In his latest novel, Darkness Before Dawn (Abingdon Press), Ace Collins leads readers on an emotionally charged ride from revenge to forgiveness.   I participated in the book tour for Darkness Before Dawn to find out what it was all about.

You know how I keep saying that Christian fiction isn’t what it used to be? Read Darkness Before Dawn to see what I mean. This isn’t your book about sweet romance and praying together before holding hands. This book goes down deep into a grieving woman’s heart, tests the oil stick and finds that she’s running on empty.  Meg Richards is widowed at a young age and on the day she learns she is pregnant with her first child.  Although the characters in a Christian novel are usually people I really like, I have to be honest and say that I didn’t really like Meg.  At least, not at first.  She was abrasive and seemed a little too self-pleased to be the kind of girl I’d want to hang out with.  In the beginning of the story when the phone rings in the middle of the night, Meg starts out being disgruntled and kind of whiny.   If the phone rings at my house at an early hour, I instantly set into panic mode wondering what is wrong.  Because of this, I didn’t feel like I had that instant connection with Meg that I normally enjoy with a  main character.  Even after she was in the depths of her despair, she was checking herself out in the mirror to verify that she still looked hot.   I think, though, that those random emotions were typical of her mental ups and downs as a widowed, soon-to-be single parent.  Author Ace Collins made me feel every emotion right along with Meg.  Wow.  My heart still feels a bit heavy because of her loss.For much of the story, Meg turned out to be a person that I wasn’t supposed to like.  In fact, she was downright mean.  Yes, it was excusable to a point because she had just been widowed (and was facing some major pregnancy hormones, to be sure) but she was really hard to be around in the weeks after her husband’s death.  I found myself thinking about others in my life who have experienced tragedy and how I might be able to help them.  Are they going through the same emotions and rage?  Darkness Before Dawn made me wonder.

The story of teenage drunk driving was extremely timely.  In this generation, some children are starting to be the next logical step of irresponsible parenting.  In the news we often hear about teenagers who were attacked while incoherent at a part and didn’t know about it until the next day.  We hear of children who make adult decisions and face adult consequences.  The disheartening part of all of this is that the parents often turn a blind eye until it’s too late.  Without having teenagers (yet) I can only hope that my children will make better choices in their teenage years.  I do pray for them daily and make the effort to guide them on the path that God would have them walk.  Still, not every child has someone praying for him or her.  In this book, James Thomas seems to have it all — except parents who truly love him with a selfless love.

So in the course of reading this book, my heart changed along with the characters’ hearts.  I felt compassion, pity, and gratitude for the life I’ve been given.  Darkness Before Dawn helped me to look into my own motives in parenting and how I can help my children.  Likewise, it made me realize that the simple conversations I have with others aren’t something to ignore.  Instead, I need to let the Lord guide my words and actions for the glory that He deserves.

I expected to see some kind of reference material at the end of the book to support Mothers Against Drunk Driving.  It seemed that this would be an excellent book for those struggling with an alcohol-related accident.  It would definitely be a good book for Christian teens to read in a Sunday School class or book study setting.  I probably wouldn’t have picked up this title on my own. The cover just wasn’t appealing to me.  It was a wonderful opportunity that I would have missed, because this was an excellent read.  I highly recommend this to any parent who has teenagers!