Book review: Deborah Raney's Above All Things

My summer began at Memorial Day. My summer break from school ended a month ago, when I returned to work on July 31. I'd been making the most of the time off, after spiritual duties and pleasures, to engage in some of my favorite past-times: reading and movie watching. Here is a review of one of the books I read this summer, Above All Things.

I reviewed Randy Alcorn's Deadline previously

Amazon's Above All Things synopsis:

Expecting their first baby, Judd and Evette McGlin are thrilled at the prospect of becoming parents. But their marriage faces the ultimate test when Judd learns he already has a child: a six-year-old bi-racial daughter, born amid secrets and lies. Now, Evette must decide if she can accept the child—and forgive Judd. She thought she was open-minded—until hidden prejudices threaten the future of an innocent little girl, Evette's marriage, and the very notion of the woman she's believed herself to be. Above all things, this child needs acceptance and love. Needs Evette to discover what being a mother truly means. Needs Judd to face his past. And needs them both to discover what it truly means to be a family.

Review:

I've never read any of Deborah Raney's books. I bought Above All Things for the Kindle because it was free. I haven't had the best of luck with the freebie notices that BookBub sends me. When a Kindle book is free there's usually a reason. But sometimes a good one is stuck in there so I keep trying. This was one of the good ones.

BookBub "is a free daily email that notifies you about deep discounts on acclaimed ebooks. You choose the types you'd like to get notified about — with categories ranging from mysteries to cookbooks — and we send great deals in those genres to your inbox." BookBub is like Honey or Camel Camel Camel but strictly for books.

My favorite genres tend toward the more manly fast paced thrillers, detective, or legal genres than the Christian ChickLit, which Above All Things definitely is.

I enjoyed how the author set the foundation at first and introduced her Christian characters by showing, not telling. I enjoyed how she brought us through their issue, the unknown daughter Judd had 6 years ago and the other issues of pre-marital sex, betrayal, and blended family that come with it. Included in their issues to work through was also the biracial aspect. The characters were well-drawn, including the daughter, grandmother and in-laws. Raney's depiction of the change of heart and Christian growth were realistic. I especially enjoyed the scene where the couple is counseled by their pastor.

All in all, I was tremendously surprised when I looked up the length for the print version and saw it was 308 pages. It felt shorter.

Raney has been a Christy Award finalist and her first book, A Vow To Cherish earned a Silver Angel from Excellence in Media and was made into a movie of the same name. The print version of Above All Things was self-published. The writing wasn't nuanced or tremendously complex. It is a good, free book. All in all, a good vacation read.