What an emotional read authored by Chris Fabry! It’s a Christian fiction novel, published on July, 23rd 2019. It’s a movie-like novel that is preparing us for the movie “Overcomer” that is set to be released towards the end of this week.

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Book Overview

The book features John Harrison, a basketball coach whose career path and dreams are shattered by an unsudden circumstance that befalls a small town. It so happens when the biggest employer of a well-known manufacturing plant shuts down business. The school is negatively affected as the population of the students is reduced to half the usual one due to the reason of the now unemployed people leaving the town in search of jobs elsewhere. The School is forced to cut off some extracurricular activities with Basketball inclusive in order to reduce the costs of operation.

After having shattered his dreams and hopes of winning the State Basketball Championship, Coach John Harison is left in a state of hopelessness, with worry and fear of the unknown future with his wife Amy. Since he is a Christian and a devout believer in God, he reacts to the hard situation that he is facing through questioning God for his circumstances.

Hannah a young teen, 15 years old and a granddaughter of Barbra, a waitress struggling to look after her orphaned granddaughter with the little pay from her salary. Hannah faces lots of financial hardships that make her resort to stealing, a habit that results in her expulsion from the public school. She is haunted by the past circumstance that happened to her parents and struggles to find out who she really is. Hannah wants to study but her grandmother cannot afford to pay for her tuition in yet another Christian high School. Good news and hope came to her when an anonymous person pays her tuition where she resorts to change up her life by dropping the habit of stealing so that she does not blow up this only opportunity that she has left for her education.

John is forced to start coaching cross country, a sport he has no experience and no interest in. He meets up with Hannah, a unique cross country athlete who is on a road of self-discovery who is now prayerful. Unfortunately, she is asthmatic but trying her level best to compete in the various cross country competitions though seeing no success due to her health condition.

John committees himself to helping Hannah out in order for her to participate in the biggest Cross Country race of the year despite the hopeless situations that they are both faced with. They decide to commit all their plans to God in prayer.

About the author(Chris Fabry)

Chris Fabry has published more than 65 other books, including novels for children and young adults. His first novel for adults, Dogwood, received the 2009 Christy Award in the Contemporary Standalone category. He co-authored the Left Behind: The Kids series with Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, as well as the Red Rock Mysteries and the Wormling series with Jenkins. RPM, his latest series for kids, explores the exciting world of NASCAR.
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My thoughts

Your past can never define you. Though Hannah is haunted by the past circumstance that befell her parents she decided to stay focus, lived her life and finally secured victory when she discovered her identity in God and it changed her entire perspective of things that brought satisfaction and contentment in her life.

Situations we face in this life are temporal. There is always a way out of every hard circumstance. Hannah and John had a turn-around of the tough circumstances that they were faced with. This, therefore, gives up hope and that sense of confidence whenever we are facing hard challenges of life.

Always push harder beyond your limits no matter the pain and discouragements around you. Though Hannah was asthmatic and failing in several competitions, she kept going with her cross country sport with a goal of winning the incoming biggest competition of the year. Therefore as sportsmen, we need to pick up such an attitude. We should never lose hope even though situations before us might seem to be communicating a state of hopelessness.

We need to try to be positive in whatever hard situation that we are faced with. Though Coach John Harrison was in fear and worried due to the tough situation he was faced with. It turned out to be for good as John linked up with Hannah who was in the same circumstance, shared their faith, became stronger and ended up winning together.

Our true identity is found in God. John Harrison and Hannah discovered their identity and it changed their entire perspective of things. Life issues can mean to press harder on us but when we resort to turning to God for answers to whatever is happening around us, we surely get the answers as he is a faithful God that seeks to reveal himself to us through comforting us and helping us overcome our challenges.

I give this book a 5 –star rating and recommend it to everyone questioning themselves of their identity to check out this book as it resonates and provide answers to the real struggles that people go through in this life. It’s a must-read for athletes, Coaches and those who love Christian fiction novels.