"Soul's Gate" by James L. Rubart -- A Review

Hello friends,

I haven't posted in a while... not because I didn't want to, but because I haven't had the time! Ah life! Let me tell you people, Adult-hood is WAY over-rated. :P

But anyway, I have a couple of reviews that I need to post!  The first is for an e-book I received from Booksneeze... Oh... I don't even remember how long ago.  It may have been a year. I know, I know, that's way too long!  But in my defense, I did TRY to read it... I try to read every e-book I own, but I simply prefer paper, hands down.  Ok, enough chit-chat... TO THE REVIEW!  FORWARD THE BRONCS, AND ALL THAT!

“Every now and then we get a break from reality. A glimpse into the other world that is more real than the reality we live in 99 percent of our days. The Bible is about a world of demons and angels and great evil and even greater glory.” 

What if you could travel inside another person’s soul? To battle for them. To be part of Jesus healing their deepest wounds. To help set them free to step boldly into their divinely designed future. 

Thirty years ago that’s exactly what Reece Roth did. Until tragedy shattered his life and ripped away his future. 

Now God has drawn Reece out of the shadows to fulfill a prophecy spoken over him three decades ago. A prophecy about four warriors with the potential to change the world . . . if Reece will face his deepest regret and teach them what he has learned. 

They gather at a secluded and mysterious ranch deep in the mountains of Colorado, where they will learn to see the spiritual world around them with stunning clarity—and how to step into the supernatural. 

Their training is only the beginning. The four have a destiny to pursue a freedom even Reece doesn’t fully fathom. But they have an enemy hell-bent on destroying them and he’ll stop at nothing to keep them from their quest for true freedom and the coming battle of souls.

My Thoughts:
When I saw this book on the Booksneeze list and read the description, I thought, "Sure! Why not! I mean, what's not to like about someone learning to spiritually enter and fight for another person's soul?"  I excitedly downloaded the e-book and... couldn't get through the first couple of pages before I was bored.  So I set the book aside thinking that maybe I could get into it later, or maybe I would just have to write a review explaining how I couldn't get through the first couple of pages and so had to stop.

Now, fast forward a year later and I still hadn't finished the book... and I just didn't want to pick it up again.  This was partially because I didn't have the time, partially because I was worried I would get just as bored as the first time if I tried to force my way through it, and partially because... well, let's face it, e-books just aren't as easy for me to get into as paper-books are.

But I decided that I absolutely HAD to get through the book somehow, because I NEEDED to write this review! So I looked the book up on Audible, and what do you know! The audio book was on sale at the time, so I bought it and downloaded it and decided to listen to it to and from work.

Let me just say now, I AM SO GLAD I DID!!!

This book, for me, was better as an audio book than it was as a regular book.  It could be just because someone was reading it to me, but I think it also might have something to do with the fact that as I was listening to it, I could take the time to really think about what was being said.  And for me, that was life changing.

To be honest, I'm not really sure how to describe this book to you.  The spiritual warfare involved is very... I want to say "realistic", but I'm not sure how many people would understand or agree with that statement.  A lot of the issues that this book addressed in its characters were things I could relate to in my own life, which made it touch me in a way I didn't know a book could.  (And for those of you who know me, that's really saying something...) There were a lot of times when I would feel as if God were speaking directly to me through things that were said in the book, and there were several times when I would break down crying because of a revelation that He revealed to me about my own life and my own way of thinking, even though similar things were happening to the characters in the book.

All in all, I give this book a 5 out of 5... as an audio book it worked better for me than as an e-book, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it, and I learned a lot from it too.  I wish that I could be more specific with the review, but I don't think I would do it justice.