Alison Strobel

Can a brand-new marriage withstand the weight of generations-old baggage? Newlyweds Amelia and Marcus Sheffield are recent college grads, trying to stay afloat in LA while searching for their dream jobs. Marcus hopes to become a mega-church pastor. Amelia has an esteemed music degree, and longs to play piano professionally. The Sheffields are clearly city people. But when a small town church offers Marcus a job, the couple's dedication to their dreams and each other is tested. After a risky compromise is made, Amelia falls into a dark emotional place, where she finds skeletons she'd fought hard to deny. In desperation, she calls out to God. But why can't she find Him? While Amelia struggles, Marcus learns news that nearly crushes him. He must lean on his faith to withstand the pressure… or risk losing his wife forever.

Composing Amelia

Jeni Enjaian

I contemplated rating this book with three stars. It almost got to that point.

When I first started reading this book (available via a kindle download from my library) I was caught by surprise that it was a Christian book. While I hate to admit it, I was disappointed that it was. Unfortunately many Christian authors feel that Christianity restricts their prose or dictates certain answers, certain character descriptions, certain plots.

Ms. Strobel fell into that trap often throughout this book. Her prose was catchy but not catchy enough to overlook the rough patches, the trite answers. When I read the last third today I almost changed my mind about the two star rating. Ms. Strobel dealt with stuff that in some Christian circles you just "aren't supposed to talk about" such as depression, attempted suicide, and bipolar disorder.

That was the one section of the book in which I was genuinely engaged. Unfortunately, the ultimate resolution (the three month later epilogue) was too "perfect". While it wasn't actually "perfect" it was a little too perfect to be taking place only three months after the climax of the issues.

This is a decent book but I can't really recommend it to anyone.

Composing Amelia

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