Originally Posted at Bibliophile’s Retreat by Melissa Meeks
This novel published by Destiny 11 is Ms. Jones’ first published book to my knowledge yet it goes so much deeper than most Christian fiction I have seen over the years. Inspirational has seemed to mean sweet, fluffy, sugarcoated, fun reads to many. I must applaud Ms. Jones for kicking these stereotypes to the curb with this book.
Lia and Nigel make many choices inconsistent with a supposed faith and suffer the incumbent consequences of those choices for most of their story. While there is definitely no sugarcoating to be found here there is still a story of fallible humans learning and growing so that they will hopefully not repeat their earlier mistakes. Lia and Nigel are prime examples of how easy it is to get caught up by societal or peer pressure and lose sight of our true desires in life or worse our key focus, which should be reflecting Christ to those around us.
There are any number of principles presented here that teenagers in today’s society ought to be hearing but are instead inundated by the opposite messages. My primary difficulty is that while the principles presented here are wonderful messages to teens, the book itself would likely be kept from teens in many homes because the subject matter in parts of the book would be considered inappropriate for them to be reading.
Despite the subjects that most would gloss over in the arena of Christian Fiction or avoid altogether, the characters are well developed and the plot is detailed as well as quick moving. The story drew me in from the first and has an overall positive message despite the lifestyles presented in detail that entice Lia and Nigel to stray from their own values for a good portion of the book.
Read Blessings of Purpose to find out how and if Lia and Nigel find their way back to the path and purposes their Lord marked out for them before the beginning of time.
