Rain StormVanessa Miller
4 hallelujah handclaps
Setting: Chicago
This contemporary remake of the Book of Hosea is an urban treat with a juicy cherry on top. Filled with characters you hate to love and love to hate Miller has set the pace for the urban Christian sub-genre. It’s gritty, heartwarming, drama-packed, and tender in just the right places. I was pleasantly surprised.
However, Nina, Keith, Isaac, Cynda’s flashbacks slowed the pace down. Readers note that this story contains graphic language and violence
The romance that developed between Keith and Cynda was great wish fulfillment. The two deserved each other by the end. Keith’s passion reminded me of the Late Great Reverend Hosea Williams more so, then the Prophet Hosea. Although the Bible doesn’t go into great detail of bad girl Gomer, her indiscretions didn’t pail in comparison to Miller’s Cynda.
Summary: What if God told you to marry the man of your nightmares? Rev. Hosea Keith Williams faces that horrible fate when something inside him—God—leads him to believe that he has to marry Cynda Stephens, the most troublesome prostitute in Chi-town. To make matters worst Cynda is holding a secret that he can’t keep from his best friend, Isaac, a secret that may shatter Isaac’s marriage to his wife, Nina. Yet with a name like Hosea, he has no choice but to do the right thing or the wrong thing depending upon how his church members, family and friends look at it. Did God really speak to him or did his lust?
Feisty, overbearing, but gorgeous Cynda Stephens needs help, if only she could believe it. This drug addict’s only redeeming quality is her quest to change her daughter’s future for the better. When she decided to trust Keith with her daughter, Iona found herself also trusting him with her heart. If only she can realize it before it’s too late to reconcile their relationship…
(Urban Books, May, 288pp., $14.95)
—Dee Y. Stewart
