The Foolish Things

Author: Rebekah Tyne McKamie
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Sharon Mehlmann’s obesity, emotional weakness, and pessimism have caused her close-knit family to rearrange their lives to encourage her. But with Self-Doubt relentlessly persecuting them all, Sharon and her family may ultimately succumb to their weaknesses – leaving plenty of opportunity for God’s glory.

“...For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:10

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Reviewer: Raechell Kelly

No matter how much I do or don't enjoy a book, I always love trying new authors. I deeply appreciate the work, heart, and effort they put into their novels.

I personally had a hard time getting into this book and feeling any depth of attachment to it.  While the blurb given on the back of the book doesn't disclose much at all, the story itself seemed like it was a strong concept. And perhaps if it was told a different way, I might have been more engaged. But it is told through the perspective of Self-Doubt, which states itself as being neither a demon or a spirit but a tool. I understand that we need to be weak so that God can be strong, but how the story was told felt kind of creepy, more like from a demon's perspective and that really threw me off, to be honest. There would be a couple of times where I'd forget it was written this way, but then it would end a sentence in something like "And that's where I came in." etc. I just don't think that the story's concept was best displayed through this vehicle of perspective.

By the back cover blurb, I also assumed it would be primarily about Sharon. However, the story gravitates more so towards her friend, LD/Georgie and her brother Sean, who had an odd start to a relationship but got where they needed to be in the end. Sharon's story came more towards the end, and I liked parts of it, but I struggled with how much it was stressed that she was SO overweight and morbidly obese, and then they name a number  - in my opinion, when talking about weight problems, numbers shouldn't be mentioned because every body type is different and the number on a scale can read the same for two people but show totally different. We understood from words alone how she struggled with her weight, but to name a number felt overdone. As someone who has struggled with weight myself, I've had to realize that the scale tells a different story for each person and what may be overweight for someone might be considered healthy on another body type.

In conclusion, it was an interesting read, just not personally a hit for me.

This book was provided courtesy of the author/publisher  through Interviews & Reviews.   

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