PUBLICATION DATE:  AUGUST 30, 2011

elli London is 25, beautiful, and job hunting. More than that, she is searching for purpose. Her search lands her in St. Louis with her brother and sister-in-law Cyd and into the path of the one person she has a valid reason to hate, Brian Howard. Heather Anderson dreams of becoming a recording artist, instead she’s known as “the other woman”. One bad decision has led to another and they all lead up to Heather vomiting between sobs on the floor of a hotel restroom. Each woman knows what it’s like to end up in the darkest of places, but as they learn to see themselves in the light of Christ, their lives begin new journeys that neither of them thought possible.

Cherished is a novel that takes the Sunday sermons you’ve heard since spiritual birth and makes them come alive. Kim Cash Tate creates in her characters people that you know and lives that you’ve lived with humor, grace and authenticity. This novel displays how the sovereignty of God, the mercy of God, His compassion and boundless love all work together to take the broken messes we’ve made of those lives and turn them into a reflection of His beauty.

One of the best things about Cherished is that Tate doesn’t take the easy way out as a writer and fill the story with fairy tale clichés in order to satisfy the reader. Instead she amplifies the tension, and doing so amplifies the spiritual content of the novel.  I have one small gripe with the novel and that is pacing. It takes until about the fourth chapter for the story to gain momentum. Conversely, the last few chapters condense long periods of time into few words making keeping up a tad confusing and giving the resolution a rushed feeling.

But all in all, I enjoyed reading Cherished almost as much as reading Faithful. Kim Cash Tate continues to impress with how she manages difficult subjects, spiritually mature content and authenticity. I can’t wait to read whatever she comes up with next.

–Courtenay Roberts