I really enjoyed this book. I don't know if I've read many or any books that took place in the 1920's, and certainly not Christian fiction, so I wasn't sure how she would mesh the two together from what I knew about the period. ( )

http://www.girllostinabook.com/2015/09/review-all-for-story-by-allison-pittman.h... ( )

All For a Story by Allison Pittman is a very good story that takes place during the Roaring Twenties in Washington, D.C. Monica Brisbane writes a gossip column for Capitol Chatter, a less than stellar newspaper. This job allows her to spend her nights dancing and drinking at the local speakeasys where she gathers information for her column that she writes under the name of Monkey Business. When the owner of the newspaper dies, his nephew, Max Moore, moves from California to take over the leadership of the paper. Max wants to turn the Capitol Chatter into a newspaper that is respectable with Christian values. Max gives Monica a challenging assignment which is to infiltrate and then report on the Anti-Flirt Society. After meeting with the young women in the group, Monica begins to question her way of life.

The author has a way of pulling the reader into the story. When I first started reading the story I did not care for Monica but as I kept reading I began to see her in a different light. All the characters came to life on the pages of the book and I felt as if I knew every one of them, some I loved and some I greatly disliked. The scenes that took place in a speakeasy were so well developed that I could almost smell the smoke and liquor. I especially liked the way that the author developed the character of Max. He was a Christian and was determined to turn the inferior newspaper into a paper of value. Probably the best part of the story was watching Monica turn her life around. The book has a satisfactory ending and I would like to see a sequel to read more about Max and Monica.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story that takes place during the Roaring Twenties and that also includes a great deal of history and a little romance.

Tyndale House Publishers via Net Galley provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ( )

Firstly, and as usual, it must be noted that I didn't buy this book. Instead, it came to me for free as the result of a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Despite that kind consideration, I give my candid opinions in this review. Also, it should be noted that I'm not a Christian so it may seem a bit odd for me to be reviewing Christian literature. Nonetheless, I'll review this book based on its literary merits and ignore any philosophical differences I may have with the genre.

On the positive side, the book is very competently executed and it's set in a period of history that's always amusing and vastly underutilized in literature. Pittman gives us a colorful and alluring rendering of the era and some fairly interesting characters.

To the negative, the Christian aspects of the novel seem to be an affectation and are poorly integrated. It's almost as if the author recognized that no mention of religion has been made in X number of pages and therefore has the characters suddenly decide to pray. I have great respect for literature in which the characters make Christian choices and live Christian lives but Pittman's novel seems to include prayerful interludes just for the sake of staying in the Christian genre. Lastly, the cover art appears to be a fairly horrifying photoshop job. Others in my family saw the cover sitting on the shelf and stated rather quizzically, "Doesn't really look like your sort of book...?" without even cracking the cover.

In summary, this would make an interesting novel if it would only make up its mind what it wanted to be. ( )