Review: Songs of Deliverance by Marilynn Griffith

I've been looking forward to this book for a long time for a superficial reason as simple as I love the cover and title. Isn't the cover so beautiful? Anyway, when this book was offered to me for review I was told it was a stand-alone novel. However, when I started reading the book I was tremendously confused and had a hard time following the narrative. I felt like too much was trying to be accomplished and I lacked the necessary background to hold on to the story. Additionally, the point of view was constantly changing in and out of four different characters. One of the characters had changed her name from her past, it was just all so confusing. So when I read Deborah's review that there IS a book that comes before this one, I felt a lot better about it.

This book follows two couples who love each other but have huge obstacles in the way of their being together, such as being engaged to someone else, an abortion in the past, rape, past abusive boyfriend...you get the idea. And Songs of Deliverance is basically the story of how they grapple with these issues and find out who they each are individually and in the eyes of God.

I have to admit that it felt a little bit like a soap opera while I was reading it and sometimes that frustrated me. But there's such an authenticity to the spirituality of the characters that I appreciated. I was often touched by their courage as they struggled to find healing in their lives. I think this is a nice read, in some ways with edgy content for Christian fiction, and heavy on spirituality but in a way I think most Christians will appreciate.

Rating: 4/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Christian Fiction
Source of Book: Publisher provided for review
Publisher: Revell

Available January 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.