VBT# Courage in Patience - Beth Fehlbaum

 

 

 

Review: Courage in Patience - Book #1 The Patience Trilogy - Beth Fehlbaum - March 2016

First off , this is an edgy YA read that features sexual, mental and physical abuse as well as racism. When I first opened up , I had a feeling from the first page that it was going to be a heavy and emotional driven read but I didn't realise just how much it would be. In the first few pages we meet Ashley who is fourteen and lives with her mum and stepdad Charlie. It comes across in the first chapter that she is being abused , but during the first part of the book - you do wonder whether she is making it up and whether what is happening is reality or a fantasy as it was hard to determine what was real and what wasn't due to the writing style. We discover about halfway through the story, that the abuse is real enough for social welfare to come and take Ashley away from her mother and she goes to live with her real Dad David and his wife Bev and their son Ben. It is here in the smalltown of Patience, that Ashley starts to discover what love is and what a family should be like. During the summer, Bev teaches a summer class called English II - which is for those wanting to get ahead of the upcoming year or needing to pass to get their end of school diploma. She chooses the book IronMan by Chris Crutcher - working in the library , I do recall seeing the book but never picked it up myself but reading as she taught the children about it and discovering it's themes - it is now on my TBR list. In the classroom, we will meet a variety of different characters - from different backgrounds, class levels and races. They all have one thing in  common though , they are looking for someone to listen to them and for themselves to find their voices.  During this book in parts it tugged at my heartstrings as I felt for Ashley and what she went through, other times I understood as I had a mother that stepped back and refused to pay attention with an abusive father (his was a temper not sexual) and he had quite strict rules and on the odd occasion when she did stand up, it didn't end well for her.

If you are looking for a book that pushes your comfort zones into all sorts of weird angles, then check out Courage in Patience - the first book in the Patience Trilogy by Beth Fehlbaum.