Matters of Faith by Kristy Kiernan
Marshall Tobias brings his new girlfriend home to Florida to meet his family. She has some pretty unique religious views, such as opposing medical intervention and when she sets out to help Marshall's little sister with her life threatening allergies, tragedy strikes.
This is a family drama that contained some honest moments. I did think the Tobias' strained marriage rang true. But having witnessed families who live with allergies, it just doesn't seem like Marshall would allow his sister to eat something forbidden AND I can't believe his sister Meghan (who is 12) would take a bite. I could not overcome my utter disbelief - having witnessed how stringent even a 5 year old can be about what they can and cannot eat. So setting that up as the "crisis" I found kind of ridiculous, and I never recovered. The book started out strong, though, with one of the best first lines:
"The turning points in my life have always arrived disguised as daily life."
As far as writing, she's clearly got skills, and I'm curious to read her first book, Catching Genius.
I do think Matters of Faith lends itself to a fascinating discussion, mainly because allergies are so prevalent. There is alot here - religion, parenting, marriage, stress..but I'd be interested to see what other readers think about it, especially things I may have missed because I was so frustrated. What do you think?
3 stars
The End.
I particularly enjoyed the author's vacation book list from her blog. It made me feel better about mine and jealous over having enough vacation time to read all those books!
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