debut novel

This debut novel from Rachelle Dekker leaves an impression. A good one that leaves the reader wanting more. Yes, she is related to that other best-selling author with the same last name. Rachelle is Ted Dekker’s eldest daughter. After reading several comments on Facebook and Twitter that read something like “If you enjoy Ted Dekker’s work, don’t miss Rachelle Dekker’s debut.” These comments left me wondering what I would be reading. While I enjoy most of Ted’s books, I also know they are intense, dark, mind-boggling, and sometimes downright scary. They take a little more commitment to read than the romance novels I breeze right through. I’m happy to report that Rachelle put just enough of this in her book to make the story move along without bogging the reader down. But more about that later.

Carrington Hale has trained her entire life for one thing. One evening will determine her future. When the evening doesn’t go as planned, and Carrington is not chosen, she is whisked away to a lifetime of service as a Lint. Reeling from the abrupt changes in her life—the loss of her family and the life she’s known, living with a large group of other women, and working—she forms a tentative friendship with another Lint who questions the system. As Carrington struggles with what she’d done wrong, she learns that there is life outside the walls of the city—people who don’t answer to the authorities. Then she is given an unprecedented offer to marry. Her heart is torn between feeling wanted, giving up her friendship with the other Lint, and possibly living in a nightmare. When she discovers the truth about the man she is engaged to marry, Carrington will have to make a choice. Is she enough or does she need someone else to define who she is?

The Choosing opens at a pivotal point in Carrington’s life and takes off from there. The pace slows slightly in all of the right places in the book and allows the reader to catch their breath after certain realities are reveals. While the book is mostly from Carrington’s point of view, we do also get those of a city guard named Remko, a couple of the authorities, and a man who has taken it upon himself to mete out justice. While the mystery behind who that man is was fairly easy to figure out, it doesn’t detract from the story since the reader is most concerned with Carrington. Since this book is labeled as “A Seer Novel” and there is a little bit of an open end, I’m hoping for at least one more book where I can catch up with Carrington Hale.

Learn more about the author here.

****Tyndale House Publishers and the Tyndale Blog Network provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. All opinions expressed are my own.