God to give him an answer. For a little while, his frustrating, overwhelming feelings remain and it looks like God will remain silent. But Michael never gives up. He just keeps on keeping on and tries to follow God’s will even when His path isn’t very clear. Michael is my favorite aspect of this novel because I value his example as a strong Christian. It’s so refreshing to read a story with a protagonist who is not afraid to lean into his relationship with God and share his whole soul. This aspect of Michael’s personality truly blessed and encouraged me.
All of You is a beautiful novel filled with endearing and relatable characters, a time-slip plot that is so well executed I equally loved both time periods, and a fabulous reminder to go to God through thick and thin. I love this book, and I am so sad my time with Michael and Jack is over. If you love well-written, beautiful stories then I highly recommend reading All of You. It is totally worth the read!
I purchased an eBook copy of this book from Amazon.com on September 3, 2017, in order to review. In no way has this influenced my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
First book I’ve read by the author and at first it went smoothly. Suddenly the story changed and I found myself reading another story in a different period. Going back and forth was very confusing and frankly I almost stopped reading the book, but I persevered and finally the two stories merged. By that time it was toward the end of the book. Happy ending and the reader was left wondering what next. Not sure I’ll read the next one as this one wasn’t as enjoyable to me as I had hoped.
Great ideas
I am not always a fan of books told through changing points of view, but this author handled it masterfully. I was never confused and was completely intrigued. I look forward to reading more by this author!
I loved this book!
A most delightful read. Inspiration to help you overcome whatever problems you may have. Two different love stories 70 plus years apart and you don’t see the connection until right at the end.
A combination of the past and present. A girl named Jackie, restores old planes from world war two. Her struggles with old boyfriend. She meets a pilot, that’s been injured in the war. It also bounces back to the time of the war. And the struggles people had back then. Some people had injuries that were, crippling and others had mind injuries. Great story.
Absolutely loved this book! Could not put it down! Beautifully written combining two storylines. Love clean romances and historical fiction.
This is a good christian romance, that entertains. It shows that our plans are not always God’s plan. I really enjoyed most of the book except for some facts that should have been checked.
Loved this book and the back in history parts too she tied together in the end. Wonderful story.
I liked the connection between the women in two different eras. That being a strong woman of courage does not mean you cannot be a woman of faith. The fact believing in God and looking to Him makes you stronger.
It held my interest and was interesting to see two different time periods and how they ended up tying in together. Was not as good as per one but worth the read.
Artfully intertwining modern day characters into history and bringing them together at the end in a satisfying way.
I like books that look at two time periods and eventually tie them together. This one was WWII women pilots and present day double amputee flying ace and a woman who insists she be called Jack instead of Jacqueline or Jackie. She struggles with seeing herself as vulnerable or feminine in any way. It’s an interesting “dance” between these two primary characters. Good book!
Sarah Monzon’s All of You was a great book. I am not usually a fan of dual timeline novels because they can end up being confusing and frustrating if not well done, but Ms. Monzon has a talent for writing dual timeline in such away that is clear and easy to follow. I was very quickly captured and drawn into the stories happening in both timelines. All of You was filled with vivid scenes and images that really took me to those places and those times and made me feel the intensity of emotions in those moments from both the present day story and the historical one. One scene in particular made me tear up right along with the characters. There are some wonderful supporting characters who really added to the atmosphere created in the book and made it even more fun to read.
For the most part, I enjoyed both couples from the book. I appreciated that they all had their flaws and things were not perfect in their lives, but I do have to admit that at times some of the things the characters did, some of the actions they took frustrated me. Determination can be a good thing, but stubborn refusal to accept or ask for help and thinking that some task lies solely on your shoulders when it really doesn’t is not a good thing. At times, some of the actions of female leads bordered on this line for me and I found that to be a bit frustrating.
While there were some situations that frustrated me, there were a great many other things that I appreciated about the book. As mentioned before, the characters in this book do not have perfect lives. They are characters who are experiencing real life struggles and the pain that goes with those struggles. They’ve been dealt some tough blows and Ms. Monzon takes you on the journey with them as they figure out how to come to terms with what’s happened in their lives and how to live and move on. As each character processes and works through their own struggles, the reader is allowed inside their hearts to feel those emotions with them. I found both Michael’s and Jack’s struggles to be very relatable as they both struggled with some things I have struggled with–doubts and insecurities, struggling to hear from God, and more.
God often uses the grit of real life to sand away our rough edges and make us more like Him and to bring us to a place where we know Him better. It’s our choice on whether or not we let Him do that with our lives, with our pain and hurt and frustrations. All of You is a story that very ably demonstrates that very aspect of God’s work in our lives and it’s worth the read!
PS—I am very much looking forward to discovering more about the remaining Carrington siblings in Ms. Monzon’s future books in the series.
**I received a copy of this book from the author and have chosen to review it. My opinions are my own.
In this story, author Sarah Monzon has done a good job with both character development and technical research. There just aren’t many women doing airplane restoration, but Jack (Jacquelyn) comes across as very believable. And who knew there were women pilots in WWII. The attention to detail that includes some fun phrases really makes the book work well.
All of You is written with a dual time frame that pulls the entire story together. With danger, struggles, and sparks of romance, as well as dependence on God, this is definitely worth reading, especially if you enjoy historical fiction.
I received a complimentary copy of this book but was not required to leave a review.