Official Review: Due Honor by Cheryl Tirrell

[Nisha Ward]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Due Honor" by Cheryl Tirrell.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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I don’t read a lot of books like Cheryl Tirrell’s Due Honor. To me, there’s a line in the sand where too little conflict and storytelling becomes unbearable, and I choose to avoid books like that for my own sake. After all, I do read for entertainment.

That being said, Due Honor does not fall into that group of books despite having those issues. Rather, it’s despite the lack of conflict and storytelling that the book has held my interest, leading me to give it 2 out of 4 stars. In fact, the reasons the book gets those 2 stars taken away are its length and the errors I found.

The story of an interconnected community in post-Revolutionary War America, the novel tells of the Pratt family and their friends as they struggle to live in this new, fragile society. From courting and marriage to everyday life, it takes us through their routine in sparse, yet intriguing detail. This would also come to include the story of Fort McHenry and the pair James and Lilly, who are just as connected to the Pratts as their neighbours are.

I liked a lot about this book, to be honest with you. While it is very rooted in the Christian faith and what that means for our characters, particularly Israel, a preacher, and his friend James, it’s respectful of the fact that others may not be ready to embrace Christ. I thought that to be rather refreshing, given that the book is careful to portray everything, including the marriages of each character, as a choice freely made within the confines of their belief and trust in God.

In addition to this, I rather liked that there was so little conflict between the characters. Given the way Annie, Israel’s sister, comes into marriage, for example, and how James deals with that, Tirrell could have made this into a major point of contention. Yet, she did not, making for an interesting storytelling choice.

However, this does not prevent the length of the book from becoming a nuisance to me, as a reader. Rather, the lack of conflict makes it all the more obvious just how rushed the narrative is. Events that should be drawn out are, instead, contracted into small occurrences that go by too quickly, while any actual conflict, such as James’ initial time with Lilly at Fort McHenry, is glossed over completely.

In addition to this, the book is filled with several noticeable errors that could have been easily avoided. While Tirrell does create an interesting story, the errors do her a disservice, particularly given the length of the book. There were too many of them to ignore for something that consists of little more than 100 pages, and I couldn’t help but notice them as I read.

It’s not a bad book, and I think Christian readers looking for a light read would enjoy it a lot. The story is simple but engaging, and there’s a lot to be gotten out of the novel if you’re looking for pure love and joy. My only issues are the length and errors, but hopefully, that won’t be a problem for others.

Happy reading, everyone!

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Due Honor
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[Kavita Shah]

Thank you for the review! Too many errors for a short book, that's bad. And less detail to the conflicts make it a surface read.

[Becca Olsson]

I’m glad you emphasized that you do enjoy the book despite the errors. I come across the same thing quite often. I hope the author can rectify the errors you’ve pointed out and turn it into its best version. Thanks for the honest review

[morsel254]

This is a great book but this genre is not my type. otherwise the reviwe was great

[morsel254]

This must be a great book, i would like it to read it in future otherwise thanks for the great review.