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Altar Call is the sequel to Hope Lyda’s Hip to be Square. In Lyda’s newest contribution to the Christian chick lit genre, readers get to experience another season in Mari Hamilton’s life. The book features Mari shuttling back and forth between her home in Tucson where the wedding for her best friend Sadie is being planned and to Washington D.C. to help her parents run a home for foster kids while her father recovers from an illness. Mari’s dilemma in Altar Call is choosing between the two worlds and the two men who occupy each world. In Tucson is her boss at the retirement home and her boyfriend Beau. Washington D.C. has Marcus, her high school sweetheart, who is also helping out at the home. Lyda does a good job of maintaining suspense between who Mari will choose at no time making either of the potential boyfriends look goofy.
Altar Call is a little slower in starting than Hip to Be Square, but maintains the same level of fun. In book one, Mari’s clearly defined goal of wanting a certain lifestyle by the time she was thirty created a tight plot. Though there is the upcoming event of the wedding, Altar Call tends to wander a bit more. What the book does really well in both Mari’s character growth and the subplots of her three best friends is capture the anxiety and dilemmas of the modern Christian single woman. In particular, the supporting character of Caitlin provides a clear view of the struggle to find balance between romance and future marriage and making your mark in a career. In Hip to be Square, Lyda pushed the genre of chick lit to include sympathetic portrayals of senior citizens. In Altar Call the characterization of the foster children is very moving and pushes the genre beyond the usual self-absorption of shopping and romance to remind us that the Christian life if about sacrifice and compassion. Hope Lyda maintains a strong chick lit voice and creates a book worth reading with Altar Call.
Reviewed by Sharon Dunn
for The Road to Romance
August 8, 2006
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