Maya Kaathyrn Bohnhoff, "The Meri"

The Meri was first off a fun read.  I read it very quickly and found it enjoyable and though provoking.  It follows the path of a young lady who has had her family killed and been raised in a patriarchal religious community by an elderly priest.  Her simple femaleness causes her problems and she ends up going on the same prescribed voyage of religious discovery her mentor followed.  Now there a few themes in the novel that I had issues with, so do not read too much if you want to read the novel......
First, she is setup as wanting revenge for her dead family.  But she never really tries to get revenge and is basically portrayed as too good to follow that route.  I think it would have been more interesting if she were to have a taste of revenge and find it unsavory and then take the saintly path.  In a similar way to real courage is only really shown by those who have a lot to be afraid of.
Another thing that was not quite right is that in the world Maya creates, they have palpable evidence of a God, and good, and what is required of them, there is almost no need for faith, or the character to stand up to atrocities supported by a paper religion.  Which would be a fine thing to have in the real world.  But it seems to have no effect on the world or society she portrays, which is basically like our own as regards faith and respect for the church.  If you took a devout agnostic and put them in such a world,  daily miracles would possibly lead to a conversion, after all evidence is evidence, and agnosticism would likely fall before the overwhelming deluge of religious reality.  Maya's world however seemed to be much like our own, where everything is so much more murky.
Overall though I enjoyed the book, though it was maybe a little to saccharine for my taste, but the theme is such a hard one to succeed at.  I will read some more work by her before I decide to giver her a recommendation, but I will definitely give her a shot.  Another writer who did something similar, and to my mind succeeded better was Elizabeth Moon with the "Deeds of Paksenarrion" trilogy.  That was more routed in traditional fantasy however, unlike Mayas work, which is maybe a little too close to the real world?