Crystal's Perilous Ride

Crystal Blake #1

by Stephen Bly, Janet Bly

Fourteen-year-old Crystal and her friend Megan accompany Crystal's father to Idaho and find themselves investigating a series of strange occurrences in the town involving a gang posing as the community's leading citizens.

138 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1986

About the author

Stephen Bly (August 17, 1944 - June 9, 2011) authored 100 books and hundreds of articles. His book, THE LONG TRAIL HOME, (Broadman & Holman), won the prestigious 2002 CHRISTY AWARD for excellence in Christian fiction in the category western novel. Three other books, PICTURE ROCK (Crossway Books), THE OUTLAW'S TWIN SISTER (Crossway Books), and LAST OF THE TEXAS CAMP (Broadman & Holman), were Christy Award finalists. He spoke at colleges, churches, camps and conferences across the U.S. and Canada. He was the pastor of Winchester Community Church, and served as mayor of Winchester, Idaho (2000-2007). He spoke on numerous television and radio programs, including Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family. He was an Active Member of the Western Writers of America. Steve graduated summa cum laude in Philosophy from Fresno State University and received a M.Div from Fuller Theological Seminary. The Blys have three sons: Russell (married to Lois) and father of Zachary and Miranda (married to Chris Ross) and mother of Alayah, Michael (married to Michelle), and Aaron (married to Rina Joye) and father of Keaton and Deckard. A third generation westerner, Steve spent his early years working on ranches and farms.

Reviews

[Debbie Tink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book, but the horse only came in for the last cupple of chapters.

[Debra Fong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable story.

Good clean fun and great adventure. A horse story suitable for young readers, nine and up.

Stephen Bly is one of my favorite authors. I have many of his series as paperbacks, e-books and audio books.

The characters become like family and I enjoy reading the books over and over again.

[Larissa Orman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book is a rough read, but ends well, and the rest of the series is fun.

[MC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, for those who wonder, this is me reviewing what is "technically" a grade-school level novel. I say "technically" for reasons that will be made clear at the end of the review. A grade-school level novel with a 14 year old girl protagonist, to boot. Go ahead, laugh. Chortle. Get it all out of your system. There, now we can begin.

The book I'm reviewing is the first book in the Crystal Blake Series, by the late, and enormously popular among many readers of Christian Westerns, Stephen Bly, and his wife, Janet Bly. The books were beloved by me when they were first written over two decades ago when I was a small boy. I couldn't resist going through book swap sites and second-hand shops to find them again.

The series is different from a lot of other books for the younger age groups, especially at that point in the '80's, in that there is an actual "continuity". The six short novels together form the the story of the young protagonist, Crystal Blake as she lives out her dream of moving to Idaho and owning her own horse. In the midst of all of this, she and her family and friends deal with adventures and everyday problems.

Indeed, I was actually surprised upon re-reading the books as an adult, to find the depth to some of the topics that Crystal and her loved ones faced in the series. Despite the short length, the authors present a story of a young Christian teen dealing with the difficulties of growing up, doubting herself, seeking a better walk with God, feeling insecure, and other issues including those dealing with racism and social standing. The fact that the authors did not shy away from these issues, but dealt with them head-on, was a real plus for the novels.

Now that the details about the overall series are out of the way, let's get to the details of the first book in the series, Crystal's Perilous Ride. The book begins with two Southern California girls, Crystal and her friend Megan, washing the truck Crystal's dad was using on the research trip they were all on to Idaho. It turns out that Crystal's dad, Matthew Blake, is a mildly famous writer among certain historical and Western history buffs in the continuity of the books. This becomes a very significant part of the unifying storyline of the books in the next novel.

Crystal and Megan are shocked to see a bunch of cowboys and Indians straight out of the Wild West shooting arrows and guns at each other and killing each other, even leaving a dead cowboy in the dusty roadside. The arrows shattered the phone booth the two teens were in, and nearly killed them in their escape to their nearby motel room. They report to the building manager what happened, and then their father, but no one but their father believes them as the dead cowboy and the shattered booth are both gone. Disappeared in the space of a few minutes.

Around the town of Kamiah, Idaho, where they are currently doing their research, strange events are occurring, with lookalikes of prominent townspeople popping up all over the place. Needless to say, Crystal is intrigued, and wants to solve the mystery.

The book was written, and thus takes place during, the mid-1980's. I have to say that this was not frustrating at all, but fairly refreshing. No "prairie romance" stuff, and no "gunslinger" cliches either. It was a fair while ago, but recent enough in my lifetime to evoke a great deal of nostalgia in me for a "simpler time" in a way that was not cliched. But for those who were not around then, or are not into literary trips down memory lane, the other elements of the story are more than suitable to catch the interest of most readers.

Said elements include the "coming-of-age" story for Crystal and her friends, seeing young and old wrestle with and discuss the truths of God's Word (as Crystal and her family are Christians), the beginning romance plot with her new-found friend from Idaho named Sean, and the culture shock of adjusting to such a different area than where she is from originally. And of course, there is the earlier-mentioned mystery.

I couldn't really say much more without giving away even more spoilers, so I won't. I will simply argue that, while I can see why folks would be skeptical at my recommendation of this book and series, I feel that I am still correct in my assessment of them. I am nostalgic, so I am "blind" somehow to the short and very juvenile nature of the story lines, it may be said. I would admit to the nostalgia, but the story lines are much more realistically rendered than most I've read having to do with "real-world" settings and situations, written for any age group. In fact, the writing is fairly sophisticated for a grade-school work, and is not at all "simplified" for the audience, but is the same as in any adult work. Nor is the font the gigantic size used in most YA works, but is regular sized print.

Fun, a great mystery, a character with a realistic Christian walk with God, and an actual continuity. Great stuff for both parents and teens.

Highly Recommended.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you grow up as a big reader, you end up with a lot of book series that you've read over and over...but with volumes missing. This Crystal Blake series is one I owned and knew well as a kid, but I've never read 2/6 of the books, including the first in the series. I used to carefully go through Crystal's Solid Gold Discovery, with its references to what had happened in the first one, and try to imagine what that book was like.

I'm not sure if I'm just too old for it now, if these haven't held up well over time, or if Bly had a rocky start, but this was a little bit of a trudge. What's weird is that it doesn't feel at all like the rest of the books; it's been a while now since I've read #2, but I'm pretty sure the setting and the main characters are different (other than Crystal, her dad, and Handsome Teenage Love Interest Shawn). Did her best friend, Megan, disappear? What made Crystal and her family move away from Southern California? I don't remember her or Shawn having the siblings mentioned in this one, or Crystal struggling so much with her looks and freezing up under pressure.

It's unsettling, in a way, to have such a flawed memory of books you reread to the point of having them memorized when you were younger.

Anyway, I'll read the last of the set and decide whether to keep these for nostalgia's sake, or pass them on to save my overflowing bookshelves. It's hard to let go of some of these books, though, because they're the type of niche fiction (YA Christian) that you don't ever find in libraries, if you want to dig them back out later on. As much as I prefer physical books, I wish it was easier/cheaper to get digital copies of ones I don't want cluttering my space but would still like to be able to access.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crystal's Perilous Ride, the introduction of Crystal Blake to the world, is a fine YA offering. Crystal is scrappy and faces her fears, one by one, until she proves herself a hero by any standard. A Christian theme is woven into the story and feels authentic. The only reason I didn't rate this novel higher is that I thought the potential love triangle was unnecessary and detracted from the rest of the story. Without it, this would have been a solid 4 stars for me.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great series for tween girls!