Guilty of Love
Pat Simmons
Urban Christian, September 2007
$14.95 US, ISBN 1893196992
Rating: 2
Letting go of the past…
As a college student, young and in love, Cheney Reynolds made the ultimate sacrifice for love; she aborted her baby because a baby wasn’t in her boyfriend’s best interest and plans.
The overwhelming guilt of this abortion weighs heavily upon Cheney’s spirit causing her to withdraw into herself, and away from her family. And as for ever loving or trusting another man again, it’s safe to say her ex-boyfriend effectively killed that emotion.
When Parke Jamieson VI comes along, he takes one look at Cheney and wants her for his own. But he soon discovers that getting close to Cheney will require help from a Higher power. Even though Parke and Cheney are at different stages in their lives, trusting and believing in God is not at the top of their list. But they soon realize that faith in God is the answer to every situation they face.
The overall premise of this book is good, but the lack of substantive editing made it difficult for me to read. The prologue of the story drew me in right away. But beyond the prologue, the pace of the story was extremely slow and the numerous grammatical errors I encountered did not help with my overall reading experience.
Also, I felt I was reading a contemporary romance more so than a Christian fiction novel. Generally, Christian fiction works contain some of the following elements – celebration of God’s presence in our lives, the characters relationship to God is the primary focus, and God plays a significant role in the plot and the outcome. While Guilty of Love did have some of these characteristics, they were not prevalent. I have no problems with reading romance novels because I’m a romance junkie to the bone, I do have a problem with novels that are classified as one genre, but takes on the traits of another totally different genre.
Pat Simmons’ underlying message of love and forgiveness shines through and I applaud her efforts on tackling the very sensitive subject of abortion and all of the emotions that go along with the life altering decision.