"This Side Of Heaven": A Review

When bad things happen, what runs through your mind? Are you able to accept God's will? Or are you like me, and often question why things have to happen a certain way? I know I often find myself thinking, "what's the point in that?". Our human condition and our finite minds leave us confused and vulnerable. We crave answers; we want to understand.....it's very hard to accept the bad times as part of a Master Plan, especially when we can't see the final outcome.

Author Karen Kingsbury explores our inability to see the good that comes from the bad in life. In her latest book, This Side of Heaven, she uses a number of negative and bad experiences to demonstrate how good can come from bad, even when we aren't around to see it blossom.

A very negative and sad situation develops early in the novel, and I'll be honest....I wanted to throw the book across the room and quit reading. I was very upset, and I couldn't figure out how in the world Ms. Kingsbury was going to turn this thing around. I don't like sad stories, but I stuck in and kept reading. By the end of the book I was in tears, but not of sadness. They were tears of wonder...tears of awe....humble tears. See, Ms. Kingsbury shows us the side we don't often get to see in real life...how our bad experiences can affect others. What seems like complete tragedy to us can indeed be the door that finally opens for someone else. In our human condition though, we don't often see beyond our own pain.....so we aren't opening our eyes wide enough to witness how our tragedies affect others.

The Hachette Book Group generously provided This Side Of Heaven for my review. Here's the full description of the story:

Annie Warren always wanted the best for her son, Josh. But years of failure and bad choices created a heartbreaking distance that has grown far worse since the day Josh was hit by a drunk driver. Now on medical disability, Josh has put his life on hold for years, waiting for the insurance company to send a settlement that never seems to come. Worse, he believes the story of a scheming woman who claims they have a seven-year-old daughter named Savannah.
Despite the unlikelihood and complete lack of evidence, Josh dreams of being a father and is determined to one day claim the child. His family doesn't know the full story. They don't know what happened the night of the accident that was worth the chronic pain Josh suffers every waking minute, or that he is turning his life around. They haven't seen that Savannah's eyes are his, and they don't know how desperately the little girl needs her family.
When the settlement that rightly belongs to Josh is threatened, Annie sets out to defend her son. But she might find a treasure more valuable than money, one she never expected, one that is the greatest gift her son could ever give her--THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN.

You can read an excerpt by clicking below: