Book Review: Dear Mr. Knightly

My most recent read, Dear Mr. Knightly by Katherine Reay, was not at all what I expected. Many of the blogs that I follow wrote about how much they loved this book, so when I saw that it was on sale on amazon, I went for it. I am soooo glad that I did. This book had me up reading to all hours of the night. The main character, Sam, was intriguing to me. I love the style that the author wrote in--a series of letters between Sam and her mysterious benefactor. The ending shattered me, because it's not what I wanted, but I was okay with it, because the ending made sense. 

This book really messed with me though. Although I in no ways shared the childhood that Sam Moore Muir had in the book, I felt like I related to her in SO MANY ways. Because of her childhood, she retreated and hid in her books (particularly Jane Austen) so that she didn't have to be real and live in the real world. Throughout the book, Sam learns that although it's painful to live in the real world, it's worth it, because along with the bad comes the very very good. When she steps outside the world of her books, she meets friends, her future adoptive parents and her boyfriend. I related to Sam in the way she hides. I don't think I hide in books, but I think I've hid in being what people want me to be. Instead of focusing on my identity in Christ, I tend to focus on what other people want me to be. It's easier to be a peacemaker and avoid conflict if you just do what others want all the time. The problem is that it isn't real and it isn't right to behave that way. I've tried to spend a lot more time in God's word this year and what I keep realizing is the more I become like Christ, the more glory I bring to God and the more I become like him. The more I am like him, the more fulfillment and peace I will feel. There won't be the need to hide in who I think people want me to be or "figure out who I am" (a common theme in many books today), because my main goal will to be like Christ. I guess the Lord has been working on this lesson before I actually pinpointed what the problem was, but I see it now and I was excited that he brought this to my attention. It makes sense with everything he's been showing me in my Bible and at Bible study.