Glory in the Flower

My Rating: ★★★

Release Date: October 14, 2018

Genre: Clean Christian Romance

The granddaughters of a powerful evangelist, sisters Kate and Mia walk very different paths.

Kate’s living a golden life, happily married to the loving, dynamic Ollie. Her joy only increases when she discovers she’s expecting a baby. But her idyll is shattered with a shocking, impossible diagnosis, and her marriage is turned on edge. Facing the reality of being HIV-positive and pregnant, along with the gossip and suspicion rising up from her community, Kate’s normally-unshakeable faith soon wavers.

Mia lost her trust in a loving God long ago. Caught in a downward spiral, fueled by anger and futile longing, she makes a grasping attempt at redemption with the help of Gabriel, a gospel singer with dark secrets of his own. Faced with yet another betrayal, Mia sees no way out.

As the family draws together in the aftermath of Mia’s final, horrifying attempt to end her own pain, they must confront their own secrets, and see the weaknesses they’ve ignored for too long. In the end, everyone must decide what it means to trust God through suffering and lay their lives at the foot of the Cross.

A stunning debut by new author Karen Elizabeth Hann, Glory in the Flower is a raw confrontation of human nature, human frailty, and faith amidst the loss of innocence.

My Review ♥️

With characters with such depth and backstory it's hard not to feel vested in what happens to them. We all have had our fair share of trials and tribulations and it's easy for us all to wonder where God is in all of it. Karen Elizabth Hann takes those personal times of crying out to a silent God and the thoughts and feelings that come along when your faith is tested and puts them on paper.

I really hate to say this but Glory in the Flower was a disappointing read for me. The story is on the long side and the ending was inadequate. I wanted more of a conclusion for Mia and Gabriel. They are a huge part of the story and I felt like their ending was incomplete, with the ending focusing more on Kate. I did love the final conviction the characters, with each realizing their own shortcomings and God's truth in their lives.

I will say that the character development was wonderful, the setting descriptions draw you into the story, and it is a unique plot, but there was something missing for me the entire time I was reading. I wanted to love Glory in the Flower so bad I couldn't bring myself to love it, which is sad because this story has a lot of potential. It just wasn't there.

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