Immanuel's Veins is a book about a Russian soldier in the 1700 called Toma Nicolescu who is sent by the Queen of Russia to provide protection to the Cantemir estate in the Moldavia. He and his partner end up going through a very predictable story of good against evil and personal struggle with desire and despair. Toma's struggle is far exceeded by the struggle of the readers.

The story is ridiculously laborious, constantly recovering the same ground again and again. The cliché narrative is only outdone by the cliché writing and bafflingly poor choice of language. The book is loaded with anachronistic colloquialisms and is more cringe worthy at times than two bits of Styrofoam rubbing together.

Finally, I have never read a “Christian Fiction” before and this book confirmed what I always expected. The spiritual 'point' of the book felt like it had to forced into the story (such as it was) and made absolutely no impact.

Overall I have to ask, if this was not a book made-to-order for those inside the Chirstian bubble would this have ever made it past the desk of the assistant to the assistant editor at the publishing house.


I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers, I was not required to write a positive review (obviously).