I found this book to be fairly enjoyable; although I seldom read Christian Romance. I'm always looking to broaden my reading horizons, and try to read with an open mind. ( )

I loved this book! Judith Miller has a way with her plots to combine history, mystery, romance and faith. I will look for more of her books. I would like to see some kind of sequel to this one and more about the carousel factory. I'm sure this is a dying art, but I plan to visit the carousel museum as soon as possible. ( )

I have to say that I found this book enjoyable for the most part. I usually do not chose books written in the first person but after the first page I found myself enjoying it until I reached about the 1/2 way point of the book and the religious references started. That threw things off for me a little bit but I decided i wanted to finish the book.
I found Carrie's character just fine for the time period. Being the first woman to break "barriers" in the factory full of men I guess I saw the things she had to deal with true to life. I saw her as human... not overly strong but not a wimp either. I think someone that likes to read Christian Lit and can get past the bible verses with ease will really enjoy this book. ( )

This really wasn't a bad book, but I never would have touched it if I had known it was Christian lit. My rating is mostly contingent on my feelings for that genre, and I suspect that people who like reading Christian lit would very much enjoy reading this book.

But me? No. Carrie is just so passive. She wanders to a new country by an act of invitation. She ventures into employment by another invitation. She roams over to a new place to live by suggestion. Her plan to avoid making waves at work is to avoid human interaction. She responds to a budding romance with pleasure at every new step her suitor makes, but she never initiates any advancement herself. She waits patiently to be cleared of criminal charges and only ambles in to attempts to clear her name by direct invitation of the investigating detective. Even the one instance where she did willfully reject someone's suggestion, she was taken to task for it and meekly went back and followed suggestion. ARGH.

This book had been part of the June giveaway the Early Reviewers program, where the title and publisher's description caught my interest. Granted, now that I know this book is Christian lit., a courtesy search of the publisher Bethany House would have taught me it was a Christian press. But I was interested enough in the premise of the book at the time that when I didn't win a copy through the ER program, I added it to my BookMooch wishlist and was able to snag an ARC anyway.

I did love reading Miller's descriptions of the carousels and how the carousels were created, which is why this book is getting as high as a two-star rating. Unfortunately, that aspect was pretty much discarded at the mid-way point of this novel, which is also about when the romance picks up, the jewelry disappears, Carrie starts pondering church sermons, and my interest bottoms out like the flatline of a heart monitor.

Some other reviews of this book mention how annoying Carrie's giggling was. I can't say that I noticed this myself as I read the book, but I did get in the habit, very early on, of skipping any paragraphs with a variant of the word giggle in them. It worked for me. ( )

Set in the late 19th century, The Carousel Painter by Judith Miller is the story of Carrington Brouwer, a young woman who moves to Ohio following the death of her father. Having already lost her mother years before, Carrington finds herself alone and longing for a place to call home. Carrington’s best friend Augusta Galloway invites her to stay with the Galloways in Ohio, and she gladly accepts the offer. She is happy to become part of a family again. When Carrington is hired to paint carousel horses at the local factory, her feelings of independence and optimism soar. However, things are not quite so simple and straightforward. Events at the Carrington home and on the job threaten her newly acquired sense of security and hopefulness.
The Carousel Painter is a light, readable story if you ignore Carrington’s inane nervous giggling and some of the contrived aspects of the plot. The annoying giggling literally opens and closes the story and occurs frequently and regularly throughout. Somehow though, the story line manages to remain sufficiently engaging to warrant the effort required to ignore this less than endearing characteristic. The discussions about Christianity and morality between Carrington and others seem natural and believable. And it is interesting to learn how carousel horses are created. Overall, a nice enough story. ( )