Invitation, The Harbingers Series, Cycle One (Book Review)

 

Four people brought together, with gifts they can’t understand: Brenda, the tattoo artist, can see glimpses of the future. The professor, the former priest, who wants nothing to do with God. Andi, the professor’s assistant, who can see strange patterns in her surroundings. And then there’s Tank, the football player and Christ follower, who has a the odd gift of healing. It’s a world coming into darkness, and its something more than destiny that brought this group together…

Invitation is a very unique book written by four different authors. I have never read any book written like it! Each author took turns writing a section of the book based off of each one of the four character prospectives, almost like episodes in a tv series, which each book in the Harbingers series being a different season. What a way to get your readers intrigued, am I right? 

If you’re the kind of person that really enjoys tv shows, this is an amazing way to get into reading while also enjoying it. If you want a good spiritual challenge, this is it. Seriously. 

The Call, by Bill Myers was very unexpected, and yet…I could honestly see it happening. Which is a crazy, weird reality. With everything going on in our world, the fact that these authors of Invitation made it not so far fetched that it really touches you and realize how we have it just shows how well written these books are. 

In The Haunted, by Frank Peretti it was a little bit more on the spiritual side, with physical encounters between the characters and principalities, but it always begins and ends with Him. So really because the characters have that peace, its more of just an overcoming. And even for the characters that don't, the others that do really witness and it’s just super cool! 

The Sentinels, by Angela Hunt, was one of the episodes that really challenged my thinker, if ya know what I mean. It was a little bit more “end of the world-ish” with them actually seeing demons, but it was also very modern at the same time if thats possible. There’s climate control and animals involved, but also there’s almost a sci-fi aspects at the end. Sentinels does end a little “unfinished” you could say, but I think its more of just there faith being tested and trials being overcome, which is always amazing to see. 

The Girl, by Alton Gansky was my favorite out of this first cycle of The Harbingers series! Maybe just because its of the perspective of my personal favorite character, but also because its how the whole book wraps up. The prospective of this episode is from Tank, and he is just really cool. He’s really the only one of the group with a solid relationship with Jesus, and the ways he witnesses to the rest of the group just made me want to cheer out loud for him. 

So…all that being said: One of the aspects of the Invitation that I think would have made me personally like if better, is simply that I have a hard time with short stories. Mainly because I just don't see a huge amount of character development in the short episodes from each of the characters prospectives. But, that also being said, I haven’t read the next cycle in the series, and I have heard that you see more development throughout them, if that makes sense. So I’d just suggest that if you’re only planing on reading the first cycle, to just go into it knowing that. 

So yes, if you were wondering, I would definitely recommend this book! As I said, it does deal with a lot of spiritual warfare, and that can be difficult for some people to grasp. We just have to know that it’s about overcoming, and that we know who wins in the end. I’d recommend this book for young adults (13-17yo), and I would rate it a 9 out of 10.

CLICK HERE to get Invitation, cycle one!