Surrender

I must both agree and disagree with the previous review. Yes, Surrender does present a somewhat (okay--very!) idealized picture of this particular Catholic family's life. But what is wrong with presenting an ideal to which readers can aspire? There are plenty of novels out there that tell the stories of individuals whose main focus is decidedly NOT to try to live out holy, faith-centered lives. I applaud Carmen Marcoux for writing this engaging story about characters who are trying to do just that. I would also argue that, in terms of realism, there are an awful lot of us out here who in fact are trying to live out the ideals presented in Surrender and the earlier book in the series, Arms of Love. While I admit that my family falls far, far short of the near perfection of the Collins family, I find that we resemble them a lot more closely than we do the families (or lack thereof) in most modern novels! Actually, I found Amy and Maggie (the main characters in Surrender) to be very relatable. They made mistakes, said the wrong things, had difficulty discerning God's will in their lives, etc. I found this to be an improvement over Arms of Love, in which the main character, Joanie, is a little too perfect--though I'd still enthusiastically recommend reading that book as well. In short, I truly enjoyed this book, as did my 15-, 13-, and 11-year-old daughters, and the numerous others to whom I have loaned it. We are eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series.