For the Good of Those Who Love Him

Rating:
Summary: Powerful Words of Wisdom
Review: No wonder Stephen Hawley Martin's publicist promotes him as visionary fiction's most critically-acclaimed author. With his latest novel he proves himself to be a true master of the growing genre. For the Good of Those Who Love Him brings to life a riveting tale of lovers battling against earthly obstacles in the quest for growth and meaning.

The story follows Rick and Carol through two incarnations starting in World War Two when Rick is a naive but endearing U.S. Air Corps bomber pilot and Carol a jaded Army nurse who's seen it all. Readers are swept up by nail-biting action and steamy romance, then transported to the end of the twentieth century.

Carol, now the orphaned daughter of a Virginia aristocrat and raised by a stern and unloving grandmother, is suffering through repayment of karmic debt. Aching for parental love and approval, she longs to find the mother who abandoned her. Meanwhile, Rick is struggling with his own demons. On the one hand, he is experiencing the pull of destiny -- on the other, the pressures of corporate life.

Following the death of her grandmother, Carol's passive interest in locating the mother she never knew suddenly takes on a sense of extreme urgency. If she can be found, Carol may be able to save the family's ancestral estate from the hands of a drunkard uncle who wants to develop the pastoral paradise into a conference center complete with high-rise condominiums and paved parking lots. But Carol doesn't realize that something bigger is at stake. Not only do her actions unwittingly put her life and Rick's in danger, her conditioning causes her to remain oblivious to the reasons she is on earth, which far outweigh her immediate concerns.

Indeed, Carol and Rick have been brought together for a purpose. But Carol chooses to ignore inner callings and Rick, who is more in touch with himself, is unable to get through to her. Granted, she does sense a connection that transcends present circumstances, but having been reared on a steady diet of materialist thinking, she regards Rick's attention to inner voices as so much new paradigm malarkey. Moreover, while the possibility of romance is never far off, she has been hurt deeply in this life. Fear of a repeat performance raises what seems an impassible barrier between the two, blocking the possibility of joy and fulfillment that could exist for both.

For the Good of Those Who Love Him is a novel offering subtle yet powerful words of wisdom. It will hold you captive while it empowers you to move forward into your own personal destiny.