James Rubart is a Christian fiction author based in Washington state. Per his Amazon author profile, he is "the best-selling, Christy Book of the Year, Carol, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels, co-owner of The Rubart Writing Academy, and an audio book narrator." You can learn more at his website, JamesLRubart.com
In this fresh take on the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, James L. Rubart explores the war between good and evil within each of us—and one man’s only chance to overcome the greatest divide of the soul.
What if you woke up one morning and the darkest parts of yourself were gone?
Torren Daniels vanished eight months back, and his wife and kids have moved on—with more than a little relief. Toren was a good man but carried a raging temper that often exploded without warning. So when he shows up on their doorstep out of the blue, they’re shocked to see him alive. But more shocked to see he’s changed. Radically. His anger is gone. He’s oddly patient. Kind. Fun. The man he always wanted to be. Toren has no clue where he’s been but he knows he’s been utterly transformed. He focuses on three things: Finding out where he’s been. Finding out how it happened. And winning back his family. But as the months go on, his memory slowly returns. And the more the memories come, the more Torren slips back into being the man he was before. How can he hang on to the new man he’s become? And who is he really? The man he was . . . or the man he is?
Amazon.com
*POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: This novel addresses the topic of domestic abuse (child and spousal abuse, to be specific).
★★☆☆☆
NFL player Toren Daniels, long known for his violent temper, finds himself booted from his spot on the Seattle Seahawks. Not long after, he vanishes, his whereabouts unknown for eight months. People even begin to presume he's dead. But now he's reappeared, and the Toren we're re-introduced to is "the man he never was". The new Toren is strangely more kind and patient with everyone he interacts with. Even more odd, he has NO memory of where he's been these past months. Toren's one main goal is to reunite with his family but the reception proves to be many layers of upsetting. It's not so easy for his wife and kids to just forget all the years of abuse. So how is he to win them back?
The back cover copy of this Christian fiction tale proclaims it a "fresh take on the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". I'm quite familiar with the classic and to be honest, I can only see whispers of that story in the modern retelling presented here. That said, there ARE spoilers for the classic within Rubart's novel.
Additionally, I just DID NOT click with Toren's character. I know the book wants the reader to see him as a changed man but I was not sold. The bits I found problematic:
~ The dialogue style / flow is awkward, at times too formulaic and stiff
~ The metaphysical back and forth business made for a tiring reading experience
~ Toren's anger at his wife wanting to move on with her life was aggravating... made it seem like there was no HONEST change within him, only the surface appearance of a softer man, the same jerk was underneath and reared his head whenever he didn't get his way.
~ GROAN ending -- I don't buy that everything is all better just because we need a tidy wrap up in the last couple chapters and Christian readers like happy endings. Nothing felt honestly resolved for me but I felt like Rubart just wanted the reader to go along with it anyway.
I think this is the second or third ( I forget) of Rubart's books I've tried and I haven't quite hit gold yet. We'll see what the future holds, I 'spose.
Allison Moore is faced with a daunting question: How do you stand up for yourself when it means losing everything?
Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle area architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they’re free from the games played by the corporate world. She’s gotten over her divorce. And while her dad’s recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy.Then the bomb drops. Her dad had a secret life and left her mom in massive debt.
As Allison scrambles to help her mom find a way out, she’s given a journal, anonymously, during a visit to her favorite coffee shop. As the pressure to rescue her mom mounts, Allison pours her fears and heartache into the journal.But then the unexplainable happens. The words in the journal, her words, begin to disappear. And new ones fill the empty spaces—words that force her to look at everything she knows about herself in a new light. Ignoring those words could cost her everything . . . but so could embracing them.
★★1/2
Craving the freedom of being her own boss, Allison Moore started an architectural firm with her best friend but is now struggling to make ends meet. To add to the stress of that, she's also rebuilding her life after a divorce AND grieving the recent loss of her father. Her mother, suffering a fall at home, is briefly hospitalized.
When her mother returns home, Allison hears the worst possible confession: Allison's father -- thanks to a gambling addiction --- left the family in serious financial trouble. Hungry loan shark kind of trouble. To keep the bad guys at bay, Allison's mother had to sell her house and agree to an outrageous payment plan that will leave her homeless if Allison can't come up with a better solution fast. The mother swears the loans dad took out were absolutely "legitimate", the lenders "weren't criminals"... but these non-criminals also told her that she can't go to the police, and if she tries to file for bankruptcy, they'll "make things unpleasant for her." Yep, sounds entirely on the up & up, ma.
