“Faith can move mountains,” Benny whispered to himself. He would not follow in his parent’s footsteps. He would rise above. In many ways he already had . . . Benny and Faith were high school sweethearts who fell deeply in love the first day they met. That love increased with each day they were together. Immediately after graduating high school, the couple eloped, vowing a love for each other that time could never alter. Benny’s hard work provided well for Faith and their children. They had it all: a wonderful middle-classed lifestyle, money, good health, and three beautiful, highly intelligent children–the perfect family, the perfect life—until one day . . . This moving love story will warm your heart, arouse your emotions, inspire your dreams, and encourage your personal faith as you witness Faith abide in the word of God on her quest to rise above the turmoil and despair of rock bottom. Amazing Faith will keep you engaged from the first page to the last. It will inspire you to be patient, to mix action with prayer, and still maintain faith, trust, and the belief that God will never forsake us. Faith’s is a journey of resilience in the face of adversity.
With parallels to the story of Job, Amazing Faith asks how much adversity can the truly faithful handle before their belief is shaken. As she enters adulthood, Faith faces loss, disease, financial problems, and homelessness during her life, all while raising her three children, but rather than weaken her faith in God, these difficulties strengthen her devotion and inspire her to persevere and thrive after all the destruction she endures. From the broken pieces of Faith’s life, Faith, her family, and her friends build a new one that follows Benny’s oft-repeated message: “Carry no baggage. You cannot move forward living off the hurt from the past.”
At times heart-wrenching, uplifting, and tragic, Dennis’s first foray into fiction is smooth and streamlined, paced well and written in inviting prose that balances uplifting parable with clear-eyed, life-drawn explication of Faith and family’s debt, housing issues, and health crises. The characterization isn’t especially nuanced or complex, but Faith is certainly likable, even as she’s tested and wonders, briefly, whether she might be losing her mind. The result is straightforward, accessible Christian drama about a woman who finds the wherewithal to pray “without ceasing,” a moving book that explores the power of faith and what it takes to maintain it.
Takeaway: Touching Christian novel of a mother who maintains her faith in the face of loss.
Comparable Titles: Richard Paul Evans, Kim Cash Tate’s Faithful.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
