Beauty Among Ruins by J’nell Ciesielski - OPTIONAL

Beauty Among Ruins by J’nell Ciesielski, 416 pages. Thomas Nelson, 2021. $17.

Language: PG (2 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

After being sent from New York to her aunt’s home in England, WWI starts and Lily is kept from crossing the ocean to return home. Lily accompanies her cousin to Scotland to help care for wounded soldiers at Kinclavoch Castle. Her optimism and reckless ways are not encouraged by those in charge, but perhaps Lily can make a positive impact in the dreary circumstances and create an atmosphere of hope for the soldiers, herself, and maybe even the gruff laird who owns the castle.

Lily’s story plays out like a melodrama; everything that can go wrong does go wrong up until the final chapter when everything miraculously comes together for the main characters. This is not to say that it wasn’t an entertaining story nor that the character arcs for the main characters are shallow. I was amused by (and even laughed out loud at) the characters’ antics and cheesy lines as well as relieved when all the conflicts were finally resolved.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen