Mary Lynn and Jackson Scoville have worked hard to achieve what they consider to be success. They have a beautiful home and life in Charleston, South Carolina with their three daughters. Their girls go to the best private schools and they all shop at high end stores and wear designer label clothing. Soon all of their hopes to belong to the best social circles will be open to them, but is that what they really want or need? Mary Lynn has found herself being drawn to Christ and wants Jackson and their girls to also become more aware and welcoming to God in their lives also.
At first I was drawn into the book but kept waiting for something to show me that these people were like any of the people that I know. I could not identify with parents that controlled every minute of their children't lives and by doing so, took away a lot of the choices that most teenagers are able to make for themselves. They seemed to be so tightly controlled, especially by their father, that there was no room for mistakes, a valuable learning experience for most people. I found it odd that a car was given to the oldest daughter who was only 15 and she was told not to get a ticket or the car would be taken back to the dealership. Of course she promptly got a ticket and the car was taken away. Personally, I would never have given a car to a teen that young and expected anything good to come of it. Every child needs rules, but they also need limits in what they should be able to do with new freedoms. The father was so utterly controlling, that he really didn't seem normal in any way. Then when he accepts God into his life, he goes completely in the other direction and does a really convincing portayal of a person who has completely lost it. Although at times I could almost see a hint of what this story was trying to tell us, it just annoyed me too much reading about all the nuttiness of Jackson and Mary Lynn to a lesser degree. Since there is a message contained in all the antics of this family, this book may be something that some people would enjoy reading.
This book was provided to me to read and review by Thomas Nelson via Booksneeze.com
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