Truest

Truest
By: Jackie Lea Sommers

“Rescue wears masks, you know. It’s why people say it’s darkest before the dawn. Sometimes things take a long time to make sense. Could be years and years…Or they might never make sense. But that doesn’t mean you stop trusting that the world is being rescued… God favors redemption over perfection.”

This book is about a girl- a pastor's kid- who lives in a Midwest town of like 2000 people. This describes my upbringing, so I should have a lot to relate to with this story. I could definitely relate to the small town bits and how things function, how you know people and their backgrounds. And that was fun to read something I actually experienced. But I have yet to read anything close to my experience as a pastor's kid. I am regretfully learning that maybe what is portrayed in the book is more common than I thought. But I am thankful my dad never sacrificed important family time for work. I never felt like he neglected us or the church but had that balanced well. I also didn't resent Christianity and am thankful to have been raised with its truths. I realize that was not necessarily the focus or point of the book, but I just felt like I wanted to share that, so those reading this book do not assume that this is how most pastor's families work or how pastor's kids think.

Anyway, I really enjoyed reading the story. I liked the writing style and the bits of humor she included. I thought the premise was interesting and thought-provoking. I always enjoy when authors make their characters word-lovers and book-lovers. I guess I can see how others felt about lack of character depth or plot but at the same time, maybe my expectations of the story going into it weren't super high. It's not my typical type of book I read but am always trying to broaden my horizons. In that way, I liked the book and would probably read another one written by this author.