A Moment of Weakness by Karen Kingsbury

I'm quite sure my opinion may not be popular, and obviously doesn't represent the masses of readers who love Karen Kingsbury books, but I just don't.  , so honest I will be. I have read many Karen Kingsbury books over the years, but had really decided they just aren't for me.  The only reason I decided to review this one is that I thought it was a brand new book, and that perhaps I should give the author another chance.  As it turns out, this is just a re-release of a book that she wrote years ago and I read it then. I believe I did like it back when I read it the first time, but I feel now that Christian fiction has come a long way. I've grown past books like this one.

So, here is my problem with A Moment of Weakness, as well as Karen Kingsbury's other books.  All of her characters, including the two main characters in this book (Tanner Eastman and Jade Conner), are always BEAUTIFUL. There are no ordinary looking people, and certainly no ugly people. No one is ever obese or even overweight, heaven forbid. Granted, they do have problems (in this case Tanner and Jade fall into the temptation of having sex before marriage--a very common problem), but their problems are never just ordinary problems.  An ordinary problem might be that Tanner and Jade fell into temptation and their families are not happy about it. Tanner and Jade are very embarrassed, but they swallow their pride and confess their sins. Some people don't want to forgive them, they'd rather take the high ground and keep pointing fingers.  Maybe Tanner and Jade feel forced to find a new church. Tanner and Jade get married and they do struggle.  Marriage is hard and it's even harder when you have a baby right away.  But, by the grace of God they manage to overcome.  They have a good marriage and a great family.  The end. 

In A Moment of Weakness, however, there is much much more melodrama. Jade becomes pregnant that one time they have sex, but when she discovers this, Tanner is off on an overseas mission trip.  Jade calls Tanner's mother to see if she knows how to get a hold of Tanner.  Mrs. Eastman guesses what the emergency might be and lies to Jade, telling her that Tanner doesn't really love her and that he has fathered many other children.  Of course, Jade believes all these lies, runs off and marries another man, and leaves the state (all in the 3 weeks that Tanner is gone) .  I won't give away the entire book, but trust me when I say that the rest of the story is just as melodramatic.

I like books where I can relate to the characters in some way.  I really can't relate to BEAUTIFUL people who don't even communicate with each other, they just draw all the wrong conclusions and run away.  This seems to be a very common theme among many Christian authors and I just plain don't like it. On the other hand, if you like BEAUTIFUL people and melodrama, then I'm sure you will love this book since it's full of both.   I received this book from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for my honest review.