When Ted Ballick stands up in church one normal Sunday morning, he shares a secret that shocks the entire congregation. Their pastor, David Parst, has had an affair with Ted's wife, Erica. David Parst makes no move to defend himself.
Slowly, after that Sunday morning, the Parst family begins to pull apart. David's wife, Sarah, leaves with their son, Jack, and doesn't speak to David for several years.
As Jack grows older, he grows more and more resentful of his father. But when a baseball injury ends his career, he decides to become a lawyer, but not after marrying his fiancee, Katie. But after nearly ten years of marriage, Jack finds himself in the same position his father found himself in with Erica.
Many years pass between each major event of this book. There are gaps between David's affair and Jack's teen years and between Jack's injury and his marriage and between several other parts. These gaps in time are slightly awkward and make for slightly underdeveloped characters.
Besides all the plot points I listed above in my summary, many tragedies occur in the plot. By the end of the book, there are two key character deaths, four serious medical conditions, two marriage breakups, and several other minor tragedies. Normally, I would say that this is original, but these tragedies in the consecutive fashion they are written in is little much for me.
The characters are okay, actually better than most. The tragedies bring out their personalities well.
At the end, James David Jordan backtracked and fixed everything he could to make the end sound better. He even came up with a last chapter conversion-complete with sensational details about seeing the two dead characters once again and how all the colors were more vivid when he became a Christian.
I really wish I could make this one Elite, but I just can't.
3.5 stars
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