My review of Anessia's Quest by Karen Arnpriester

About the book:

This book follows the life of a woman born into dysfunction, disregard and disappointment. The story takes you on her journey. A journey that begins with abandonment, abuse, and physical injury. Pagne believes she is all alone, thrown away, but finds out that she is protected and guided by her guardian angel. A relationship develops between this lost child and a loving protector that manifests a unique method of communication. Pagne encounters other damaged people that become her family, friends and community. Her grace and compassion alter their destructive paths. People that she learns to trust, love and rely on. She moves through her life unaware of the impact she creates, her purpose on Earth.

Her life is filled with tears, laughter, joy and heartbreak. She faces challenges that include ultimate betrayal, loss and shame. Challenges that are only bearable due to her trust and faith in heaven’s love and value for her. Love that is reinforced by her angel. She discovers the events that led to her mother’s indifference and neglect, and must decide how much grace she can extend to a woman she has hated for most of her life. The ultimate test of forgiveness. When she faces her death, Pagne discovers the true value and power of forgiveness and love. She is shown how her life created ripples that spread into waves of glorious influence. She was not an accident, she was placed on Earth with divine intent.

My review:

I love a story that is full of realistic tension and real life circumstances. Granted, the scenarios in this story mainly come from the seedier side of human existence, but there were still many joy-filled scenes in this book. Those are the scenes that really touched my heart.

This novel had it's heart-wrenching moments and I found my eyes filling with tears a few times. The thing is that I've actually seen many of these scenarios in my twenty-plus years of working with abused and neglected kids doing foster care and adoption. Usually people who try to write this type of characterization fall short on the description and getting into the hearts of the victims. This author had a good grasp of the mind-set of people who have been abused, molested, and have dealt with anger and addiction issues. These were very well-portrayed and accurate.

I adored Pagne and Lenny and they way they experienced their new marriage. The author nailed the way young newly married couples think. In all honesty I liked just about everything about this novel. The only things that didn't work for me were some of the angel descriptions and how some of the resolution ended up being over-the-top perfect.

At the same time the author did have her characters suffer from real trials and consequences, so there were no perfect people or situations. The omniscient point of view worked in most scenes, but in some I found it a bit cumbersome. It was an enthralling plot regardless, if not a bit long toward the end.

I did enjoy the conclusion of the story where the people Payne influenced over the years showed up in heaven and the impact of each action in Payne's life could be seen along with the positive ripple effects. I have a feeling that will resemble a bit of our experience on the other side - when we see whose lives were positively impacted by ours for eternity.