Faith Lost by Jerry Gerold
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Benjamin Brackett doesn’t know it yet, but the man in his dreams is actually himself from a previous life. When century-old items are brought into his pawn shop, however, things start to fall into place. And when his new girlfriend, Faith, is kidnapped, he must turn to this past version of himself to save her. Join Ben as he visits 1961, 1913, 16th Century Timbuktu and 1st Century B.C. Egypt to find Faith.”
Prior to reading this story I hadn’t read the above snippet, I simply downloaded it to my Kindle and dove right on in not knowing what to expect from this story. So honestly pawn shop owner Benjamin Brackett came across to me as just a tad bit naïve at first; he seemed far too trusting for a man who owned a pawn shop but hey, to each his own. One day, Faith walks through the door of his shop and into his life and that’s it…ring the bell, this round’s over…stick him with a fork, he’s done! The poor man is basically dumbstruck by her; I had visions of Pepe Le Pew in love, saucer-eyes bouncing from his skull, heart pounding out of his chest, and a stream of drool trailing from his tongue as it drags the ground behind him while he floats along after his love. But I digress, there’s more to these two than meets the eye; there’s a pleasant twist about Ben and Faith that the reader gets to experience that I refuse to spoil for you. But I will ask…do you believe in love at first sight? What about reincarnation or twin souls? Have you ever had a dream so real you woke up and swore it happened? One or all of these phenomena may play a part in the coming together of these two seemingly complete strangers.
The only one who seems to think this whole whirlwind relationship between Ben and Faith is a tad fishy is Ben’s faithful friend and employee Veronica. She doesn’t trust Faith from the moment she sashays her little butt through the door, and with good reason. Things appear very different to her than they do Ben; she can see Faith isn’t exactly who she pretends to be and from her perspective she’s out to use Ben. She thinks Faith is a class “A” manipulator.
Honestly, I have to say I was right there along with Veronica; I didn’t trust Faith either. Several times I found myself shaking my head thinking… “Damn Ben your gullible, can’t you see she’s just using you?!” But then again I thought about the times I’ve met someone, had an instant connection with them and it was lasting and genuine. Couldn’t that happen to them too?
Ben and Veronica aren’t the only story going on in Faith Lost; this story bounces us around through time from modern day Portland, Oregon to 1913 and the hey-day of Hollywood’s silent picture era. Ben has been obsessed with the silent pictures as long as he can remember, in fact he specializes in the memorabilia; collecting anything having to do with Stanton Orloff films in particular. He even dreams about Stanton Orloff but not just any regular dream where you may watch things from afar, he dreams he actually was Stanton Orloff….and begins to understand that these dreams are more than mere dreams; is Stanton trying to tell him something? Could he be psychic? Nah! He dismisses the thought until life begins to unravel around him and the woman he loves is threatened.
Will his dreams guide him to find her? Or will he lose the one thing in his life he finds he can no longer live without?
Faith Lost is a complicated story. As I mentioned it bounces you back and forth quite a bit between time frames and while reading I began to wonder if the two stories were going to converge. I found myself getting further and further into the book and it still seemed I was reading two separate stories but they did finally begin to merge into one and the stories began to make sense together. I found myself getting more and more drawn into it as I read, wondering what would come next. You have to love when that happens!
I stopped seeing Faith as a potential manipulator, yes it’s true….I was right along with Veronica for most of this book thinking the worst of Faith but Mr. Gerold turned that around in the end and I really started liking her. I still thought she was pretty manic and impetuous, especially considering her background…but I liked her.
What I thought was going to be a mystery turned into a type of mystery-romance, albeit an unconventional one. It’s interesting, I’ve noticed that in the last several book reviews I’ve written lately I’ve had to say “this book doesn’t fit neatly into one category”, well…at the risk of repeating myself…I have to say the same is true for Faith Lost, it’s more than a mystery or a romance and I really do like that in a story.
Over all I enjoyed quite a bit I about this book, particularly how the different times in history are integrated for the reader and all the research Mr. Gerold must have done. Sadly I did find it lacked description. Not description in general because there are places where it’s really well done. I’m talking about character description. I’m a reader who likes to know what characters look like. I found Mr. Gerold did a masterful job with imagery in the prologue. I remember thinking to myself “wow, that’s was so vivid!” I just wish he had used that towards his characters as well because he absolutely shows the reader he can paint a picture.
Let’s use Benjamin Brackett for example. I know Veronica refers to him as an “older man” but that’s subjective to a 27 year old. I know he has male-pattern baldness too, but that’s it. There’s nothing about his physical appearance. The same goes for Faith; I know she’s blonde (apparently a natural blonde) and diminutive with scars, so I have a body type but no facial features. I hear more about Veronica’s appearance than anyone but each character remains faceless for me throughout the story. As a reader I really appreciate it when the writer works in those small details about appearance where they can; naturally not all at once and it doesn’t have to be spelled out…but here and there so I can form a really good picture in my minds-eye because nothing irks me more than to find out three quarter’s of a way through a book that they look nothing like what I came up with in my head.
So, having said all of that while working not to give away spoilers of the story…would I recommend this book? Absolutely I would. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. I admit that at first I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to that fourth star but this story really comes together nicely and that wins it several points in my book. I recommend that you read it for yourself, you can’t beat the price and if you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber it’s a win-win proposition! I think you’ll enjoy as much as I did.
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