A MEASURE OF FAITH - Maxine Billings
BET/New Spirit
April 2004
SYNOPSIS: When a married mother of two questions her life choices as well as her tenuous future, sometimes the answers can be just simple measures of faith. Moving and compelling, this book demonstrates how prayer, love, and compassion can help rebuild and rejuvenate in times of crisis.
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE: (4) Tricia-Anne Blades
REVIEW: A Measure of Faith is a novel which outlines the journey of a woman from her summer to the winter of her life. This journey is intertwined with the lives of love ones and explores the impact that these love ones have on the journey’s success or failure. It is a heartfelt, emotional novel that thugs at the heart of the reader propelling them to examine themselves as to whether they could handle any crisis that they face unlike this journey.
Lynette Montgomery is the main character of this novel. The journey of her life takes a drastic turn in the summer days of her life. She must decide whether to allow this crisis to overwhelm and end the journey of life or whether she faces the fear and fights to deal with what is inevitable. This crisis sends her on a backward spiral where her past encompass her reaction to her present. Her soul yearns for the missing pieces of the puzzle of her life and as she struggles, she wonders if her life as it stands was really worth it. Her struggle impacts everyone close to her and almost destroys that which has become the mainstay in her life.
Robert Montgomery loves his wife as Christ loves the church and gave Himself for it. He seeks to understand her crisis but as the mind of a man operates, he is not able to fully grasp the extent that this crisis has on Lynette as a woman. In spite of this, however, and despite the emotional trauma she places him through, like a strong man he endures and prays for strength to see the love of his life through.
Simone plays the devil’s advocate in A Measure of Faith. After years of being away from Lynette, Simone waltzes back into her life and expects that everything would return to the days of the past. Simone hates Robert and the life that Lynette has and intentionally sets out to weave a deceptive web strong enough to destroy the marriage that has been build on solid rock rather than sinking sand. It is interesting to note the subtle manipulative personality of this character who pulls the wool over the eyes of Lynette for a time. As the saying goes, “every dog has his day,” and Simone’s day definitely came when Lynette realizes how much she needs her backbone and no one will remove it from her.
This novel makes for an interesting read as it deals with the emotional aspect of women when dealing with a crisis of any magnitude. Not many women have a strong support system but those who do can relate to Lynette’s struggle and those who don’t can learn from this novel.
tricia@romanceincolor.com (6th April 2004)