MBR Bookwatch

Interesting read … Recommended … 4 stars

The narrative opens as Rachel prepares for an overnight visit with her in-laws. Rachel and her pastor husband are the parents of a baby, a toddler and a five-year-old. Willard and June are coming to take the five-year-old Adam home with them for two weeks. Rachel is troubled that her in-laws measure success with dollar signs. The older couple had had to scrimp during Matthew’s growing up years before they made their fortune in labeling machines.

Rachel felt uneasy dread as she watched her husband pulling out of the drive on Monday morning. On his way to a lectureship that was to begin on Monday and end on Friday, Matthew was a devoted husband and Christian. Her nightmare began on Tuesday. It was 6 am when Rachel carried the baby monitor out to the garage where she was refinishing a dresser. The house was set in the mountains, with their house sitting a quarter of a mile from the road. Suddenly a man appeared in front of the open garage door.

All self defense mechanisms were forgotten as Rachel was overpowered and savagely raped. The last thing Rachel remembered before losing consciousness was attempting to throw her attacker off of her tormented body. She awoke to the sound of crying coming from the baby monitor. Making her way to the baby’s room Rachel found her attacker molesting her infant daughter. Somehow Rachel managed to throw the attacker off the baby, locate a pair of handcuffs Matthew used in his part-time job as security job, and get them on the attacker before he could revive from his fall. When Rachel located two-year-old Benjamin her anguish was compounded to realize that not one of them had been spared the animal attacks.

Telling her father about a date rape left fifteen year old Rachel feeling dirty and hopeless. The trial for the rapist a few months later did little to assuage those feelings as Rachel was portrayed as a deceptive sex wanton and the nineteen year old rapist was portrayed as a boy who had been led on. In many ways the trial was worse for Rachel than was the rape.

Memories of that court appearance were to color Rachel’s thinking following the stranger’s attack upon herself and her family. She bathed and fed her children, branded her attacker with a hot iron and pondered whether she should take her children and herself to the hospital, or to call the police. With her husband away from home for several days and herself battered during the attack, isolated in a wooded area atop a hill away from neighbors, family or friends Rachel must rely upon her own experience, intellect and instinct.

Do Not Boast About Tomorrow is a gripping tale of a woman and her return to normalcy following the most harrowing time of her life. Written in the first person, at times downright gritty, an adeptly interwoven consternation filled storyline is the foundation for the work. As an intriguing technique; the first person narrative is alternatively told by Rachel and her husband. Writing is good, characters are believable and well developed, dialog is spirited, hard hitting and moving, the scenario is understandable, the writer uses biblical reference throughout her work to add credibility to why Rachel, a minister’s wife and deeply religious woman proceeds as she does.

AUTHOR Tallent’S cleverness with words and her expressive narrative pull the reader right into the tale. The heartsick worry felt by Rachel is palpable as she is driven to discover what her plan of action should be, how best to care for and protect her family, and what she as a Christian who takes seriously the Biblical admonition that vengeance is best left to God, should consider regarding her treatment of her tormentor.

For review I received a trade paper back from publicist. Do Not Boast About Tomorrow is true page turner and certain to appeal to the target audience of Christian readers. Happy to recommend.

Reviewed by: Molly’s Reviews

Genre: Christian Thriller

Author: Teresa Tallent