What do you think?
Rate this book
Crystal Blake #5
Crystal's Blizzard Trek
Rivals on a high school rodeo team learn to come to terms with each other when they become trapped in a blizzard in the Montana mountains.
154 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1986
About the author
Stephen Bly
127 books72 followersStephen 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 2, 2014
The Crystal Blake Series' fifth installment, Crystal's Blizzard Trek, continues the story of the Southern California teen's first year in Idaho (to which her famous author parents moved the family). Since the events of the last book, Crystal and her close friend Shawn, are dating. Well, “unofficially” dating. They are not really doing so, as their parents think it unwise for them to “date” at such a young age, but they consider themselves together in all but name.
As the story begins, Crystal becomes angry and worried because her best friend Gabrielle is receiving anonymous letters from “a secret admirer”. When some evidence leads Crystal to suspect a mutual friend is playing a trick on Gabrielle, Crystal takes action, only to find out she is wrong. But the worst part is yet to come, as Crystal, Shawn, and their friends must brave a blizzard to find one of their own rodeo team mates who gets caught out when the inclement weather turns worse. But the blizzard is quite bad, and could lead to their deaths.
I have to say that this story was a nice change of pace in the series. As much as I enjoyed the previous books, it was good to see a story line that relied not on yet another mystery, but instead on trying to deal with issues of friendship, rivalry, the weather even. In other words, this was something with which a young lady and her friends in that part of the country would realistically contend.
The “moral” elements of the story, which were not at all “too-preachy” were two-fold. First of all, even nice, Christian folks who truly love the Lord can make bad mistakes and have serious issues to confront, as Crystal does in this story. Even the nicest Christians are still sinners and can act in quite an ugly manner. From an audience point of view, it's actually nice to see a protagonist with a lot of faults.
The other major “moral” of the story is that one's motivations really, truly do matter. When one does good for the wrong reason, they are sinning. I think that we often take the axiom that “actions speak louder than words” to an extreme level. Yes, this is largely true, as the actions one repeatedly takes can show the truth of one's heart. But there is a point where a person can have actions that are good or bad, but the motivations really do matter. It matters if someone does good for the wrong reason, and needs correction and reproof, and it matters if someone does or believes something wrong out of a sincere heart, and thus needs correction and not necessarily reproof. As an aside, in my own personal devotions, Elihu in the last quarter of the book of Job would be an example of the someone who does or believes wrongly out of a sincere heart. That's why God didn't include him in the punishment Job's other “friends” would have suffered had Job not prayed for them.
The lesson on the importance of “motive” was a good one, and I wish more books touched on this subject. Overall, this was a great read, and I look forward to soon finishing up the series with the last book.
Highly Recommended.
As the story begins, Crystal becomes angry and worried because her best friend Gabrielle is receiving anonymous letters from “a secret admirer”. When some evidence leads Crystal to suspect a mutual friend is playing a trick on Gabrielle, Crystal takes action, only to find out she is wrong. But the worst part is yet to come, as Crystal, Shawn, and their friends must brave a blizzard to find one of their own rodeo team mates who gets caught out when the inclement weather turns worse. But the blizzard is quite bad, and could lead to their deaths.
I have to say that this story was a nice change of pace in the series. As much as I enjoyed the previous books, it was good to see a story line that relied not on yet another mystery, but instead on trying to deal with issues of friendship, rivalry, the weather even. In other words, this was something with which a young lady and her friends in that part of the country would realistically contend.
The “moral” elements of the story, which were not at all “too-preachy” were two-fold. First of all, even nice, Christian folks who truly love the Lord can make bad mistakes and have serious issues to confront, as Crystal does in this story. Even the nicest Christians are still sinners and can act in quite an ugly manner. From an audience point of view, it's actually nice to see a protagonist with a lot of faults.
The other major “moral” of the story is that one's motivations really, truly do matter. When one does good for the wrong reason, they are sinning. I think that we often take the axiom that “actions speak louder than words” to an extreme level. Yes, this is largely true, as the actions one repeatedly takes can show the truth of one's heart. But there is a point where a person can have actions that are good or bad, but the motivations really do matter. It matters if someone does good for the wrong reason, and needs correction and reproof, and it matters if someone does or believes something wrong out of a sincere heart, and thus needs correction and not necessarily reproof. As an aside, in my own personal devotions, Elihu in the last quarter of the book of Job would be an example of the someone who does or believes wrongly out of a sincere heart. That's why God didn't include him in the punishment Job's other “friends” would have suffered had Job not prayed for them.
The lesson on the importance of “motive” was a good one, and I wish more books touched on this subject. Overall, this was a great read, and I look forward to soon finishing up the series with the last book.
Highly Recommended.
Displaying 1 of 1 review