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Ariana #2
Ariana: A Gift Most Precious
Broken promises, broken dreams, broken hearts …
Ariana Perrault has seen them all in her short lifetime, but now they seem only distant memories. Having climbed the long pathway from sinner to Latter-day Saint, she has felt the arms of a loving Heavenly Father around her, guiding her to a wonderful life with Jean-Marc and their three beautiful children. Her best friend, Paulette, has also repented, embraced the gospel, and started an eternal family of her own. But who could know that one of life�s deepest, darkest tragedies is just around the corner?
Ariana Perrault has seen them all in her short lifetime, but now they seem only distant memories. Having climbed the long pathway from sinner to Latter-day Saint, she has felt the arms of a loving Heavenly Father around her, guiding her to a wonderful life with Jean-Marc and their three beautiful children. Her best friend, Paulette, has also repented, embraced the gospel, and started an eternal family of her own. But who could know that one of life�s deepest, darkest tragedies is just around the corner?
In this powerful sequel to Ariana: The Making of a Queen, these two women and their families come face to face with the life-and-death consequences of past choices. Will their testimonies give them strength enough to withstand the darkest hours of their lives? The answer, born of both adversity and joy, is A Gift Most Precious.
221 pages, Paperback
First published April 18, 2014
17 people are currently reading
206 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Ann Nunes
57 books361 followersRachel Ann Nunes (pronounced noon-esh) learned to read when she was four and by seventh grade knew she was going to be an author. Now as a stay-at-home mother of seven, it isn't easy to find time to write, but she will trade washing dishes or weeding the garden for an hour at the computer any day! Her only rule about writing is to never eat chocolate at the computer. "Since I love chocolate and writing," she jokes, "my family might never see me again."
Rachel has over sixty published books, including the popular Ariana series and the award-winning picture book Daughter of a King. She enjoys hiking, swimming, spending time with her family, reading, and visiting far off places.
For more information or to join her e-mailing list, visit http://www.RachelAnnNunes.com.
Rachel has over sixty published books, including the popular Ariana series and the award-winning picture book Daughter of a King. She enjoys hiking, swimming, spending time with her family, reading, and visiting far off places.
For more information or to join her e-mailing list, visit http://www.RachelAnnNunes.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
May 22, 2015
I thought that this book was so good. It really changes how you look at the gospel, and how how much the gospel influences our lives for the better. I think it would a great teen and older read.
May 17, 2012
Ariana: A Gift Most Precious (1997) is the second of Rachel Nunes's Ariana quadrilogy about LDS members in Paris, and takes place four years after the end of Ariana: The Making of a Queen. Ariana and Jean-Marc have three children; Jean-Marc's brother Pierre and wife Paulette are expecting their second, but both parents have tragically been diagnosed with AIDS. The bright spot is that Paulette’s nurse Giselle and 22 of their African-French family members, including her elderly grandfather, agree to listen to the missionaries. Most of them convert including Giselle and her grandfather. Paulette’s hard-drinking mother, Simone will straighten out her life and be baptized as well in what I found to be an overly sentimental and simple conversion story. And, for the second time, Ariana recognizes that such success and “golden” attitudes are not the norm in her country. “In France, most missionaries were lucky to have this many investigators during the whole two years they served, never mind in one day” (295).
I cannot help but think that if this were a series about LDS members in France written by a French person, the baptismal rate would not be so high and there would be more discussion of discouragement and non-acceptance of the gospel by more people.
To segue between the problematics of attitudes and language, these novels often come up lacking in the brightness and brilliance of French color that should be an integral part of the story telling. There is a troublesome lack of the French language all through these books. It is not until the fourth book when Ariana’s daughter Josette is a student at BYU and giving French lessons to Provo high schooler Brionney, that we get so much as a bonjour. In all the books, there is ongoing use of the terms Mom, Dad and Grandma, where Maman, Papa, and Mamie would convey the relationship easily in the authentic French terms. After Paulette has passed away from AIDS, and Ariana and Jean-Marc have agreed to adopt Marie-Thérèse and baby Pauline, Pierre, who himself will soon die, suggests that his children refer to Paulette as Mommy and call Ariana Mom (393). Unfortunately, such a distinction does not exist in the French language. Everyone calls his/her mother Maman with no variation. Mamie, of course, means Grandma.
