Book Review: Leap of Faith

Author: Jamie Blair
Publication Date: September 3, 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Can true love be built on lies? A teen on the run seeks relief and redemption in this gripping, romantic read.

Leah Kurtz has finally found a place to call home, a town where she and baby Addy can live in peace, far from the drug-infested place she grew up. Chris is one of the best parts of her new life, the only person who’s ever made her feel safe. And now that she’s found him, there’s no way she can tell the truth:

Her real name is Faith, not Leah. She’s seventeen, not nineteen. And the baby isn’t hers—Faith kidnapped her.

Faith’s history catches up with her when a cop starts asking questions and Chris’s aunt spots her picture in the newspaper. She knows it’s time to run again, but if Faith leaves, she’ll lose Chris. If Chris is in love with a lie, though, did Faith ever really have him in the first place?

 

 

A baby can’t live here. Its life would suck more than mine.

 

Transfixed, I stare at the screen in awe. It’s actually a baby, not a blob or a clump of cells, but a baby with arms, legs, everything. Its little hands wave around like its swimming. Tiny feet kick.

 

I wish I was brave.

 

The car’s trunk is about to burst, and so is Mom’s stomach. The doctor put her on bed rest, and she’s pissed. Now that she can’t drive and has no reason to deny me using the car, I’ve spent most of spring break driving around to get away from her.

 

Mom’s sitting outside in the wheelchair smoking, totally oblivious to the fact that I’ve just taken her ten-thousand-dollar golden goose.

 

 

This plot was something entirely new for me! I was immediately drawn in from the very first page and there was no turning back from there. This story follows Faith, or Leah as she goes by when she skips town with a baby in tow, as she leaves the life and town she grew up in in search of a better place for her and her mother’s newborn baby. That’s right, she kidnaps the baby. This story is completely heart-wrenching, so brace yourselves! Faith’s childhood was not one you would wish on anyone. Her mother was a drug addict and a prostitute that was always more concerned with her next fix instead of taking care of her children and doing right by them. Faith did not want this life for the new baby, a baby that her mother only got pregnant with for the fast cash. So Faith does the only reasonable thing she knows to do. She skips town and decides to raise the baby on her own!

 

Faith was an amazing character, hands down. I know that taking the baby was wrong, but honestly how many people actually stand up in the face of danger and rally for a change. I wish her life could have played out differently and I wish she would have asked for help instead of lying like she did, but I stood by her and followed her regardless. Her journey was tough and her struggles were great, but her perseverance was what pushed her forward. Faith’s character was very realistic in the fact that she behaved how most people would probably behave in her situation. She was relatable and likeable simply for the courage and strength she had.

 

Chris was one of my favorite things about this book, and while I knew their relationship would struggle, because of all her lies right from the start, I had faith that he could help turn things around for Faith and the baby. When he comes into the story I became even more invested than I was to begin with. He was everything I pictured him to be, and I really felt like Faith deserved someone as caring as him. After the childhood she experienced, she deserved to have a few things go right! Their relationship had me melting!

 

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at S & S Books for Young Readers in exchange for my honest review***