Capture The Wind For Me [Paperback]

This book was very interesting to read. Character development was great. I liked how Collins brought in the past relationship between Celia, Danny, and Bobby, and how that still had an effect on everyone today. I liked the theme "Keep your eyes on God", like in the "Color the Sidewalk" book. There was also some humor in the book, like with the fight between Clarissa and Alma Sue. I was also amused at the idea of half the town traveling 4 hours to Lexington to get Katherine to come back to Bradleyville when she ran away.

I know that Jackie struggled with Celia and Celia's relationship with her father. But I would have also liked to see some dialog developed between Celia and Jackie on that time period, especially since there was some resentfulness on Jackie's part toward Celia. Also, I thought that the ending and getting Katherine to come back to Bradleyville happened a little quickly. I would have liked to see how Katherine and Bobby ended up compromising on some of their issues. Do Bobby and Katherine travel to Lexington from time to time, to account for Katherine's desire of big city life? Do they agree to stay in Bradleyville and allow Katherine to work in Lex once a month? Plus, I thought that at times, Bobby and Jackie seemed a little too judgmental, and that drove me nuts at times.

Again, I enjoyed this book as I did the whole series. I did like the "Color the Sidewalk" book the best, but this was a very enjoyable book as well.

Teenage Jackie Delham has lost her mother to cancer. Now she must be the adolescent Mom to her two younger siblings, somehow holding the household together while searching for her own independence in the rubble of her once secure life.

When Katherine King blows into town, literally in the vanguard of a tornado, even the small semblance of normalcy in the Delham household is torn away. Jackie can hardly believe her dad would be interested in someone as flamboyant and unstable as Katherine King, especially after the perfect love he shared with Jackie's mother.

The wierdness escalates for Jackie when she meets Katherine King's distant relative, the lead singer in an up-and-coming boy band, and they begin to date. How can she trust her feelings for this young man when ancient history revives, and she discovers her parent's romance may not have been all she had believed?

If you missed the first two in the Bradleyville series, you've missed rare treats, but don't let that cause you to miss this one, too. Capture the Wind for Me stands on its own two feet just fine.

The basic gist of the plot is that teen Jackie's mother died a few years ago, and her father has found someone new. While dealing with her feelings of anger and hurt over this knowledge, Jackie meets a famous foreign singer who wins her heart. But she constantly worries that her dad's new love---and for that matter, her own new love---will break promises and leave them. Then a sudden twist in the plot causes all the characters to second-guess themselves and those they formerly trusted.

Granted, some parts seem melodramatic...and even though I'm a sixteen-year-old myself, this book's sixteen-year-old narrator can seem juvenile at times. (Who still calls their dad "daddy" and refers to their mom as "mama"? Maybe it's just the town she grew up in or something.)

The book stresses good morals and keeping God in control of your life---a phenomenal concept in this day and age. I would recommend it to any female (regardless of whether they're a Christian or not) ages 14 and up.

Oh, and F.Y.I.: the author has a talent for employing impressive vocabulary (among her talent as an exquisite story-teller). I'd have a dictionary neraby just in case.