04 January, 2014

#BookReview :: Redemption (Redemption #1) by Karen Kingsbury, Gary Smalley




When Kari Baxter Jacobs finds out that her husband is involved in an adulterous relationship and wants a divorce, she decides she will love him and remain faithful to her marriage at all costs. This book shows how God can redeem seemingly hopeless relationships, and it illustrates one of Gary Smalley’s key messages: Love is a decision. 









A Special Note: Redemption series is Christian Fiction. I am not Christian and I have not read the Bible. So, I am not in a position to agree or disagree with the religious side of the book and my review will be solely focus on this series as a work of fiction and my point of views on the characters/situations as a third person. I do not mean to criticize or applaud any of the religious views presented through the stories.

Our protagonist in this first book of the series is Kari Baxter Jacobs. When she discovers that her husband has been having an affair and wants a divorce, she decides not to divorce him and instead work through their problems. She moves in with her parents, where her ex-flame, Ryan walks into her life. She also discovers that she is pregnant with her husband’s child, one that they have been trying for quite some time. The story follows Kari through her struggles with her marriage, her attraction towards Ryan and how she comes to term with everything and try to work out her problems.

My main problem with this book was Kari’s attitude towards her cheating husband. I am sorry, I do not approve of cheating in any form and I cannot fathom why she would want to continue her relationship with her husband. I mean cheating isn’t something that just happens… It requires a lot of conscious decisions, and in my book any man who has taken those conscious decisions over and over again over a period of time doesn’t deserve a second chance. A person should make an effort to work out whatever problems he had in his marriage that pushed him towards cheating instead of just going about cheating on his wife. To top it off, Tim, Kari’s husband cheats on her with his student…! That’s just not done. I get the part about forgiveness and loyalty… well forgive him and move on. Not forgive and move back in so that he can go on and continue with his ways!

Well, ranting over! Now that I have managed to get that out of my system, let me move on to the good aspects of this book. We meet a lot of character in this book. It is clear that the authors were aiming to set up a background for the other stories in the series and as such, some characters play a more important role than the others. But the leading casts of this story were all very well fleshed out. I loved to hate some of the characters in the book. The plot is pretty simple and almost predictable. I am actually happy with the ending because I don’t think that given Kari’s train of thoughts, I would have liked the ending any other way. The author’s language and style story-telling is most fascinating. It was probably the USP of the book.

Overall, this was a couple of hour’s worth of light reading for non-Christians like me. I will be picking up the next book in the series for sure.





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