Okay so this book is fairly classic Karen Kingsbury. My beef with the book isn't the character development or the story of the main character its that for me its too preachy. I love good Christian Fiction but I like that to be woven into the story not dripping off of every page. The story of Mary, the main character, is compelling and heartbreaking and worth telling. It is supposed to be a modern day story of Mary Magdalene and on that it does a good job. I was ready for it to be over though by the time I got to the end. If you generally like Karen Kingsbury you'll like this book.

This book contains child abuse including sexual abuse, rape, prostitution, drug use, modern slavery, sex slavery and severe domestic violence. If it were a movie, I would rate it NC-17. Yes, the characters find the gospel and repent, but the things they go through in the meantime are dark and disgusting. It’s real life and these things actually happen. In my opinion reading about real live stories is enough without reading fictional versions as well. Other reviews state that this book is detailed without being graphic, but I would assert that it doesn’t need to be explicit to be graphic. We all have imaginations and we know real life, so you will see sex violence in your mind when you read this book. That’s my review. I did not find the book uplifting.
For information on stopping sex trafficking and domestic violence visit ourresue.org (operation Underground Railroad) and fightthenewdrug.org

You can see my other reviews of Karen’s work. I give most of them five stars. So please don’t let this dissuade you from reading her other books. I just wanted to warn parents not to give this to a child or teenager and to be warned before you read it yourself.

The most moving book I have ever read. I couldn't get this book out of my head. Be prepared to cry!

Even a few hours after finishing this book, I can't believe I'm actually assigning only 1 star to a book written by one of my favorite authors. [sigh]. There's just no way around it... I refused to quit in the middle because of my personal rule to never leave a book unfinished... but my hope for a redeeming conclusion fell flat.

For years I steered clear of Christian fiction for all the reasons proven by this book: cheesy analogies, "overnight" conversions, and over-the-top religious conversation. I have tremendous respect for Kingsbury as an author, so I will refrain from creating a list of cons that this book offered and merely say this: the undertones of the book seemed "preachy", the characters were not believable in their rapid, overnight conversions, and the repetition of "Jesus is all you need" was a tiny bit overstated. I am a strong believer and do agree with the previous statement, but the way it was applied seemed naive.

Additionally, I completely dislike the way that the relationship of two adult believers was portrayed: though they clearly loved each other, they refrained from starting a relationship/getting married because they each "committed themselves fully to God's work". I do respect those who choose this way of life, and I agree it could be wise for some, but the way it was portrayed in the book seemed to scream "Being a worker in God's Kingdom demands singleness". I could see this potentially causing great confusion in the life of a new believer.

The one thing Kingsbury did well in this book is tell a horrific story of sexual abuse clearly, but without any graphic details. High five to that. As for the rest, I think you'd enjoy a Baxter series by Kingsbury a lot more!