By Nicole Deese
Rating: 5
"You can't love me, Angie," he pleaded. "Please don't love me - you deserve a better man."
"I already love a better man. He just can't see that you're one and the same."
My thoughts on the book:
This book turned me into a human sprinkler.
Angie and Jackson's story of redemption is one that will warm your heart to its core and use up your entire supply of Kleenex tissues. All Who Dream is a testimony to hope in the darkest of times, no matter our pasts, or our circumstances.
So, instead of filling up this review with a bunch of positive adjectives and 'meaningless compliments' (as Jackson would say!), I'm going to share a quote that really connected with me from this book:
'When I was a young girl I believed that romantic love had the power to save. I saw it as the great remedy, the one cure that could fix all wounds and mend all hearts. But I didn't believe that anymore.
Sometimes love was not all we needed.
Sometimes it didn't cure our hurts.
Sometimes it wasn't the eraser of our mistakes.
Love is instead, the bridge that leads the broken to grace, hope, and redemption. Love is the greatest amplifier that God ever gave us. Our strengths are made stronger with it, and our faults are shown mercy because of it.'
How beautiful is that?!
Here is a book that shows us the true meaning of the word 'love'.
Love isn't the miracle cure that you pop at the end of a tale to give everyone a happy ending. Love can't dissolve the past, and excuse our mistakes.
Those things we need to do for ourselves - self forgiveness, self healing, contrition, etc. But love can aid us in becoming stronger people. Love can help us to start healing, to start living again.
Unlike in many NA and YA books, where love is a lovely sandwich spread that is smoothed over everything to make it look prettier.
Angie discovers this and realises that each person needs to make the decision for themselves. Whether that is to forgive themselves, forgive others, or move on.
We are the most important people in our lives - only we can make the decisions that form the person we can, and wish to, be.
All Who Dream is a deeply insightful and beautiful story, that reveals to readers the beauty in life and its mistakes...and, ultimately, the power of faith and hope.
"This book turned me into a human sprinkler." haha great review! I haven't seen this book around, but it looks like it could be good.
ReplyDelete