I have been following Dan on TikTok for several years and was excited he was coming out with a book about the Bible for us lay folk. At the same time I was a little apprehensive that it would be more of a scholarly read because let’s face in, Dan has a big brain and uses a lot of words I don’t always understand. Unfortunately my apprehensions (for myself at least) turned out to be true and I ended up DNF’ing at 9 percent. I found the book to be very dry and I think the thing I love most about Dan’s teaching style: his personality and wit, got lost in the pages. I do think this book would be great for Bible scholars and people attending seminary, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

I wanted to love this book so bad and I feel like it had great potential, however I found the main character Civil to be shallow, aloof, and at times childish and annoying. I also found that part of her narrative was redundant but never added anything to the plot or helped enhance the story. DNF’d at 79 pages. This book just wasn’t for me. 

I don’t know how I allowed myself to get 76% finished with this book before DNF’ing. It became too cringe for me to continue with it being so full of insta-love and ignoring of red flags. This was a no for me.

The author comes off as super fat phobic and I’m not interested in their seemed obsession with weight when this book is supposed to be about spending less.