A Most Peculiar Providence
by Angela Hunt

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fiction

Ever since he was six years old, it’s always been just Josh Donnelly and his mom. Though his mom pushes him to get out into the world more, Josh is resistant, happy with his routines and his quiet life at home. Then his mom has a stroke, and Josh is thrust out into the world. Heather Thomas has had a tumultuous life, and when she ends up in the small town of Peculiar, she can’t help but notice Josh’s kind and gentle nature when she observes him from a distance. So when she’s entrusted with finding a home for the newborn baby of another troubled young woman, she knows Josh is the perfect choice.

I’ve had a difficult time deciding on a rating for this book and even knowing how to start my review. I liked the idea of a book that is clearly an image of God’s hand guiding a situation and working it out for the best. Even though, in a fictional setting like this, it requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, I was happy to see how Hunt decided to play it all out. But it took some turns that required a bit too much suspension of disbelief. One specific event happened that never really was discussed beyond a character asking how it happened, and the response was, “I prayed.” It takes a turn toward faith healing, and since it doesn’t really have any real impact on the story, I don’t understand why it was included.

Most of this might not have been too bad, but I found the plot a bit slow. A lot of time passes in the book, which means the baby ages, and some of the details involving the baby’s development made me stop and question how they made any sense (like a baby giving a smile that, in the narrative, seems to be believe to be intentional) at around 3-5 days old. And the caregivers letting the baby that only days ago took her first steps walk (and then crawl) on a brick walkway?! And then I guess they had to clean up her scraped and bloody knees…

There’s a mystery angle that comes up in the last quarter of the book, mixed in with the climax of the main plot, that is shallow and not difficult to figure out. I wish there had been less time spent on the baby details and more on a build-up to this mystery. Josh is a steady, likeable character who makes some unexpected decisions because “God told me to,” which I wasn’t a fan of. In the end, some past trauma comes to light that I don’t recall having been hinted at throughout the rest of the book at all, and that’s another area I felt could have been built on, if other areas had been diminished. In a way, it felt like this could have been two different books. But as often happens, I’m largely in the minority so far in my rating of this book, so please check out other reviews at the link below if you’re interested in this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hunt Haven Press for providing me a copy of this book to review.

Find out more about A Most Peculiar Providence

See what I’m reading next.

If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!