June 18th, 2012 at 5:56AM

WHEN RAIN FALLS by TYORA MOODY

Candace is a kind lady with two children who lives in the South with her two children, a boy and girl. However, Candace deals with pain or rain everyday of her life. Instead of life becoming easier, her life becomes more difficult when her best friend, Pamela, a district attorney and a daughter of a judge is murdered. Hard to believe but each day Candace deals with the awful fact of her mother’s murder. Next her husband Frank, a policeman is murdered and now as I wrote earlier Pamela, her best friend is murdered. How can one woman deal with so much emotional pain and keep walking and working in the salon? She does it by depending on THE LORD and her faith. This book is a double whammy of goodness because it’s Christian fiction and a fast moving mystery. Throughout her many rainy day, Candace replaces painful thoughts with Godly thoughts. Oh, she still breaks down, but she doesn’t quit living her life.

Each person in the novel, WHEN RAIN FALLS by Tyora Moody are interesting. There are also goings on that the church would not call Christian. Pamela lives a double life along with the friend of her father.This man is married. His name is Mitch Harris. Then, there is Avante who does far more than run an art gallery. Yolanda Harris is interesting too. She is Mitch’s wife. The characters are colorful and three dimensional.

 I did have one problem. I didn’t feel a particular place as I read. I need visual aides like buildings, rivers, stores, etc. to make the story really pop. Something that would help me take away a name of a place and remember it and see it in my mind far after I close the novel. Otherwise, the South can so easily blend in to the North. Leaving me to get lost in the city of somewhere.

The novel made me think about the importance of forgiveness. Lingering memories about pain a person feels they should never have experienced can lead to murderous revenge. An invisible spider web can form catching more than one person in its nasty web. Once in that web it is very difficult to get free again. I have used the word forgiveness often in my past and present. It is such an easy word to say because I’ve heard or read it all my life. Tyora Moody shows through her story forgiveness is as deep and wild as an unwalked forest. I also learned that a face doesn’t tell a person’s character. It is easy to know a person for a very long time and not know what soup is brewing behind the eyes and in the mind. I suppose that is why human beings are called complex characters. Our hearts and minds are like the Mammoth cave filled with different rooms and passageways. I take this thought along with many other thoughts away from When Rain Falls, “You can’t just tuck the past away and forget it. Sometimes you have to acknowledge it, or it will eat you….”Mammoth+Cave
tyoramoody

Source: readwithtea.blogspot.com #Christian fiction#death#single parenting#murders#friendship#small business#blackmail#romance#family#revenge#forgiveness
May 10th, 2012 at 4:57AM

Interruption: The Gospel According to Crystal Justine by Tracey Michae’l Lewis

Crystal Justine is a young lady who lives a full life. Her life is filled with painful adjustments. Before any young girl should try to understand the forever loss of loved ones, she loses in death her mother, Sasha Germaine, her father and her grandmother. After the loss of his wife, Sasha’s father never really regains his equilibrium. He lives daily with his grief while in the process Crystal is left to learn about life and deal with her problems without his help. Crystal’s mother, Sasha, dies after Crystal Justine is born. Therefore, throughout her life Crystal’s mother, Sasha, is like a shadow that is before and behind her. Her mother becomes a ghost in her life because of her father’s inability to deal with his emotional pain.

While reading TRACEY MICHAE’L LEWIS’ novel, INTERRUPTION: The Gospel According to CRYSTAL JUSTINE, I thought about Crystal’s emotions about her mother. Dealing with grief can never be denied or pushed down into the subconscious with hope that it will just disappear. Grief seems to have a way of piling up and lifting itself from one person to the next person. It’s like a heavy fog in a home where no one can breathe. Unfortunately, this is the legacy that Crystal Justine must live with everyday.

The ghost of her mother isn’t her only struggle. Other horrible circumstances happen in Crystal’s life. Her father’s best friend is the cause of a major catastrophe in Crystal’s life. Although Crystal goes through so much she clings to God. She never let’s go or gives up. I found it surprising that such a young lady could keep going on each day while finding her own answers. Thankfully, one day she meets an older lady. She thinks of the older lady as an angel sent by God. She arrives just in the nick of time with the right answers needed by Crystal Justine. In the end Sasha addresses evil spirits who have always haunted her. Crystal Justine proves to be as hard as crystal. Crystal is defined in this way.

“To every demon in hell who has pursued me, my mother, my grandmother and all of the women before us, you should have took me out when you had the chance because from this day forward, I am…we are…free.” rawsistaz

Source: readwithtea.blogspot.com #death#motherless#murder#ghosts from the past#Brazil#Chicago#Romantic love#Christian fiction#family#rape#ministries