A Test of Faith (Fiction Gems) - Softcover

Ball, Karen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590528824 ISBN 13: 9781590528822

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2006

Synopsis

Anne’s daughter Faith is the answer to her lifelong prayer to be a mother. But her dream is shattered when the teenager rejects Anne’s love and the love of God. After years pass, and God heals their relationship, Anne falls seriously ill. Faith watches her mother weaken, struggling with role reversals and leaning on God as never before. Through all the intricacies of their relationship, all the joys and trials, they learn that God is with them. He brings them peace in the darkness, joy in the midst of sorrow, and hope in the face of death.A Mother...

Anne knew God would answer her fervent prayers for a baby. That’s why, when her daughter was born, she named her Faith. But as Faith grows into a teenager, mother and daughter rarely see eye-to-eye about anything—including God. When Faith erupts in rebellion, Anne’s world is shattered. Now Anne must leave her precious daughter in God’s hands. A Daughter...

By God’s grace, Faith survived a turbulent youth—a terrible time when she hurt those she loved most. Faith has since grown close to her parents, especially her mom. But then her mother falls seriously ill. As Anne weakens, Faith struggles with the reversal of their roles. Though she finds strength in God, fear is her constant nemesis. Will God answer her prayers as He did her mother’s?

And the God Who Loves Them Both.

A Test of Faith explores the intricacies of the mother-daughter bond and celebrates the rich, enduring love that often flourishes. Follow these two women through a lifetime as they learn to surrender their relationship and dreams to God—and trust that His love and faithfulness are unending.

Story Behind the Book

I hope to give women a sense of celebration in this wonderous connection God has given us with our mothers and daughters, to help them releate to each other in a more healthy and biblical manner. To find joy in our differences and to find ways to praise God together for all He’s given us. This is a story that comes from my own experiences and will address issues I’ve seen Christians struggle with for years. This is an honest, sometimes difficult, and yet ulitmately encouragin and uplifting book.

About this title

About the Author:

Karen Ball has worked in the Christian publishing field, specializing in fiction, for more than 20 years. Currently Karen is Senior Acquisitions Editor of fiction for Zondervan Publishers. As former senior editor of fiction at Multnomah Publishers, Inc., Karen was an integral part of the Multnomah fiction team. She worked with Tyndale House Publishers as well for nearly 12 years, where she served as the senior editor for books. Karen lives in Southern Oregon with her husband, Don, and their “kid,” Bodhan, a trouble-making Siberian husky who loves nothing more than getting into mischief. Karen enjoys laughing, writing, reading, sports, nature, wildlife, and finding wonder in everyday life.

From Publishers Weekly:

At the start of this uneven story of a mother-daughter relationship, diabetic Anne becomes a mother to Faith, a strong-willed but beautiful baby. Ball (The Breaking Point) chronicles Faith's childhood, her subsequent tapioca-bland rebellion, her hot-and-cold commitment to Christianity and her coming to terms with Anne's death. The early pages are the strongest, dealing with the love and resentment uniting and dividing mother and daughter, but the story soon disintegrates as Ball slips into preachiness, weak teen slang and unnecessary switches in point of view. There are enough uses of "honey," "sweetie" and "punkin" throughout to sweeten lemon juice. Some of the teen-year segments are pure YA romance ("She liked the way he moved, like a tiger, restless but in control"). The last quarter of the novel includes multiple e-mails chronicling Faith's need for support from her prayer group as her mother is dying (faint echoes of The Yada Yada Prayer Group). In her acknowledgments, Ball mentions her mother's death and the prayer group that supported her, and indeed, the novel feels autobiographical in many places. But real life does not always make for good fiction, and the novel's end lacks the momentum of the earlier pages.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1590528824
• ISBN 13: 9781590528822
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352