Freedom's Stand Book Review

SUMMARY:  Find something to believe in...
     Jamil renounced a life of jihad when he encountered the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.  But his new mission as an itinerant health worker in the hills of Afghanistan is met with skepticism and even violence.
     Returning to Kabul, relief worker Amy Mallory is shocked by the changes in her organization - changes with dire implication for the women and children under her care.  And concern for her former assistant Jamil weighs heavily on her heart.
     Special Forces veteran Steve Wilson faces off against the riots and corruption of Afghanistan's upcoming election.  He's looking for something that will give his life purpose but is confident that he won't find it in Afghanistan.
     All three are searching for love and freedom.  But in a country where political and religious injustice runs rampant, the cost of either may be higher than they realize.

SUMMARY:  This was a hard book if you have a heart for the oppressed.  Even though the story is fiction, the author shows how hard and oppressing life is for the women in Afghanistan and the difficulties they face every day.  Not just the women, but those who profess to believe in Isa Masih, Jesus Christ.  The detail used to describe the people and their surroundings makes you feel like you are there in the midst.  Reading about Amy's struggles to help these women and their children and the frustrations that abound was hard but eye-opening.

I had difficulties reading the book.  The descriptions of life there were hard but what I found most difficult was figuring out what the different Afghani and Islamic words meant and keeping some of the characters straight.  It would have been extremely helpful to have had a glossary in the back of the book that explained what words like mullah, chowkidar, and mujahedeen mean.  It also would have helped to have a list of characters.  I kept getting confused as to who the different characters were and what they meant to the story.

This is the second in the series.  The first book is Veiled Freedom.  The story seems to stand okay on its own but situations covered in Veiled Freedom and touched on here and there in Freedom's Stand would be better understood if you had read the first book.

This book was provided by Tyndale House Publishers for review without compensation.

Award-winning author and journalist Jeanette Windle has more than fifteen books in print, including Veiled Freedom and Betrayed.  Her detailed research and writing is so realistic that is has prompted government agencies to question her to determine if she has received classified information.  Currently based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Jeanette has lived in six countries and traveled in more than thirty.