Aboard Providence (Uncharted Beginnings Book 1)

Aboard Providence is the first book in a series of prequels to Keely Brooke Keith's Land Uncharted series. If you've read one or all of the books in that series (three novels and a Christmas novella), then you'll absolutely want to read Aboard Providence - no matter what I have to say about it. Spoiler: I thought it was excellent!If you haven't read any of the Land Uncharted series, you have a treat in store. I don't want to tell you anything more about the series because that might be a spoiler for this novel (kind of like if you'd never seen The Empire Strikes Back, you wouldn't get the significance of the bratty Anakin Skywalker character in the first movie in the Star Wars saga).Aboard Providence starts in 1861, and Jonah Ashton's father has just ordered him home to Virginia from medical school in Philadelphia. Dr Joseph Ashton has a long-held dream of emigrating to South America, to escape the trouble he believes is coming to Virginia (and as readers, we know he is right. Trouble is coming, in the form of the Civil War). Dr Ashton has assembled eight families for the trip, and he insists Jonah come with them.Jonah isn't so sure--there are accusations against him at college, and he's only months away from achieving his lifelong dream of graduating from medical school. He wants to stay and fight the accusations and finish school, not be seen as a runaway. But he's also intrigue by his childhood schoolmate Marian Foster, who has grown into a lovely young lady, one he'd like to know better.Marian is looking forward to this new adventure (as are all the other immigrants). Her hobby is botany, and she is looking forward to finding new plants to study, and especially to see if any can be used for medicinal purposes.Reading this novel as someone who has read the Land Uncharted series, I felt some of the information at the beginning was unnecessary. I didn't much care whether Jonah wanted to go on the voyage or not; I just wanted them all to get underway because ... can't give a spoiler ... because I know Anakin Skywalker is going to turn out to be Darth Vader and I wanted to know how it happened (apologies to anyone who hasn't seen Star Wars). But I'm sure that anyone who hasn't read the earlier stories will enjoy this part and not be so impatient!I was impressed with Dr Ashton and the level of planning he put into his scheme. He was far better prepared than, say, the Mayflower immigrants in their overcroweded ship with too few resources. His fellow immigrants were carefully selected to have the range of skills the new community would need, and - most importantly - to have a shared faith.Overall, I very much enjoyed Aboard Providence, and now I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.Thanks to Keely Brooke Keith for providing a free ebook for review.

I truly enjoyed this story and am confident the subsequent stories would be equally enjoyable. This was my first book by this author and I truly enjoyed it.

I read this after reading All Things Beautiful. It's Much better than All Things Beautiful. I'm still not wild about the huge font size, but it is what it is.As for the story, I thought the characters were pretty good, the development interesting, the ideas of starting up a new society, and the grey leaf trees were interesting, and the issues of not letting down family as well as having to choose between family and a potential husband are as real now as when this story takes place (1800s).I didn't care for a couple of characters, or how a kid of was it 10 or 12 was allowed to do awful things to others with no mention of consequences (and outrage by one character that others might want consequences for the horrid boy who endangered people's lives) - he never even apologizes. I didn't care for much of the dialogue. I wish this writer would write like people speak, instead of it being so wooden and awkward. It's not an 1800s thing. I've read many books written in the 1800s. They had much better and more realistic dialogue.I'm not interested in reading any other books in this series, and will likely be donating these books or making recyled paper from them, but they were a fairly interesting distraction during a -40 cold snap last month when I was stuck indoors at a hotel after my winter coat was stolen, waiting for a replacement coat from Amazon.

A prequel to the delightful Uncharted series. The author does an excellent job of laying out why and how the group end up where they are in the Uncharted series. The touch of sci-fi that helps set up the Uncharted series is apparent here too. As in that series, the characters are complex, believable and compelling.I highly recommend the entire prequel series and the Uncharted series.

Aboard Providence is a sweet, clean, entertaining tale about two young people in 19th century America finding love as their families flee a United States on the brink of the civil war, searching for their own island paradise.It sounds as if it’s going to be a sweeping historical tale, but it’s not really; it merely uses a historical setting to tell the story of a gentle romance between a man and a woman who have contrasting dreams. With that in mind, this isn’t the kind of story that will blow you away, but it certainly has plenty of enjoyable content to keep your attention until the end.I did rather enjoy this book. I liked the main characters, Marian and Jonah. They were both very earnest, honest characters with good intentions, quite likable protagonists and a couple worth rooting for, though I never had any doubt that they wouldn’t end up together in the end. The romance is sweet but nothing exciting, as these kinds of period romances tend to be. Still, you want to read to make sure they end up together and all is well.The story is very clear-cut, and the premise is laid out very cleanly in the beginning. However, what seems like the central conflict fizzles out over time and changes into something a little less dramatic. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does take away from the magnitude of the story somewhat. I was hoping for something a little more exciting based on the first few chapters.I also found several holes in the story—namely, the eight families’ plan to find an uninhabited island off the coast of South America in the 19th century. It just seemed like a highly implausible and illogical plan, but perhaps it would have made sense in that time frame, I’m not sure. In any case, the book, and its ensuing series, is much more about the characters than it is about the premise, so it doesn’t matter as much. So long as you can put aside your doubts about that, you can enjoy this book.Additionally, though apparently categorized as Christian fiction, Aboard Providence is not at all a book of ministrations, and the Christian elements merely feel like a part of the setting rather than a message from the author. If you are someone who prefers to read fiction without religious themes, you likely won’t be offended by this book.All in all I did enjoy Aboard Providence. I won’t call it a riveting story, but I did find myself looking forward to reading it every day. There were some moments where I felt I was being beaten on the head by the conflict—I mean, I get it! Marian wants to stay with her family, and Jonah wants to go back to Philadelphia to finish medical school!—but it wasn’t so bad that I felt like I needed to put the book down.The story was also well written and had a great tone, so I think fans of regency romance/historical romance will enjoy this simple but pleasant read.

I was not sure that after reading the Uncharted series, I would enjoy reading he Uncharted Beginnings as much. I found it , however, to be just as captivating as the ones I had read. I love this author's work and find it so absorbing. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys clean, well written Christian fiction, filled with great characters, interesting stories, with a bit of mystery, a bit of romance, great adventure, and wonderful life lessons. I look forward to the next one.