Book Review: Long Time Coming

About the Book:  (from Amazon)  Faithful Christian Deidre Clark-Morris is a professional career-minded woman with a loving husband and beautiful home, but no children. Kenisha Smalls has lived in poverty her entire life and has three children by three different men. After learning that Kenisha has inoperable cervical cancer, the relationship between these two women becomes a catalyst of hope, leading them both to a place of redemption and healing.

My Review:  This is a real tear-jerker about characters who seem so stereotypical at first.  Kenisha, as the summary says, has three kids from three different men--one of whom is in prison, one of whom is dead and the other, a crackhead.  Her mother is a drunk who lives in the projects and had kids from different fathers.  Her sister's goal in life is to be on a reality TV show (and IMO if reality TV isn't enough motivation to find a job, I don't know what is).  The sister has four kids, and no husband, and has a hard time getting out of bed before noon.  Her brother is a crack addict.  By the end of the book we have some idea of why these people live the way they do, they aren't quite the stereotypes anymore.  

Kenisha is late picking her son up from school one day because she is getting radiation treatments for her cervical cancer.  The principal had taken him home, and that's how she and Diedre met.  Diedre had always wanted to be a mother,and her husband, a father, but in seven years they haven't managed to conceive.  She and her husband have started to consider adoption when Kenisha asks them to take her children.  

During the course of the book Kenisha makes her peace with God and her family, and Diedre realizes that God does answer prayers.  Long Time Coming is definitely Christian fiction, and not subtle about it.  I enjoyed this book, and recommend it to people who enjoy Christian fiction.

I'd like to thank Christian Review of Books for providing a review copy.  You can read reviews of many Christian books at their site.