Watch Over Me

August 3, 2009
Parrish (Home Another Way
) has a lot going on in this story: Benjamin Patil, an Indian-American deputy sheriff in a small South Dakota town who is troubled after a tour of duty in Afghanistan, finds an abandoned baby. He talks his wife, Abbi, a vegetarian war protester and potter, into foster parenting, although their marriage has been troubled since Ben returned from the Middle East, where his best friend was killed in action and he was injured. Then there's the subplot, involving Matthew, a deaf teenager on kidney dialysis living with his trailer-trash aunt and her four daughters because she offers more stability than his drunken mother, dad (a potential kidney donor) being out of the picture. Parrish makes a lot of the complications work, even with a few too many social issues (PTSD, bulimia, alcoholism, broken families, abandoned infants, political dissent, alternative lifestyles). Ben and Abbi are well-drawn and compelling characters, but the sprawling plotting makes the book superficial as it tries to do too much. Parrish is a fine writer and should keep it simple for greater impact.

October 15, 2009
Their marriage was crumbling even before Ben was sent to Afghanistan and wounded, because Abbi had secrets and wanted to live life on her own terms, while expecting her husband to be 100 percent devoted. But when Deputy Sheriff Ben Patil discovers a newborn abandoned in the fields of South Dakota during a routine patrol, he convinces Abbi they should foster her with hopes of adopting, and of renewing their marriage. Matthew Savoie, a teen math genius with serious health issues living in an unhappy foster-care situation who hopes to earn enough money to visit his father in New York, asks Abbi if he can work odd jobs, and is gradually drawn into their lives. Parrishs contemporary Christian novel ambitiously tackles, but doesnt resolve, several weighty social issues, and readers who expect accuracy will find her scenarios unrealistic. But those looking for a fast-paced melodrama centered on a Christian faith journey will find much of interest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)