As she scrambles to find answers, a few things happen for Allison: 1) Her mentor, Derrek, a fellow architect, offers her a partnership position in his firm, a salary that might just be enough of a windfall to make the loan shark problem go away quickly. 2) A leatherbound journal is mysteriously delivered to her, which soon serves as a much needed confessional for all the various emotions and questions this time in her life stirs up. The mystical quality of the journal is that whenever she writes her thoughts down, the next day she'll go to read over what she wrote and find that her words have been changed around, usually re-worded into some type of positive affirmation statement. 3) She reconnects with somewhat estranged brother, Parker -- an off-the-grid, close to the earth type.
Where does Rubart come up with these stories?! I've read some of his other stuff prior to this and I keep having a similar reaction --- hard eye-roll. But this one especially grated on me. A dad "dabbles" in human trafficking to help pay off insane gambling debts?! Oh, and while we're at it, might as well make dad a respected police force captain. UGH.
So much of the plot just had me asking WHY? ... and not in a good way. More like, WHY do we need Parker at all in this story? Granted, he's an interesting character in his off-the-grid, under-the-radar, might be here today, on a fishing boat in Alaska tomorrow way of living, but to this specific plot, he doesn't contribute a whole lot. He comes in with a big save at the end, but really the reader could've gotten basically the same story with Allison being an only child.
On the topic of why, WHY did we need a mystical journal if all it was going to do was spin Allison's valid questions, concerns and fears into positive affirmations she was largely going to ignore?! Seems like she would read them in the morning, feel good for about 5 mins, and then spend the rest of her day depressed and miserable, same as the day before. I'm not saying she didn't have reason to be depressed and miserable, I'm just saying the mysterious journal touted to be a personal hotline to Big Guy Upstairs didn't seem to be the real catalyst for the changes she wanted in life. Seems more like it more heavily relied on Allison finding her backbone. Yes, one of the last switched around entries in the journal was written more along the lines of constructive criticism, but it was still somewhat cryptic and only mildly helpful to our MC... and then went full-on into preachy sermon. To be honest, there were a number of times I felt like this was essentially an LOA-infused novel being marketed as Christian fiction. There's even lines of dialogue such as, "Your path is to speak into existence what does not exist."
I struggled with where I stood on this book after finishing. The characters were decently crafted for the most part, had some unique traits about them that made me mildly curious about the overall outcome of things, but I wouldn't say I strongly bonded with any of them. As I mentioned before, Parker is a neat character, but I didn't feel he was all that essential to driving the plot along. Allison's mother was sweet, but at times aggravatingly naive. Derrek and Linda were satisfyingly mean and manipulative as the antagonists, but at the same time, you kinda felt for Linda after you learn her sad backstory as to why she's so critical of Allison.
Allison was entirely too lenient with the whole ongoing am-I-aren't-I? partnership conversation. As she points out toward the end of the story, Derrek knew exactly what he meant when he offered partnership, otherwise why talk company stock percentages, writing up terms contracts, all that. But then he comes back with that weasle-y, "Well, everyone in my company is a partner, in a way" business. PUH-LEEZ.
The plotline seemed like it would have potential but for the most part ended up moving a little slow for me. Oftentimes the dialogue read very scripted rather than natural. I remember Allison's mother in particular having a rather jerky, staccato-like way of speaking. There is a bit of pick-up in the plot with the whole mystery around Derrek dragging his feet to make Allison partner, and the shady stuff he pulls around the office in the meantime. One the best scenes in the whole book, IMO, is when Allison, already fed up with being treated like an intern, is further insulted when she's informed she's being (unfairly) held accountable for a financial oversight within the company.
While I might've not been overly impressed with the book as a whole, and even with the plot running a little slow, I will say there is a pretty good story here in the way that it illustrates this idea that's often perpetuated that parents never have favorites among their children, and the pain that can come about with the truth actually coming to light for the "lesser" children... pain that still sometimes manifests itself into adulthood.
*Discussion Guide included in the paperback edition.
FTC Disclaimer: TNZ Fiction Guild kindly provided me with a complimentary copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
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