Newton & Polly

Books pass the time when I'm at the doctors' offices, so I thought I would put some book reviews on here.   I got my hands on Jody Hedlund's book Newton & Polly.  I was drawn to her book because of the cover and description.            

This is a typical historical faith romance. A boy meets girl, but boy or girl has to fight to be together, usually because of religious views and financial class.  Newton & Polly reminds me a lot of West Side Story and even Romeo and Juliet. 

John Newton, a sailor, who sails the sea just living life because he has to.  His father finds him jobs but he tends to screw them up. One day, Newton meets a beautiful dashing woman but is faced with the reality of her being of the wealthy class and he isn’t. She falls madly in love with him, but her father says, "no".  Newton won't take "no" for an answer.  Polly's father will do whatever he can to make sure Newton, the bad boy, will stay clear away from her.  Will they end up together or will he sail across the sea and never return?

            Hedlund has written this book in three parts.  Part one is the introduction of these characters. Part two is them being together and fight to stay together. The final part is the ending. You probably thought I was going to say what happened in the final part, but I am not going to spoil it for you.  

There are conflicts in the story especially for John Newton, but they aren’t told in depth.  For me, there were many parts of this book I felt really dragged. I believe it was because the conflicts went by really quickly.  I wished Newton had a friend and mentor in the story.  For some reason,  I just could not connect with either of these characters. This is the reason I couldn't get into the story. 

Would I recommend this book? Yes, because you might enjoy it more than me. 

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."