Chad always dreamed of owning and operating his own coffee shop. When he met the coffee-hating, cocoa-loving Jenn, he made it his mission to convert her to coffee-loving, but instead she stuck to her favorite and he stuck to calling her Cocoa, and they fell in love. Prior to meeting Chad, she'd been engaged to Thomas, serious, determined, nice guy, the safe one.
Now several years later, Chad's in prison for the murder of his beloved mentor, a murder he did not commit, and Thomas is Chad's lawyer seeking after every possibility to prove his innocence.
Chad's and Jen's twins, their son Jason and daughter Chloe, were 10 yrs. old when their dad was imprisoned, making Jen essentially a single mom. Having exhausted every financial means to prove his innocence, they live with Jen's parents which isn't helping Jen's state of mind.
When Jen takes the kids out for a drive to determine where they might move, they happen upon an old building with such amazing charm - at least to Jen and Chloe - that they decide to take a closer look in this tiny town that is sporting an empty "downtown" of abandoned former businesses but with new sprawling developments popping up in the near vicinity. With great imagination and gut-level renovation, they convert the old bar to Chad's Choco-Latte, fulfilling his long-ago dream. Without him.
"Brenda S. Anderson writes authentic, gritty, life-affirming fiction that shows God at work in people’s messy lives." Her by-line gives a perfect description of the family in this story who fight through the tearing away of the husband and father, forcing changes on each of them as individuals that prove to be more difficult than any of them can imagine.
As the possibility for his release presents itself, when evidence surfaces that definitely points to another killer, Chad can't wait to be free, but real freedom for him and his family seems to be a mirage and possibly not attainable.
Brenda knows that this genre is not my favorite. She and one other are the only authors I read in this genre. Having said that, I would give this novel 5 stars for its truly authentic portrayal of all the facets of a family trying to cope with the stigma of having the head of their household convicted of and incarcerated for a crime he truly did not commit. Brenda has done her homework/research and this story speaks to the heartbreak, challenges at every level, the real pain and estrangement from each other and supposed friends and community. The soul-robbing experience of enduring prison while your family trudges on without you is so viscerally captured as is the aftermath of that experience. She's to be commended for painting the vivid picture of how their Christian faith is attacked and bruised through their personal and corporate ordeals and the gut-wrenching, often hopeless struggles each of them faces.
Kudos to Brenda's daughter, Sarah, for her contributions in making the coffee and cocoa drinks reality based with creative touches.
Definitely a real read.
Father, you know Brenda inside and out. You know her personal trials. Please, Lord, give her what she needs to triumph in every way during this time as only you can do. And raise up more stories just for her to tell. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.