Defining Moments

DEFINING MOMENTS is the sequel to Ms. Thomas’ seminal work, The Prodigal Husband, where readers were first introduced to scheming Sheila Moore. About four years have passed since she attempted to destroy her business partner, Jake Madison’s marriage and now she finds herself facing a much greater challenge - multiple sclerosis. She abruptly takes a leave of absence from her firm, but tells Jake nothing about her health problems and finds herself drifting into a relationship with Nicholas Washington, a longtime friend of Tori, Jake’s wife. At first, Sheila, in her usual wicked ways, attempts to use Nicholas to hurt Tori, but his strength of character forces her to learn to care about him for himself. Will Jake, Tori, Nicholas and Sheila be able to forget the bitterness of the past, forgive each other, and move forward in the blessings God has for them? Which DEFINING MOMENTS will these characters use to influence the rest of their lives?

Ms. Thomas has finally penned this long-awaited sequel, which her readers have demanded almost since The Prodigal Husband was first in print. Readers were especially eager to see the conniving Sheila “get hers.” However, no one would have wished the fate of a debilitating illness on anyone, not even the evil Sheila. Readers are treated to a fascinating glimpse into what it would be like to live with this chronic disease and Ms. Thomas does a wonderful job of using it to rehabilitate Sheila and make her sympathetic to even readers who vowed to hate her forever. This story revolves around the themes of forgiveness and God’s grace, which Nicholas manages to teach Sheila about during t heir turbulent relationship. Ms. Thomas does an excellent job of conveying this message without being overly insistent or obvious about it. There is however, one flaw in this tale. If the reader has not read the previous work, they will have a very hard time following the plot for the first third or so of the book, as it is that far into the book before any major back story is provided by Ms. Thomas. Other than that, this is an excellent example of Christian fiction that all readers of that genre can and will enjoy, especially if they read the first offering.

June 2007