Review Title: Seeking the Weedless Garden of Love (review of An Unpresentable Glory by Eleanor K. Gustafson)
Reviewer: Janice S. Garey
**** 4 Stars
This book holds an engaging love story, many realistic characters with faults, plenty of tension and conflict for good pacing, and a variety of issues filtered through a Christian lens. The title gives the theme running throughout the book, An Unpresentable Glory, which makes the point that people can do what is right in God’s sight and it can still be misconstrued by family, friends, and the public to be something it is not. The book shows the lengths and sacrifices required to keep propriety as utmost of importance.

The author weaves the story on a grand scale which was unexpected based on the understated back cover copy. Anyone who has interest in gardening, political shenanigans, media spin, accountability groups, Native American heritage, suicide prevention, supportive friendships, concealed identities, Christian ethics, and mentoring would enjoy the variety and depth of issues covered.

Although the book contains no bad language or graphic sex, the affects a beautiful lady can have on a man, causing a lustful reaction, are mentioned on several occasions. When this happens, the man realizes he approached boundaries he should not cross. In these instances the man has moral conflict which leads to appropriate remorse and realization of his need for God’s grace. The coverage of men’s accountability groups showed the advantage of being connected in that manner.

The book has many surprises and most seem realistic, but at least once I felt a chance meeting felt contrived. That was a minor issue that only momentarily gave me pause. Otherwise the story was excellent and one I desired to read to see what happened to characters I cared about. I had a preference for how I wanted the story to end. No spoilers here except to say the ending is definitely not to be missed.

I received a large paperback copy of the book by winning a contest for Christian book fans. I had no obligation to read and review or give a good review of the book. I have given an honest review. This is a wonderful book that makes me want to read more by Eleanor K. Gustafson.