The Sunday Book Review: Second Chance

Second Chance, by Eileen Rife

OakTara Publishing

c. February, 2012

ISBN 9781602903180

$16.95

 

Second Chance gives readers of taste of forgiveness from the inside out.

Mave Robertson, whose children are grown and gone, needs a life. Her best friend challenges her to reach outside of herself and serve others. When Mave dusts off her faith and rises to the occasion, she defends her decision to work in a dangerous neighborhood at an outreach center to her husband, Jerry, as well as the cocky high school kids she teaches.

 

Midlife crises aren’t relegated to gender. When upper middle class Mave finds time on her hands now that the house is empty while her dentist husband is at work, she turns to pouting about feeling lonely and decides her husband neglects her. When Twinkies don’t quite fulfill her needs, she follows her friend Trish’s advice and finds a place to volunteer. Second Chance Ministries, an inner city urban ministry reaching out to teens and run by the dedicated Mitch, benefits from her English degree when Mave teaches a creative writing class.

 

Meanwhile, a very different family story unfolds in the gang-driven poor neighborhoods. Dareece Jackson, a young teenager, struggles to rise above his imprisoned father’s criminal  legacy. Forced to participate in gang activity through threats to his family, Dareece must deliver drugs. His life and Mave’s intersect when he loses his grocery store paycheck and Mave finds and returns it. Dareece’s mother gives Mave a thank you gift, accidentally handing over Dareece’s next drug run.

 

As Mave goes on with her life, learning in a ladies Bible study about the depth of real love and how to return it, Dareece finds love with a special young lady in Mave’s class. The dark side of his life spins out of control, however, and Mave and Jerry work together to prove that faith is bigger than any hurt.

 

Lovingly crafted with painfully real dialog and setting, Second Chances will open your heart to examine your own faith walk as well as challenge you to live true and well.

♦♦♦♦◊ Reflections