Healing Waters by Stephen Arterburn and Nancy Rue

Lucia has lived her life condemning herself for her weight problems while serving and elevating her sister Sonia and her faith healing ministry. But her world is shattered the day Lucia witnesses Sonia's plane fall from the sky, leaving Sonia has the only survivor. A burned survivor. Her once-beautiful has been destroyed by the accident, and the doctors are skeptical as to whether it will ever heal. While trying to care for her sister, Lucia finds herself dealing with Sonia's "friends", her partners in ministry. She was already turned off to Christianity, and now she is even more so. But when Sonia develops a severe case of psychosis as a result of the accident, Lucia immerses herself into caring for Sonia's ignored six-year-old daughter. But Lucia is forced to face her own problems when offbeat psychologist\counselor Sullivan Crisp, a good friend of Sonia's, comes to her mansion to help out. She soon realizes needs his comfort and guidance, especially since someone is trying to kill someone in the mansion...

Once again, Stephen Arterburn and Nancy Rue have written a character based plot driven by super characters. Yet this plot is dragged down by its typical end, as is usually the case with the Sullivan Crisp series.

Lucia, Sonia, Sully, and all the other eccentric characters coming and going in Sonia's mansion are entertaining, imperfect, and realistic. It is one of the best casts of characters I have ever read. They create a strange situation that cannot be compared to any other plot. Sully remains to be the realistic therapist instead of the fatherly mentor he could have so easily become. Lucia is a good lead because while she could have been made into a victim because she helps people so much, the authors did not do this. She is a real person with real problems that the reader can relate to. Sonia is also one of the more interesting characters because it is interesting to watch her progression into insanity. However, it is not interesting to see her miraculously return from this insanity and become a repentant person.

This brings us to the book's biggest problem. While the body of the book is entertaining mostly because the situation is a bit off-the-wall, the end was where the rating started to fall. While the villain was surprising and intriguing, the authors twist things around so that Sonia turns into a victim rather than a lunatic. This is the product of a cheesy showdown scene with the villain, which of course, ends predictably. Healing Waters was definitely a fall from Healing Stones.

Yet this book was not all bad because of the situation the characters created. The Sullivan Crisp series is one of the best series on the market because it is consistently driven by good characters.

4 stars

Healing Stones by Stephen Arterburn and Nancy Rue

Demetria Costanas vowed to end her affair with Zach Archer that afternoon, but when she gave into temptation this one last time, this act of adultery was inexplicably caught on camera. Photo evidence of her sin forces her to resign from her job as professor at Covenant Christian College. What she did not know what that someone also sent a copy of the pictures to her husband, who has now all but thrown her out of the house. Her son hates her with a vengeance and her daughter is broken seemingly beyond repair. Desperate, Demetria turns to decidedly offbeat psychologist\counselor Sullivan Crisp for help in repairing her shattered life. Slowly, Demetria takes steps to winning her family back, until one day, a strange turn of events changes everything.

With firsthand experience in the counseling room, there is no better author to tell this story than Stephen Arterburn. Excellent character development goes hand in hand with a realistic and imperfect plot to help this book make its mark in the Hall of Five Stars.

Demetria, Zach, Demetria's family, Sullivan, and the other characters are all well crafted, complete with their own imperfections and personalities. This is a plot where no character is exempt from sin. There are no perfect mentor characters where Sully could be a candidate. The only battle between good and evil is within the hearts of the characters, not between any two characters. This is exquisite character development that should be found in every book.

An affair that the lead character is a part of is not an easy plot to write, especially if the author is tempted to give the "good" character an out or a lesser punishment. This is not done in Healing Stones. Where the pages could be filled with Demetria's gloom and dooms, they are filled with realistic, everyday life. Demetria lives her life while undergoing counseling. Sully lives his life while wondering if he could have prevented his wife's suicide. On top of all this, the end of the plot is the icing on the cake. A negative convenient connection connects a wrong choice close to home for Demetria. The extent of a key character's injuries is not fully explored, thus leaving unanswered questions, which is something all plots should have. In short, Stephen Arterburn and Nancy Rue have written a master plot.

The future is bright for budding author Stephen Arterburn as long as he continues down the track of originality.

5 stars

Healing Sands by Stephen Arterburn and Nancy Rue

Ryan Coe is a reporter who has made an interesting life for herself. After she divorced her husband, she took an emotionally-jarring trip to Africa to get an in-depth story for the AP for six weeks before returning to find that her ex-husband had moved with their two sons from Chicago to New Mexico. These were the three sons who refused to live with her after the divorce. Ryan quits the AP and joins a local newspaper in New Mexico in order to be closer to her rejecting sons. Her entire world is rocked when she arrives at the scene of a crime to snap photos and finds that her son, Jake, has been accused with the crime-running over a Hispanic boy with a pick-up truck without a driver's licence or driver's permit. He has been accused of hate crime and sent to jail to await a sentence. Ryan tries to use this as a springboard to get back into her elusive sons' lives, all while trying to wrench the truth out of a very silent Jake. Ryan turns to Sullivan Crisp, Christian counselor extraordinaire, for help on controlling her anger and ends up telling him everything. But Sullivan Crisp may not be who he seems to be, especially since he's now been charged with murder as well. With the world falling in around Ryan, she must cling to God to make it through the storm.

Stephen Arterburn clearly draws from his experience as a counselor in order to fabricate a realistic story that could happen to anyone. But in the end, this plot is highly typical, and is only anchored to the Elite list by its superb characters.

The characters are some of the best I have ever met in my entire life. Never in all of my reading have I seen any this good. Stephen Arterburn slowly develops them throughout this 400-page tome, proving that it doesn't take a complex plot to fill pages, just good character development. Ryan is a very good and imperfect lead that brings a lot of real people I know to mind. Her ex-husband, two sons, and many other characters are also fully developed. Stephen did not make the common mistake of only giving attention to the lead or leads, but gave each character personal attention, making this book strong and long. Since Stephen wrote a typical plot, he had to deliver with characters, which he did.

The court cases of Jake Coe and Sullivan Crisp are not completely unrealistic or outrageous, their ends are just predictable. Stephen should have chosen a little more complex elements than the ones he chose. Perhaps he spent so much time on his characters, he didn't feel like trying to write a good plot. Surely as a counselor, he cannot excuse the end to be very realistic. Perhaps this is what Nancy Rue contributes to the book. There are two good plot elements that make the end more tasteful, one of them being a key character death, but it isn't the same as a more realistic court case.

All in all, Stephen Arterburn is a good author because of his superb character development. But if he expects a five star book out of us, he needs to work on his ends.

4 stars