#BlogTour – Believe – Shelly Hickman

Book Blurb:

“Believe. A message that still taunts her years after the passing of her daughter. In the days of her daughter’s illness, she considered herself a seeker, open to the possibilities of prayer and faith. Now cynical and guarded, she is forced to reexamine her beliefs and relive her past when an old love resurfaces, with a sick child of his own. Believe is a story that examines fractures to our foundations in the face of tragedy. It is a story that asks if prayers are always answered, but often in ways we do not see.
NOTE: Despite the spiritual tone of this work, please be aware it contains strong language.”

My Thoughts:

As this is my first ever real life story and my first ever audiobook blog tour, this has been a real challenge to balance the sensitivity of the subject matter with my thoughts.

First off I want to say this a very well written account of a very difficult subject.

I enjoyed the simplicity and honesty throughout the story and as this is new and way outside my usual genre, I had to keep reminding myself that this was in fact a real life account.

I have thankfully never experienced what Rachel went through but I immediately connected with her as a person trying to keep afloat in a sea of tradegy. I did enjoy her recounts of taking her dog to help the children even in her own grief she still thought of others.

But unfortunately things got worse before there was a light in this very dark tunnel, but light very soon shined.

Being a Christian myself I can relate to the religious overtones this book has in bucketloads but it’s not there to be in your face or bash you with a “good book”. If anything it shows you that people who believe, people who don’t or people who used to but don’t anymore, all struggle with the same things, because after all we are all simply human.

I find when the writer of the book is also the narrator, it adds another dimension to it, and with Shelly writing and narrating this is no exception, her delivery is steady and easy to follow.

My only criticism would be the ending was nice if a bit predictable but that in no way takes away from the story.

To be honest I struggled with this review but many will find this book helpful and an immense source of peace and hope.

You can find the book Here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Believe/dp/B076PJCY8H/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511940431&sr=1-1&keywords=believe+shelly+hickman

you can follow Shelly on twitter here: @shellyhickman