Book Review: Yielded Captive

If the last book I reviewed offered no redemption or positive take-away, Dalaina May's book, Yielded Captive, provided enough redemption and hope to make up for two books.  I laughed at the wonderful comic bits (like one line where a prospective father tells the mother she should probably be lying down, to which the mother replies, "how many times have you given birth?") and cried at the end when the resolution seemed fraught with difficulties and uncertainties. This book is what all Christian fiction should strive to be - relevant without being preachy, intense without being overbearing, and led by the story-line without relying solely on the message being conveyed.  The message woven through Yielded Captive is one every reader could stand to hear and one which will stir the hearts of unbelievers and strengthen the hearts of believers.

Writing from her own missionary heart for Peru, Dalaina weaves this tale of Eric and Allison Carter, a couple who have devoted their lives to reaching the elusive Shampiri tribe in the jungles of Peru.  But God's direction seems to come into question when Allison sees Eric with an arrow through his back and when she is immediately captured, along with her infant son, by the Shampiri tribe.  By all outward appearances, it would seem that God has abandoned her, but Allison clings to her faith and endures untold suffering.  Wanting to escape or die, but refusing to leave behind her son, Isaac, Allison wrestles daily with God's purposes and provisions.

While this is not an easy tale to read, it is one that rings true and parallels so many of the circumstances believers find themselves in when they question God's designs and purposes for His people.  Sometimes God asks hard things of His own, but He always promises to carry them through if they will yield to His purposes.  The title is apt - even when we are held captive by some circumstance or other, we must yield to His will and His provisions in the midst of difficulties. It caused me to ask myself if I would continue to follow, no matter the cost.

I cannot wait to pass this book on (first to my mother-in-law, who is coming for a visit shortly, and then to my mother).  I literally couldn't wait to write this review.  The writing is so good that you forget there is a writer telling the tale.  The characters are so real that you feel as if you are eavesdropping on their lives.  The pacing is perfect and sweeps you along into the story deeper and deeper. Moreover, the take-away is a message well worth taking in. Kudos to Dalaina May for an excellent debut novel.