Two Destinies

Sometimes as Christians we feel our faith is a difficult path to follow at times. When we are confronted with people who don't agree with our beliefs or find ourselves the brunt of jokes from people, we feel we are facing persecution. But I honestly believe the hardest stand to take is one where you life is at risk and taking a risk to become a believer of Jesus instead of what your culture and family would want for you is the biggest cross to bear. When the sentence is death for your beliefs much like the early church days were for the apostles that followed Jesus Christ.

In the latest novel, Two Destinies by Elizabeth Musser, faith is about to be tested in ways we probably would never imagine. Rislene Namani was raised a Muslim with a strong family belief in Islam, living in Algeria. But lately she sees that her family is beginning to change in ways that seem a bit extreme based on her beliefs and she sees them becoming more rigid in their ways. She learns about Jesus Christ through a chance meeting and when she does, she realizes that He is the answer she has been searching for. But if she were to tell her family, her father and younger sister would punish her severely. Much worse, the punishment for possessing a Bible is death and one she tries hard to make sure is hidden well. However when a nosy sister, begins believing that Rislene is up to no good, she uncovers the Bible hidden between her mattress and informs her father. As Rislene tries to explain, her father harshly slaps her and forbids her to continue in this manner. Rislene has no choice but to run away. Not only that, she has fallen in love with an Christian American man. Will she be able to continue in her new found faith or will she become one of the many martyrs for Jesus Christ?

Eric Hoffmann knows he must keep the love he has in his heart hidden for if anyone found out, not only would harm come to Rislene from her family and country but his life would be at risk. Eric knows all to much what the punishment is for Muslims who convert to Christianity if they are exposed. Even now Eric and other believers living in Algeria, have to make sure that the church meetings were kept hidden. If anyone discovered them, they could face severe persecution, punishment and death. The violence against believers has been increasing at an alarming rate in Algeria and it's one of the most hostile places to be. When Eric learns that Rislene's father has sent her to Algeria to visit her "ailing grandmother", he panics because he believes she is about to be forced into marriage against her will in order to force her to give up her beliefs in Jesus in an effort to control her.

I received Two Destinies by Elizabeth Musser compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and David C Cook for my honest review and have to say, it's been eye opening as a believer in Christ living in the US. It's hard for us sometimes to realize just how much others are truly persecuted in comparison to what we feel is difficult for us to endure in our faith. I've had the opportunity to meet a Muslim Christian and learn how difficult it truly is for them to give up everything, their culture, their way of life, even their families for the sake of following Jesus, and they gladly do it. There is hope even in sharing this novel with new Muslim Christians who are bound to be encouraged through this fictional series. For that reason I rate this novel a 5 out of 5 stars. This is the third book in the Secrets of the Cross Series and can be read as a stand alone. For those of you that would love to read the first two, begin with Two Crosses and then Two Testaments!

For more information on Two Destinies, Elizabeth Musser or where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Two Destinies by Elizabeth Musser

You can also find Elizabeth Musser on Facebook by clicking here. 

To read more reviews on Two Destines from the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance book tour, please click here. 

The Sweetest Thing

Anne "Perri" Singleton's world is defined by the security of family, the camaraderie of friends at an exclusive Atlanta girls' school, for an enviable social life. She isn't looking for new friends when Mary Dobbs Dillard arrives from Chicago. Besides, "Dobbs," the passionate and fiercely individualistic daughter of an itinerant minster, is her opposite in every way.

But just as the Great Depression collides disastrously with Perri's well-ordered life, friendship blossoms - a friendship that will be tested by jealousy, betrayal, and family secrets....

With her endearing characters and poignant storytelling, Atlanta native Elizabeth Musser vividly re-creates the charm of her beloved city amid the poverty and plenty that shaped the 1930's in the latest novel The Sweetest Thing.

I received the book The Sweetest Thing compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review and was transported back to the time of the Great Depression through the remarkable storytelling of Elizabeth Musser. It's hard to imagine just how difficult it was for some families to weather the storm of not knowing if things would right themselves once again when President Roosevelt took office. Whether banks would reopen again, whether their would be enough food to feed their families at night, and how some would get through a day.

I didn't realize how many people committed suicide even though that very same thing happened here in 2008 when our own financial upheaval occurred in the banking world. We get to share in the close friendship of Perri and Dobbs and see how each of them will help get them through this storm. Perri is the daughter of a wealthy family who doesn't seem concerned with the stock market fall out until it affects her father, while Dobbs comes from a poor family whose goal is to provide for a meal for her family at the end of the day. This one rates a 5 out of 5 stars!

Here's even more great information about the book, the author and even a first chapter glimpse.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Sweetest Thing • Bethany House (June 1, 2011) by Elizabeth Musser



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Elizabeth Musser, an Atlanta native, studied English and French literature at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. While at Vanderbilt, I had the opportunity to spend a semester in Aix-en-Provence,



France. During her Senior year at Vanderbilt, she attended a five-day missions conference for students and discovered an amazing thing: God had missionaries in France, and she felt God calling her there. After graduation, she spent eight months training for the mission field in Chicago, Illinois and then two years serving in a tiny Protestant church in Eastern France where she met her future husband.



Elizabeth lives in southern France with her husband and their two sons. She find her work as a mother, wife, author and missionary filled with challenges and chances to see God’s hand at work daily in her life. Inspiration for her novels come both from her experiences growing up in Atlanta as well as through the people she meets in her work in France. Many conversations within her novels are inspired from real-life conversations with skeptics and seekers alike.



Her acclaimed novel, The Swan House, was a Book Sense bestseller list in the Southeast and was selected as one of the top Christian books for 2001 by Amazon's editors. Searching for Eternity is her sixth novel.





ABOUT THE BOOK

Compelling Southern Novel Explores Atlanta Society in the 1930s.



The Singleton family’s fortunes seem unaffected by the Great Depression, and Perri—along with the other girls at Atlanta’s elite Washington Seminary—lives a life of tea dances with college boys and matinees at the cinema. When tragedy strikes, Perri is confronted with a world far different from the one she has always known.



At the insistence of her parents, Mary ‘Dobbs’ Dillard, the daughter of an itinerant preacher, is sent from inner-city Chicago to live with her aunt and attend Washington Seminary. Dobbs, passionate, fiercely individualistic and deeply religious, enters Washington Seminary as a bull in a china shop and shocks the girls with her frank talk about poverty and her stories of revival on the road. Her arrival intersects at the point of Perri’s ultimate crisis, and the tragedy forges an unlikely friendship.



The Sweetest Thing tells the story of two remarkable young women—opposites in every way—fighting for the same goal: surviving tumultuous change. Just as the Great Depression collides disastrously with Perri's well-ordered life, friendship blossoms--a friendship that will be tested by jealousy, betrayal, and family secrets...



If you would like to read the first chapter of The Sweetest Thing, go HERE.