Review: Hooked on You

Hooked on You by Kathleen Fuller
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Not what I would call Christian Fiction. I'm not really sure why this book is labeled Christian fiction since it left me longing for the deep gorgeous moments of Christian fiction. I longed for prayers seeking The Lord's will and guidance, I longed for the substance only Jesus' love and redemption can bring. Other than some of what I feel was minor mentioning of the characters going to church and that they pray, there's no real Faith scenes even though there were countless opportunities for them; it all feels very secular. Right from the beginning the modern form of writing and words bothered me. I'm not a fan of what I call "modern language" it all felt and read too worldly for my taste. And I will freely admit here that I am VERY picky with Modern Christian Fiction books, there aren't many that are my cup of tea, but I really wanted to like this one. Overall the romance scenes while funny when awkward most of the time where overall just uncomfortably corny or odd. The characters were the positive for me in the form of lovable quirkiness and at times had relatable struggles, but overall I personally felt this isn't a Christian fiction book, but rather one that is a supporting push for going to counseling.

All of this said leads me to a bit of what can be classified as a rant on "clean" fiction. So if you like "clean reads" you probably want to skip this part. I only read Christian Fiction. This is something I have striven to do for years now after feeling led to do so by The Lord. If the books didn't glorify God, make me feel closer to Jesus, and/or edify my walk with Him by having prayers, Bible verses, and moments with God's revealings in them I didn't want it in my head. This said when I started this path it was pretty nice to find all of the Christian Fiction books that are fantastic reads and very moving from publishing companies and authors that I felt fought for these goals and stood and Biblical principles. Sadly as the years have gone on and the world has grown darker I started noticing that a lot of books were coming out labeled "clean reads". These books while "clean" weren't necessarily Christian. Then I noticed a lot of my fellow Christian fiction reviewers reading these books and reviewing them along side the Christian fiction books. Please understand me here that I'm not saying these "clean reads" are bad in any way, I mean I wouldn't know because I don't read them. And if you read them and feel led by The Lord to do so that's great, I'm not saying you shouldn't; that's not my call. All I'm saying is I personally feel like they are fence riding books, and it always reminds me of the Bible verse Matthew 12:30 KJV He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. So I stay away from "clean" reads. So, why am I going on about them then? you might ask. Because over the years I have noticed them taking over and gaining steam. I feel some publishing companies are leaning towards political correctness and therefore sacrificing true Christian work to be able to sell more books. I'm not saying that's what happened here I'm just saying I know of authors that have been told they need to tone down the God parts of their books if they want to be published with some of these companies. I feel "clean reads" may have been born from this and are creeping in and taking over the Christian Fiction genre of today. While I REALLY hope I'm wrong about this, just in case, I'm writing this in the hopes that you will take a beat and evaluate it. If we don't start speaking up about missing the Christian part of Christian fiction all we'll be left with is fiction.


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