Simplistic, feel-good fare.
The third installment of Evans’ Christ-centered drama about a woman who is redeemed through submitting to God and forgiving her husband.
As the novel opens Jade and Max Benson’s marriage is just about over. Max is in rehab (again) for prescription-drug abuse and Jade is at their home in Tennessee, raising Max’s 2-year-old lovechild Asa (right before their wedding, Max had a fling with his ex-fiancé Rice, issuing forth Asa, now with Max since Rice’s death in a plane crash a few months prior). Jade has fallen in love with Asa but is wondering if she can ever trust Max again. When he returns, Max is a changed man—clean, committed to Jade and recommitted to living a life in Christ. Just one little thing—he wants to leave Tennessee and the prestigious law practice he’s inherited to coach high-school football in small-town Texas. He is asking Jade to leave behind her friends and the successful vintage-clothing store she’s built, as well as their home and the comfortable life of a lawyer’s wife, but they feel this is what God wants them to do. Why God wants Max to coach high-school ball remains unclear, and it is suspicious that God’s will and Max’s childhood dream are conveniently aligned. Initially, life in Texas, where those Friday Night lights are a serious concern, is disastrous. Max fires assistant coaches, loses games and infuriates the town, all of which alienates Jade. But that’s not all Jade has to worry about—more pressing issues emerge on the way to the resolution.
Simplistic, feel-good fare.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59554-491-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.
Christian-fiction writer Martin (The Dead Don’t Dance, not reviewed) chronicles the personal tragedy of a Georgia heart surgeon.
Five years ago in Atlanta, Reese could not save his beloved wife Emma from heart failure, even though the Harvard-trained surgeon became a physician so that he could find a way to fix his childhood sweetheart’s congenitally faulty ticker. He renounced practicing medicine after her death and now lives in quiet anonymity as a boat mechanic on Lake Burton. Across the lake is Emma’s brother Charlie, who was rendered blind on the same desperate night that Reese fought to revive his wife on their kitchen floor. When Reese helps save the life of a seven-year-old local girl named Annie, who turns out to have irreparable heart damage, he is compassionately drawn into her case. He also grows close to Annie’s attractive Aunt Cindy and gradually comes to recognize that the family needs his expertise as a transplant surgeon. Martin displays some impressive knowledge about medical practice and the workings of the heart, but his Christian message is not exactly subtle. “If anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart,” Reese notes of his medical studies. Emma’s letters (kept in a bank vault) quote Bible verse; Charlie elucidates stories of Jesus’ miracles for young Annie; even the napkins at the local bar, The Well, carry passages from the Gospel of John for the benefit of the biker clientele. Moreover, Martin relentlessly hammers home his sentimentality with nature-specific metaphors involving mating cardinals and crying crickets. (Annie sells crickets as well as lemonade to raise money for her heart surgery.) Reese’s habitual muttering of worldly slogans from Milton and Shakespeare (“I am ashes where once I was fire”) doesn’t much cut the cloying piety, and an over-the-top surgical save leaves the reader feeling positively bruised.
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.Pub Date: April 4, 2006
ISBN: 1-5955-4054-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: WestBow/Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