Other ways in which the French language could be introduced lightly and without confusion . . . . Parisians travel underground, but Nunes refers to the train as the subway instead of the métro, which would have added a little more French validity. Ailing father Pierre bonds with his infant daughter Pauline by singing her the song “Dites-Moi” translated into English as “Tell me Why.” This is problematic first, because the song is not an old French folk tune or lullaby, but rather, a translation into English of a song written by American lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II for South Pacific. Secondly, Hammerstein wrote the song in French (presumably with some help). It is sung in South Pacific in French, and it is never translated into English. The unlikelihood of the use of this song by the Perrault family nettles me (even though they are supposed to be singing it in French) and seeing it translated in English irritates me even more. I would have been much more comfortable with the use of an authentic French tune that children love such as “Au Claire de la Lune” or “Auprès de ma Blonde”—and in their original French. Or, if “Dites-Moi” is used, at least I would like to see it written down in French with a brief paraphrased translation in English.
And now for my gripes about the lack of French culture: We do get some interesting cultural color at the beginning of this book as Ariana and Paulette take their children on an excursion to the Canal Saint-Martin and make numerous references to the surrounding region’s importance during the French Revolution. Ariana also likes to walk along the Seine. Other than these references, mention of Parisian sights and cultural color are rare. The Eiffle Tower—the most famous and recognizable French landmark of all—does not even appear until book four. Early in A Gift Most Precious, Ariana admits she usually serves croissants and hot chocolate for breakfast, but this day she is frying eggs for Jean-Marc for breakfast –“a habit Jean-Marc has acquired from one of his American missionary companions” (168). Even though Nunes qualifies Jean-Marc’s preference this way, this breakfast is just too un-French for me. I would prefer to see Jean-Marc eating a small container of yogurt or spreading jam—confiture au framboises—on a big slice of baguette. A few pages later, Grandma Joséphine is letting a cake cool in preparation for icing it for the children (190). An iced cake is not completely out of the realm of French cuisine, but it still sounds too Americanized to me. Could not Mamie Joséphine be stuffing cream puffs –choux de crème –or ladling crêpe batter on to a pan? Later, Ariana grabs a roll and bites through the flaky crust to the inner white (358). The roll is obviously a croissant. Why did she not say that?
In this same tome, Ariana finds her mother and mother-in-law Louise serving a “breakfast of juice and hot mush to the twins” (277). Hot mush?!?!? Now I know that in France, one can buy flocons or farine d’avoine, which means oatmeal and semoule de blé, which is like Cream of Wheat, and there might well be French mothers who feed those hot cereals to their children for breakfast. However, how much more typically and colorfully French it would have been to see the Perrault children making tartines by spreading butter on slices of baguette or, better yet, slathering them with Nutella, sticking their fingers in the jar, getting chocolate all over their fingers and faces. Again, these criticisms probably would not matter to anyone except fussy Francophiles like myself. I am glad Nunes has included a French family in her prolific repertoire of novels about LDS people. I only wish I could read the Ariana series with fewer groans about their lack of quintessential Frenchness.
I cannot help but think that if this were a series about LDS members in France written by a French person, the baptismal rate would not be so high and there would be more discussion of discouragement and non-acceptance of the gospel by more people.
