The Way of Grace by Cathy Bryant

In pursuit of justice, in need of grace . . . A justice-seeking perfectionist pursues her dream of a perfect life in her hometown of Miller's Creek, Texas. Sidetracked by her desire to be a prosecuting attorney, Grace Soldano launches into uncharted waters, making herself over to please her boss and mentor. Then a disheveled free spirit turns her perfectly ordered world upside down, challenging the concept of personal goodness. A fall from perfection leaves her teetering between vengeance and grace, caught in a deadly crossfire that leaves her dreams in a heap of ashes. Can she learn to joyfully accept the life God has given her--far from perfect--but one completely immersed in His grace?


My review:

    I rarely read books that are just romance. Other genres with romance are OK, but I just don't read books that are romance much. The author of this book emailed me a while back and asked if I'd be interested in reviewing her upcoming book, #3 in her Miller's Creek Series, The Way of Grace. She said it had some suspenseful elements to it, so I decided to go for it. Right after that, the first two books in her series were free for the Kindle on Amazon, so I grabbed them and read them in preparation for the third book. There was no suspense in them, but I loved them. Excellent books.

   This is a review of the third book, however, so on to it. Cathy outdid herself on this one. First off, there is some suspense in it, but not so much to scare away the faint of heart. She brought back the characters from the other two books, which I always like an author to do, and introduced a new one, and brought a character from book two, Matt, to the forefront.

   One thing I dislike in a romance book, is it usually is totally from the woman's point of view. This one was pretty equal on the guy and the girl. I found myself identifying with both of the main characters, and found myself liking them even more than the characters from the previous two books.

    A mark of great Christian fiction, is to not just tell a story, but to get across some truth or encouragement, and this book did just that in a great way. Grace is in the title of the book, and is a major theme of the book. Woven throughout the book amid dialogue and interactions, the message of grace came through loud and clear, and in a non-preachy way. A couple of other messages of the book: the importance of trusting God, that one can get too hung up on perfectionism and worrying about how others view us, instead of how God views us, and that we shouldn't judge people by outward appearance. The person we may tend to disregard because of their not so perfect appearance or dress, might be the one with the better Christian experience and insight. I came away from the book wishing I was a lot more like Matt in the book, and a lot less like myself.

   And don't worry, even with these great truths and lessons the plot is great and the book is an excellent read, one that you won't be able to put down.

   The first two books will again be free for Kindle on January 25-26, and I will try to remember to post a reminder.

   Warning about these books: There is a lot of eating of Mexican food in the book and they may cause craving for Mexican cuisine. ;-)

About the author: 

Cathy’s desire is to write heart-stirring stories about God’s life-changing grace. Her first novel, Texas Roads, was a 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers’ Genesis finalist. Her second novel, A Path Less Traveled, was published in 2010. The Way of Grace, the third book in the Miller’s Creek novels was released in 2012. A native Texan, Cathy currently resides in the beautiful Ozark mountains of northwest Arkansas with her husband of thirty years, and near the world’s cutest grandson

Check out Cathy's website at CathyBryant.com

Thanks to Cathy for the review copy.