I love Francine Rivers as an author. She has the BEST character development. However, I was very disappointed with this particular book. I kept pushing through, thinking it had to get better. But it kept getting more and more depressing with little encouragement on the horizon. I had to abandon it more than half way through because the story was 1. not holding my interest and 2. just plain depressing. It was not an encouragement to my soul like every other book she has ever written has been. I was not learning anything as I so often do from her wonderful writing style and subtle message of hope and encouragement embedded through-out. I was so disappointed.