To segue between the problematics of attitudes and language, these novels often come up lacking in the brightness and brilliance of French color that should be an integral part of the story telling. There is a troublesome lack of the French language all through these books. It is not until the fourth book when Ariana’s daughter Josette is a student at BYU and giving French lessons to Provo high schooler Brionney, that we get so much as a bonjour. In all the books, there is ongoing use of the terms Mom, Dad and Grandma, where Maman, Papa, and Mamie would convey the relationship easily in the authentic French terms. After Paulette has passed away from AIDS, and Ariana and Jean-Marc have agreed to adopt Marie-Thérèse and baby Pauline, Pierre, who himself will soon die, suggests that his children refer to Paulette as Mommy and call Ariana Mom (393). Unfortunately, such a distinction does not exist in the French language. Everyone calls his/her mother Maman with no variation. Mamie, of course, means Grandma.
Other ways in which the French language could be introduced lightly and without confusion . . . . Parisians travel underground, but Nunes refers to the train as the subway instead of the métro, which would have added a little more French validity. Ailing father Pierre bonds with his infant daughter Pauline by singing her the song “Dites-Moi” translated into English as “Tell me Why.” This is problematic first, because the song is not an old French folk tune or lullaby, but rather, a translation into English of a song written by American lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II for South Pacific. Secondly, Hammerstein wrote the song in French (presumably with some help). It is sung in South Pacific in French, and it is never translated into English. The unlikelihood of the use of this song by the Perrault family nettles me (even though they are supposed to be singing it in French) and seeing it translated in English irritates me even more. I would have been much more comfortable with the use of an authentic French tune that children love such as “Au Claire de la Lune” or “Auprès de ma Blonde”—and in their original French. Or, if “Dites-Moi” is used, at least I would like to see it written down in French with a brief paraphrased translation in English.
And now for my gripes about the lack of French culture: We do get some interesting cultural color at the beginning of this book as Ariana and Paulette take their children on an excursion to the Canal Saint-Martin and make numerous references to the surrounding region’s importance during the French Revolution. Ariana also likes to walk along the Seine. Other than these references, mention of Parisian sights and cultural color are rare. The Eiffle Tower—the most famous and recognizable French landmark of all—does not even appear until book four. Early in A Gift Most Precious, Ariana admits she usually serves croissants and hot chocolate for breakfast, but this day she is frying eggs for Jean-Marc for breakfast –“a habit Jean-Marc has acquired from one of his American missionary companions” (168). Even though Nunes qualifies Jean-Marc’s preference this way, this breakfast is just too un-French for me. I would prefer to see Jean-Marc eating a small container of yogurt or spreading jam—confiture au framboises—on a big slice of baguette. A few pages later, Grandma Joséphine is letting a cake cool in preparation for icing it for the children (190). An iced cake is not completely out of the realm of French cuisine, but it still sounds too Americanized to me. Could not Mamie Joséphine be stuffing cream puffs –choux de crème –or ladling crêpe batter on to a pan? Later, Ariana grabs a roll and bites through the flaky crust to the inner white (358). The roll is obviously a croissant. Why did she not say that?
In this same tome, Ariana finds her mother and mother-in-law Louise serving a “breakfast of juice and hot mush to the twins” (277). Hot mush?!?!? Now I know that in France, one can buy flocons or farine d’avoine, which means oatmeal and semoule de blé, which is like Cream of Wheat, and there might well be French mothers who feed those hot cereals to their children for breakfast. However, how much more typically and colorfully French it would have been to see the Perrault children making tartines by spreading butter on slices of baguette or, better yet, slathering them with Nutella, sticking their fingers in the jar, getting chocolate all over their fingers and faces. Again, these criticisms probably would not matter to anyone except fussy Francophiles like myself. I am glad Nunes has included a French family in her prolific repertoire of novels about LDS people. I only wish I could read the Ariana series with fewer groans about their lack of quintessential Frenchness.
October 20, 2007
I like the author, Rachel Anne Nunes, because she doesn't do a lot of the stuff that other Mormon authors (ah-hum, Anita Stansfield) do, like ponder on the enternal condundrum "should I sleep with him?" or say stupid words like "glorious" (although I think the kids in the book act above age level). She takes on realistic-ish issues like drugs, aids, workaholic parents, death, consequences, depression, etc. She isn't sentimental very often. Her books aren't great literary works filled with metaphor or hidden meanings -- it's pretty much what you read is what you get. The book is a page turner and you may just shed a tear or two at the end.
