And The Light Shines by Terri Wallace

And The Light Shines takes place in a world where all the Christians have been prosecuted and supposedly eliminated.  Police comb the surrounding areas looking for any Christian, and arrest them.  Christians are tortured until they denounce God.  This is a story about two men, Mark and Chris, who were once on that very police force until God met them during a cave in.  The novel follows them as they accept the task of following Christ and spreading his word as well as the consequences for being faithful and loyal to Him.

I wasn't sure about this book when I started it.  It seemed to start off slow and didn't seem to appeal to me, but I stuck with it and I am completely happy that I did.  The story really picks up in the cave when Chris and Mark find the Bible under rubble.  One thing that was a little difficult was the story would switch quickly between the past and present without much of a warning.  It would take a few moments to realize that the setting changed to a different time or rather a memory Chris was having while he was in his cell.  The memories and present accounts are necessary to the story, and help progress the story along, I just wished there was a different way of letting readers know they were going back into a memory even with a few sentences describing that while Chris was unconscious in the cell, we would be entering a memory.  There were times when this was done, but there was not consistency with it.

With each of the characters,  readers can see elements and characteristics of different disciples.   We watch as they struggle with some of the same things we struggle with on a secular daily basis.  How often have we wondered how can God all low bad things to happen to good people?   It made me wonder if faced with the same situation,  what would I do?

All the elements Terri adds into the story makes it a wonderful, enticing read.  I would recommend this novel to anyone looking for a new Christian author,  new genre, or a fiction book based on faith and displays that faith.  I give this novel a 4 out of 5. 
 

**Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program.  **