This book is being featured on the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance this week. Information about the author and more details about the book can be found here.
Paula has again chosen a challenging theme for the basis of her novel, Imogen’s Chance – a young man faced with a serious illness and a young women living with regrets. I liked the originality of the story line and the well drawn characters. The story was easy to read and moved at a good pace.
However, for me, the best part of the story was how the main characters wrestled with issues of faith. Both grew up in Christian contexts and were familiar with the Bible and Biblical principles, even though they were not well modelled within their families. So while they knew about faith they struggled to grasp its relevance for their lives. I enjoyed the way Paula showed a way forward for those who want a faith that is real and not one that is merely inherited.
I was interested that Ash went into remission after two treatments of chemotherapy. My husband also had cancer (20 years ago) and went into remission after the first of six treatments, however the doctors expected him to finish the course, for preventative reasons. Since my husband had no conviction to do otherwise he completed all the treatments. The assumption in this story seemed to be that Ash did not need to continue with treatment, which I found a little troubling. However this did not distract from my overall enjoyment of the book.
Thanks to Even Before Publishing for providing a free book for review.