My Review - JADED by Varina Denman

4 out of 5 stars

JADED is a novel that not only entertains but challenges the reader in the areas of judgment, forgiveness, and grace. Though the pacing is slow the message is worth your time.

Ruthie Turner is a young woman who experiences firsthand the hurt of being excommunicated from the local church. After her father leaves town—for reasons Ruthie still doesn’t understand—she and her mother are asked to leave the church on the word of one of the elders. This sets Ruthie’s course for life and leaves her bitter and resentful towards all Christians. So, when a new pastor comes to Trapp, Texas to lead the flock that casted her aside, she turns a blind eye to his supposed interest in her. Unfortunately, her heart can’t be as easily swayed. Her feelings for Dodd Cunningham confuse and anger her. He is one of them. But the way her treats her is so different than anything she’s experienced. But knowing her mother would be devastated by such a relationship, Ruthie continues to fight her attraction for Dodd.

Dodd Cunningham is new to Trapp, Texas, and quickly gets a crash course on small town living. In a town where everyone knows everyone else’s business—and feels they have a right to weigh in on each decision he makes—Dodd tries to straddle the fence between acceptance and changing the heart of the people. His attraction for Ruthie is unique and unsettling. But when he is encouraged by the church elders to disassociate himself from the Turner family and a local ex-convict, he realizes the church has set itself up as a place of condemnation instead of a place of hope to the lost and wounded. He sets out to change public opinion at the threat of losing his position in the church.

JADED was recommended to me, so I dove in with high expectations. I might have set the bar a little too high, but I still enjoyed it and the message it gave. Ruthie is quite a pistol. I loved her candidness and her this-is-who-I-am-take-it-over-leave-it personality. Dodd was the consummate hero with his always doing the right thing for the right reasons persona. Though I thought it was a bit of a stretch that a conservative pastor would be so intrigued by someone who doesn’t share his faith or lifestyle (almost at times becoming an obsession), the pacing of the story lent to the development of his relationship with Ruthie. This story reminded me quite a bit of KEPT by Sally Bradley, and SWAY by Amy Matayo, which isn’t a bad thing because I thoroughly enjoyed both of those books, but the ‘pastor meets a woman from outside the evangelical realm’ seems to be a hot topic of late. None of these observations dampened by desire to read JUSTIFIED, the second installment in the Mended Hearts series. I will just have a better understanding of Ms. Denman’s writing style and pacing.