Book Review- Peace Like a River

Leif Enger's novel Peace Like a River has became an instant favorite. It's so hard for me to pinpoint what exactly it was that made this book so great but I will try my best in this review.
This book will go towards the Mount TBR Pile challenge, the Author's A-Z challenge, and New Author Challenge.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Once in a great while, we encounter a novel in our voluminous reading that begs to be read aloud. Leif Enger's debut, Peace Like a River, is one such work. His richly evocative novel, narrated by an asthmatic 11-year-old named Reuben Land, is the story of Reuben's unusual family and their journey across the frozen Badlands of the Dakotas in search of his fugitive older brother. Charged with the murder of two locals who terrorized their family, Davy has fled, understanding that the scales of justice will not weigh in his favor. But Reuben, his father, Jeremiah—a man of faith so deep he has been known to produce miracles—and Reuben's little sister, Swede, follow closely behind the fleeing Davy.Affecting and dynamic, Peace Like a River is at once a tragedy, a romance, and an unflagging exploration into the spirituality and magic possible in the everyday world, and in that of the world awaiting us on the other side of life. In Enger's superb debut effort, we witness a wondrous celebration of family, faith, and spirit, the likes of which we haven't seen in a long, long time—and the birth of a classic work of literature.

Now where to start with my review? First off, I thought when I saw the synopsis and from what I heard from my mom (who originally recommended this book to me) it would be one of those extreme in your face Christian book that I sometimes find a little frustrating and forced... though not necessarily bad. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to not find it like that. Yes, it had Christian themes but somehow I just never found them to be unrealistic, even though the whole premise of the novel is miracles. I'm not sure how to explain that but that's just how I felt about it. I was also surprised to find that even though it was kind of a slow story I was always eagerly turning the page to find out what happened next. This book kept me seriously engaged the whole time.
Probably what I loved most about the story was the characters and my favorite character was Swede and what I loved most about Swede was the poetry she wrote. Sunny Sundown was just... classic. You'd have to read this book to really understand what I mean but I loved it! This book also makes a lot of references to westerns, cowboys and outlaws. I noticed that it referenced Zane Grey a lot, maybe because that was an author I was familiar with. It made me want to read some more Zane Grey books.
The themes of this book were beautiful as was the writing. Overall, I just loved this book and it's a little inexplicable to explain my feelings about it. It is a new favorite for me and I would highly recommend it for you. :)

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