"A Guardian Angel on the Job"

Martha's husband walked out on her the year before to marry a woman half his age. She is left caring for four children - the eldest, Ellen, is in college, two teenage daughters and a young son. Life is not easy and Martha is bitter about what has happened. Although she is a devoted mother, she is angry and has lost her faith in God after finding the minister in a compromising situation. She takes her children to church as a duty but no longer wants any part of what is taught at her house of worship. When something terrible befalls Ellen, and her second daughter, Shelley, is getting into trouble, Martha is even more upset and has trouble coping.

David Marks is the new minister after the previous womanizer is fired. He tries to minister to his flock and preaches goodness and forgiveness. David is unmarried and attracted to Martha but even as he tries to help her and her family, he is holding some serious secrets of his own. He talks to his guardian angel or inner voice and tries desperately to always do the right thing. Although he is attracted to Martha, he is determined to never marry. Can all these troubled people find forgiveness and, more, can they forgive themselves?

David has had some problems in his past life that he refuses to think about but the reader does not find out what they are until quite late in the book. He wants so badly to help Martha and her family but she feels he is spitting out platitudes and that doesn't help her at all but, in fact, he is putting himself on the line. NOTHING SACRED is not an easy book to read as some horrendous things happen but the reader feels hopeful when David's guardian angel is on the job and guiding him. He needs to find his way as badly as everyone else. Both hero and heroine must forgive themselves and others to go on with their lives and live a happy and positive life-style. As David would say, God works in mysterious ways for everything to come together for a satisfactory ending. NOTHING SACRED is part of the Shelter Valley Stories written by Tara Taylor Quinn.

Reviewed by Marilyn Heyman
Posted March 20, 2004

Summary

There's something happening in Shelter Valley...

Shelter Valley, Arizona, is the kind of place where everyone wants to live. Martha Moore, divorced mother of four, has spent her whole life here and can't imagine being anywhere else. But something frightening has happened, and it affects Martha and her children. It also touches David Cole Marks, the new minister in town.

Martha's a woman without faith, still bitter about a husband's betrayal. And David's a minister with secrets, a past that haunts him. But they have to put these burdens aside to work together, to make a difference to Shelter Valley. And each other?