White Chocolate Moments

November 13, 2006
Prolific Christian novelist Wick (Sophie's Heart
.) produces a predictable stand-alone novel about family strife, reconciliation and religious conversion. When young Arcineh Bryant's parents are killed in a car crash, she goes to live with her doting, wealthy grandfather. Despite her great loss, Arcineh excels there—she does well in her classes, is popular at school and has no trouble spending her grandfather's money on shoes and pocketbooks. Her cousin, Quinn, becomes terrifically jealous of Arcineh, and all manner of tensions ensue in the extended family. Wick's descriptions of this family friction are repetitive and unsatisfying; simply piling on another scene in which Arcineh's aunt is trying to defend Quinn's obnoxious behavior doesn't account for why the Bryant family is so beset by discord. Of course, the rediscovery of Christian faith is part and parcel of some family members' eventual reunion. The religious scenes, to which much of the last third of the novel are devoted, proceed in heavy-handed dialogue, and throughout, Wick's prose is bland ("The big day had finally come"). With more than five million copies of her inspirational romance novels in print, Wick is an expert in the genre, yet the romantic subplot here holds no surprises, and the inspiration falls flat.