A book ripped from recent headlines—with a twist.
Adisa Johnson, a young African-American attorney, is practicing law with a prestigious firm when a mistake changes the course of her career. She returns to her hometown where a white police officer shot an unarmed black teen who is now lying comatose in the hospital. Adisa starts out wanting the position of special prosecutor, but feels pulled to do what she considers unthinkable—defend the officer. A black woman willing to defend a white police officer? That’s not something you see every day, right? Racism is powerful motivator of hate, but A Time to Stand Whitlow showed how powerful forgiveness and loving others is.
Remember, just because two of God’s children disagree about one thing doesn’t mean they can’t talk about other things.
Despite the topic of this book being all over recent news, this was difficult to read. Whenever I see a headline regarding a police shooting, I simply hang my head. I must remind myself that I wasn’t there, I don’t know what happened and shouldn’t judge. I wasn’t sure which way this story would lead. Would the police officer be charged and go to jail? Would the young man survive his bullet wounds? Whitlow tackled the topic and did it well in my opinion.
However, I found most of the book to be slow. The side stories of Adisa’s “relationship” with a local pastor and the health of her aunt took away from the case itself, which is what I wanted to hear about. But! A twist at the end put this book at a 4 star rather than a 3 star, which it was through most of the book. I appreciate a surprise and this was a twist that had not entered my mind.
This was the first book by Whitlow that I’ve read, but I’ll certainly be checking out some of his others. If you’re a fan of what I’ll call Christian/Crime Fiction, grab a copy of A Time to Stand.
But I am going to tell you there is only one definitive, all-encompassing answer to what divides us, isolates us, and causes us to mistrust—transformation of the human heart through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
.
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewer: Jennifer
Title: A Time to Stand
Author: Robert Whitlow
Release Date: September 12, 2017
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