This is the first book that I bought just because I saw it in an Instagram ad. Moreover, this is the first book ad I have ever seen on Instagram. The description caught my attention, so I decided to order it to see if someone could actually unite time travel, Christianity, and Wild West in one novel.
About the Book
The book was first published less than a year ago. It was written by a young American author that has an Instagram page. All this is actually pretty interesting and different from what I am used to.
The plot idea is fascinating because, as I have already mentioned, it includes all the things that I like to read about. A couple (young and almost engaged) reaches a big conflict in their relationship. On the verge of the conflict, they get stuck in a very strange inn in the middle of nowhere. The next morning they wake up on the Oregon trail in the 1800s. Throughout the book, they have to figure out how to get back to their time and how to fix their relationship.
I am done spoiling here, but it sounds pretty engaging, right? I was surprised when I saw that this book was written by a Christian author, but in the preface, she addresses the issue of time travel (which I consider very thoughtful). The author mentions that she does not know if God would ever allow time travel, but this does not stop her from imagining what it would be like.
My Impressions
To be completely honest, the book did not meet my expectations. But I am pretty sure this happened because I was comparing it to Francine Rivers's novels.
The idea of this novel is great, but I was not a big fan of its execution. I have read the whole book in a day, which means it is pretty short. The plot was not too detailed - for example, half of the book talks about how they got to the inn, and the other half describes a whole week of their adventures. Also, some things are not realistic (and I do not mean time travel). The couple pretended to be “normal“ in the past but made so many mistakes that I highly doubt that real pioneers would believe them.
Regarding the spiritual part of the book, it actually was Christian. It was implied that God was the one who allowed it all to happen, the main characters were praying and talking about God in the moments of crisis. Though, I would not say that pleasing God was the main idea of the story. The author mainly focused on openness and honesty in the relationship.
Speaking of that, one more thing that stuck out to me was the relationship between the main characters. The man was planning to propose right before the big conflict, but throughout the book, I got the impression that they did not know each other at all. The couple claimed to love each other (in conversations and their thoughts), but their actions were saying quite the opposite. My opinion might be biased, though, and this kind of relationship may exist in reality.
I do not want to sound too mean, so I have to say that the book was not bad - but I expected more from it. Everything in it - the plot, the characters, the spiritual part - was fine, but pretty simple. Again, it might be simply because of my expectations.
To sum it all up, the Wagon Train Weekend is a quick and easy read. You probably will not learn more than you know about pioneers, God, or even relationships, but you might enjoy the story if you are into romance novels.
My Rating
I would give this story 6.5 stars.
And by the way, this novel is a part of the Back Inn Time book series (though the stories are not connected from what I understood). Feel free to read any of the books and let me know what you think!
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