by Dr. Cupid R. Poe and Kathi Macias
Reviewed by Jeanette Morris
Price: $13.00 (paperback)
To order: Author House
This fast-paced journey through the traumatic life of Emma Jean Cooper is not for the faint of heart. Nowhere in this highly emotional novel will you find coauthors Dr. Cupid R. Poe and Kathi Macias (Christian PEN member) soft-soaping the hard realities of the life of an abused child and battered wife. Taking readers from the “hollers” of Arkansas to the neon lights of Hollywood, this often-unbelievable saga, which is based on a compilation of true accounts, is at the same time painful to read and impossible to put down. While perhaps few of us have ever had it as tough as Emma Jean, most people know what it’s like to be “down on your luck,” making our heroine a character we identify with and root for.
The strong message that pervades this 225-page novel is that God is present in the storm, in the valley of the shadow of death, and in other unlikely, unsavory places. Emma Jean seems to end up in many of them, through no real fault of her own. Her search takes her as far as she can get from her home, where hatred and prejudice reign, then back again to face the facts and the fears of who she is and who she wants to become. Those whom God puts in her path along the way make intriguing and often surprising foils to her plans, reminding us that His ways are not like ours.
