Christy now works at an antique book store, learning
the finer points about how to spot a first edition gem. She’d worked her way up
in the business from the bottom, and now she was really getting to the fun
stuff. Nothing beats the smell of an old and valuable book. She wasn’t perfect.
She drank a bit too much, at least in the opinion of the cop who gave her a
DUI. But overall, she was faring pretty well. Her family only a sometimes
memory.
May Williams never forgot the day her sister walked
out, never to return. She was now part-owner of a ranch that was home to a
couple hundred head of cattle. It was a rough life but May enjoyed it. Yet life seemed incomplete without her sister.
But after Christy is accused of stealing a first
edition autographed Hemingway, and her apartment burns in a mysterious fire,
Christy flees to her sister, fearing for her life. It’s a bittersweet reunion
as May and Christy realizes what opposite paths their lives have taken. It will
take a relationship Thicker than Blood to resolve the pain.
C.J. Darlington scores in her debut novel. Thicker
than Blood is a character and emotion driven novel that focuses on the
breadth and depth of relationships. At the forefront, of course, is Christy’s
relationship with May, but along the way, many more relationships are explored,
each telling its own unique tale. For Christy, it’s a story of redemption from
her past; for May, it’s about how to forgive the sister that hurt her so
horribly. And at the center of story is the Gospel Christy so desperately
needs, and May is so desperate to share.
It’s well-written with attention to detail. I
particularly enjoyed the random tidbits about the antique book industry, as
Darlington has many years experience in the bookselling business. As a
self-professed bibliophile, I particularly enjoyed these little factoids.
On the flip side, I did feel that the book got a
little heavy-handed on the preaching side occasionally. Not often, just enough
for me to take note of it. And I fully realize that this is a Christian
publication from a Christian publisher, so I’m not saying it’s not entirely a
bad thing, but in my experience, such methods do not work as well as if the
theme is more subtly integrated. However, on the whole, Thicker than Blood is a
great debut, and I look forward to whatever might come next.
0 comments:
Post a Comment