Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Sweet Forgiveness: A Novel by Lori Nelson Spielman

Sweet Forgiveness: A Novel.  Lori Nelson Spielman. Penguin Publishing Group (USA). June 2015. 368 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9780147516763.

Hannah Farr, a popular Louisiana TV talk show host, receives an offer to submit an idea for a talk show she might be hired to host.  She chooses the Forgiveness Stones – a project or program that is the rage of the nation right now.  The idea is to send out a pouch of stones and send them out with two requests, to use them as a sign of forgiveness you ask of another you have hurt and to use them as a sign of forgiveness you are being asked to give to someone who has hurt you.  It’s a “heart-throb” topic that has attracted many people but the process is certainly not as easy as it sounds.

Forgiveness requires honesty and purity of motive that calls for some gritty recognition of truth, lies, glib attitudes, and may even make a situation worse instead of better.  But all in all, Hannah is determined to make it a part of her life; at least she is willing to initiate this process which will call for far more than she’s ever given to any person or project in her past experience.

In the course of this story, Hannah will find a true love and discard those who are more into “appearances’ than anything real.  She’ll be forced to examine familial relationships that are not the story she has formed carefully to protect herself. She’ll get a better look at what a future with a certain person would be like, a vision that’s both shocking and not so pretty. 

A wise old Southern lady, a good friend and the woman who started this “forgiveness” trend will provide the wisdom that makes this story so “real” and saves it from being just another melodramatic soap opera.  Sweet Forgiveness… is a wonderful, heart-moving story that is poignant to read and memorable to think about when it reaches its unexpected final pages. 
Nicely done, Lori Nelson Spielman!


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