Christy Miller - Neelie Carroll

Christy Miller Collection, written by Robin Jones Gunn, tells the adventures and changes in a teenage girl as she moves to a different a state, meets new people, and builds a relationship with God. This novel is a collection of three different books all in one.
The first book in the collection is called Summer Promise. Christy is a teenage girl who moves from a small town in Wisconsin to a big city in California to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle. The materialism hits Christy very hard and fast. Christy’s aunt treats Christy to a new wardrobe and hair style, so Christy begins to get noticed by the surfers at the beach. Meeting all these new people and friends makes Christy realize just how small her town is and how naive she is. Christy encounters a lot of difficult situations that test her character. Through all of these hard times she meets a boy named Todd who eventually leads her to Christ and changes Christy’s life forever.
The second book in the collection, A Whisper and a Wish, reveals that Christy and her whole family have to move from Wisconsin to California for her dad’s new job. Christy has to leave her best friend back in Wisconsin and make complete new ones at a new school. She catches the most popular guy’s attention at school, while not forgetting about her summer crush, Todd. At her new school Christy tries to fit in and even meets a few christian friends.
Yours Forever is the final book in the collection and Christy’s relationship with God had really grown. She is back at her Aunt and Uncle’s house for Christmas vacation and wants to spend her time with her summer crush, Todd. Before she knows it, everything is mixed up and all her friends are mad at her including her aunt. Through this book you see how she has faith in God and how she tries to work things out in her life.
This novel was one of the best books I have ever read! There were very many things in this novel that were very realistic and I could relate to many of them. Todd’s best friend passes away because of an accident dealing with drugs and I have also lost loved ones because of drugs. Christy also meets a girl in California who later in the novel ends up pregnant. I have also had a very good friend become pregnant. Overall in this novel Christy is confused about who she truly is, who her true friends are, and struggles with her faith in God. I have dealt with all of these problems and continue to deal with them. I could just relate to this novel so well and it helped me escape from my problems whenever I began reading it. The only question I had was how can this novel end this way without continuing telling about the rest of Christy’s life? I then looked and found out there are a number of sequels, so I wasn’t disappointed.