After She Falls by Carmen Schober is a 2021 Bethany House publication.
Adri’s life veered off course when she married the wrong guy. Her career as a mAfter She Falls by Carmen Schober is a 2021 Bethany House publication.
Adri’s life veered off course when she married the wrong guy. Her career as a mixed martial artist fell by the wayside and she found herself living in a vicious cycle of abuse. She finally wakes up and gathers up her courage to leave, returning home with her young daughter, Eva. From this time forward, Adri hopes to get her life back in order and her first order of business is getting right with God.
Along the way she reconnects with her former best friend, Max, with whom she also has romantic feelings for, and resurrects her dormant career, all while trying to cope with the ever-present threat her ex-husband might be considering.
I liked many things about this book. One, Adri gets herself and her daughter out of a bad situation which could only come to a tragic conclusion.
From there, Adri realizes her hope lies in her faith, and her spiritual growth is one of the most wonderful parts of this story.
The one thing I had mixed feelings about, though, was Adri's career as a mixed martial artist. I was intrigued by her occupation, and thought it made the premise sound a lot more intriguing- but I also don't really get the attraction of watching two people punch each other until one of them loses consciousness. But, my curiosity won out in the end.
Initially, I was a little surprised by some innuendo and actions of the characters which were not exactly the type of material, I’d have expected in a book marketed as Christian Fiction. On the other hand, as the story progressed, the messages became a little stronger, and I got a lot more about living a Christian life in this book than in my previous experiences with this genre, where the story might have been ‘clean’ but the ‘Christian’ part was barely detectable.
My one real complaint was that while categorized as a romance, I don’t think it truly fits into that category. There was the unspoken promise of relationship developments between Adri and Max, but that’s about it.
Mainly, the story is about Adri pulling her life and career back together, turning to her faith to steer her in the right direction, and committing herself fully to living a Christian life.
She still makes mistakes and errors in judgment, but eventually learns from her missteps- occasionally the hard way- but her will is strong and she triumphs in the end.
Despite my reservations about the mixed martial arts career choice, I confess to feeling the adrenaline and excitement of the matches and found myself cheering Adri on. There was a 'Rocky' like atmosphere during those passages, and the author did a great job of stirring the reader's emotions.
Overall, this is a solid debut novel from this author. I liked the characters, the mostly sound, positive spiritual messages, as well as the unique premise of the story.
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