Reviewed by Christian Sia for Readers' Favorite
Deena Adams keeps readers surprisingly off-balance in her character-driven, emotionally engaging Christian drama, Stronger Than the Storm. Beth Holbrook has what everyone thinks is the perfect family, built on love and faith. She loves helping other parents as a parenting coach, but cracks start showing in her own family in a place she never expected. Her eighteen-year-old daughter, Leesa, runs away in revolt. For a parenting coach and an associate pastor husband, this is a nightmare. The search reveals she is with a young man, Isaac, who has a questionable character, and that she is pregnant with his child. As the family deals with Leesa’s rebellion and Isaac’s abuse, Beth must confront her own darkness, a secret she has kept from her husband and family for nineteen years. What else can go wrong for this family?
Stronger Than the Storm is faith, grace, love, and surrender in a captivating novel. The story is tender, inspiring, and with enough pathos to have readers feel for the characters. Deena Adams's characters reflect the struggles of most families. In Beth, one sees the image of someone split between public competence and personal failure. Kevin was one of my best characters; he is wounded by the fractures in his family and his wife’s revelations, but he chooses the path of forgiveness. This author writes about the conflict between a rebellious daughter and her parents with grace and insight, and she cleverly explores what happens when a coming-of-age daughter sees her parents as controlling. Yet, freedom has a price to pay, always, and Leesa finds that out. The author’s ability to create fluid conversations in tense situations makes this book a compelling meditation on family and faith.
