Midnight Clear

short and sweet. shows what a small world and a little pass it forward can do.

Hope can come from the strangest of places for some people. For six strangers, hope comes from people they don't know - a common first source for the opposite of hope: fear. "Midnight Clear", now a major motion picture, is the tale of five strangers finding hope in one another as destiny brings them together. Even the most insignificant act can make a difference is its moral, and "Midnight Clear" is highly recommended for community library fiction shelves as a fine piece of fiction.

This book was easy reading and it kept me from not wanting to put the book down. The flow of characters was good.

Christmas is a joyful time spent with family, but what if you don't have family? What if Christmas Eve is the anniversary of the worst event that's ever happened in your life? Midnight Clear has an eclectic cast: A middle-aged man who's just lost his job. The owner of a run-down gas station having to work the holiday. A lady well past her prime with no reason to live. A mother who'll do anything for her young son, and a struggling youth pastor who's lost his zeal. Tonight the paths of these five will intersect, and nothing will ever be the same. Reading this holiday tale is like reading the best parts of a favorite book. Better classified a novella than a novel, you'd think it would be hard to connect with five different people in seventeen short chapters, but that's not the case. From the start you'll be drawn into their situations, truly caring what happens to them. Jenkins & Jenkins skillfully make each character distinguishable with their own quirks and traits. Not every author could accomplish this. And they even managed to pull off a twist I didn't see coming at the end. Based on a short story Jerry wrote ten years ago, Midnight Clear (which has also been made into a movie by Dallas starring Stephen Baldwin) isn't just another fluffy Christmas book you give to the person who has everything. There's some real meat here that'll have you pondering who you are as a person and whether you really are living out your faith. The book does have its light moments. Some one-liners will make you chuckle, and the 16 pages of color stills from the movie complete the enjoyable reading experience. At the end you're even treated to an interview with actress Victoria Jackson (of Saturday Night Live & Politically Incorrect fame) who has a small role in the film. The hopeful message found in Midnight Clear is poignant--seemingly small gestures can sometimes mean the difference between life and death. And that's something we all need to think about, every day of the year. --Reviewed by C.J. Darlington for TitleTrakk

It is the day before Christmas Eve and five people do not feel that tomorrow will be any different than any other day; except maybe worse. Lefty has lost his apartment, his job and visitation rights to his children because of his habitual drinking. Evie is estranged from her children and feels there is nothing to live for; she plans to commit later that night. Mary and her son Jacob feel the loss of her institutionalized husband/his father Rick due to brain damage incurred when a DUI rammed into his car. Mitch, a youth pastor at the church Mary used to attend before the accident, was in the vehicle when the drunk crashed into then. He is unable to visit Rick because he cannot cope with seeing his best friend with the mind of an infant. Suffering his own crisis of faith, Mitch considers quitting as the youth pastor. Kirk, the owner of a self-service gas station and convenience store, lives in a grey world.. These five people cross paths in a random way, but are changed by accepting the gift of grace. This is a beautiful Christmas story filed with love, hope, redemption and a chance to turn one's life around by accepting the gift of grace especially when things seem darkest and it feels as if God abandoned you. Each of the five prime players represents a cross section of the population yet everyone is fully developed so that the audience understands their depression that comes with their tribulations. Jerry B. Jenkins and Dallas Jenkins have created a delightful charmer that empathizing readers will appreciate as life is worth living. Harriet Klausner