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BOOK REVIEW: Trials of Faith
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by Laura V. Hilton Dancing Word Reviewer
Title: Trials of Faith Author: Crystal Ratcliff Publisher: Publish America ISBN: 1-59129-519-X Genre: Inspirational/Contemporary/Romance
College freshman, Cassandra Smith is experiencing life away from home and parents for the first time. Sharing an apartment with her best friend, Beth, Cassie’s Christian up-bringing is quickly shoved aside to make room for the popular college life. Parties, alcohol, and drug use prevail. Cassie struggles with guilt, but doesn’t want to be unpopular. She tries to hide some of her bad habits on her rare visits home.
Soon she meets Mac Lugot. Mac is a partner at a successful accounting firm. Fascinated by the beautiful and fun Cassie, Mac is quick to offer her a job as his secretarial assistant. Their relationship quickly becomes serious.
When Mac goes home with Cassie to meet her parents, he doesn’t understand why Cassie has never mentioned her Christianity to him. Is it unimportant to her? Determined to find out if her parent’s faith is truth or fantasy, Mac starts studying the Bible on his own. What happens when he finds a faith in God and Cassie has trouble believing in her parent’s God? Is it too late for Cassie to give up the lifestyle she’s picked up in college? Does she even want to try? And what about when Mac runs into an insurmountable obstacle? Will he be able to keep his new faith?
Trials of Faith is an interesting story about facing life away from home for the first time. Cassie runs into a lot of the same situations and tests as most first time college students and must decide whether the beliefs she was raised with are worth keeping. I was a bit impatient with Cassie’s attitude toward her family, but she had the typical teenager mindset—she is the only one who matters.
There is a lot of head hopping in Trials of Faith, making it sometimes difficult for the reader to follow. There is also a lot of telling instead of showing, so the story doesn’t flow very smoothly. Otherwise, the author had a good story line and a message that needs to be heard by all teens. I recommend Trials of Faith for a cute love story with faith at the base. | |