July 5, 2010
The second in the Ariana series started out slowly for me. It also felt a bit preachy and repetitious and that the author was trying to educate the reader about AIDS. About half way, the story got better and the characters more involved. I enjoyed the second half much better. It ended with the same kind of feelings as in the first Ariana, sad but with hope. The grwoth of Ariana and her family in the second half of the novel made it worth reading.
August 4, 2008
I upped this book in the series to a 4 instead of a three because it is not nearly so depressing though it does deal with the hard consequences people face in life even after they have repented. The author does a good job of explaining why we still have these trials. And how we can still find hope in life.
August 7, 2008
This is the second book in this series and it was hard for me because there were so many trials that this person has gone through! Enough is enough already!!! I understand people having trials in their life but really? I'm going to be reading the third book in this series and I hope that it gets a little better!
January 13, 2009
This book was better than the first. The author seems to have progressed as a writer and knows a little more about not making the story too predictable. I think the story line isn't as interesting as the first but definitely more personal and touching.
March 13, 2012
Very impressive, the problems were many, however, it helps us to realize that Heavenly Father do answer prayers but not necessary the way we would like. However in the long run many lives will be blessed.
December 4, 2015
Ariana and Paulette's families come face to face with life and death consequences of their past decisions, after Paulette was diagnosed with a disease that may affect both families after they had both climbed to a higher belief in our Heavenly Father.
March 19, 2008
I love this book... i can read it and know that my problems are tiny compared to others. i forget myself reading this book.
May 5, 2008
Another religious book in the series. I enjoyed it but nothing spectacular.
September 3, 2008
This book is very good it has a very good story. I really liked this book. I would like to get all of Rachel Ann Nunes's books especaly this searies.
September 29, 2008
This was a depressing one, and had a few too many trials for my taste, but thought #2 in the series and needs to be read if you are reading the Arianna series.
October 14, 2016
Rachel Ann Nunes is a gifted author. I love the way her stories are deep with emotions and real life.
December 13, 2008
WARNING: his series is highly addicting!!!!
Read
December 31, 2008This book takes the reader into the world of HIV and AIDS. It was informative to follow the life of someone effected by AIDS
January 15, 2009
Ariana Series #2
Own: Book/Tape
Own: Book/Tape
July 18, 2009
This one is so trying on Ariana and her family, follow her with herdifficulties, and learn to love her even more!
January 25, 2018
2nd time reading it; I still love these books, but the 2nd one in the trilogy is the weakest to me. Still good though.
November 16, 2010
Moving and so full of love and hope. I couldn't put it down and yet I must admit it's a little cheesy!
For LDS readers only.
For LDS readers only.
December 29, 2010
See The Making of a Queen
January 11, 2012
This series is a tearjerker. Not my style.
May 20, 2012
Taught me a lot about dealing with trials through the atonement. I enjoyed it a lot, even though parts were emotionally hard to read.
June 7, 2012
Meh. Part 2.
June 20, 2012
Again, alright....
September 2, 2013
I love these books. They are sad, but people live the gospel and help each other out so it ends up ok in the end.
January 6, 2016
Though not by any means as good as the first, this book had really nice moments. For me, however, it was too much of a downer all through.
April 16, 2015
Loved, but cried thru most of it. Some lives are tougher than others.
November 14, 2020
Another sweet story of the Perrault family. Ariana is a little too perfect in this book but the focus on family and God's power is beautiful.
February 3, 2017
Sad story trying to offer an uplifting message.
No sex, no swearing, mild violent scenes, adult themes of AIDs, death, drugs, alcohol
No sex, no swearing, mild violent scenes, adult themes of AIDs, death, drugs, alcohol
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews