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Trusting Him
Since the day he left prison, Michael Carsonsought a second chance. Helping troubledteens in a church youth group seemed agood place to start. Working alongside youthleader Maggie Simmons, Michael could seehis new life before him—a life he hopedwould include smart, pretty Maggie. Butbecause of her painful past, she was wary oftrusting anyone, least of all an ex-con. Whencircumstances beyond his control threatenedto pull him away from Maggie and thekids, Michael prayed he could resist oldtemptations and keep God—and Maggie—close to his heart.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 2007
6 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Brenda Minton
114 books214 followersBrenda Minton lives, procrastinates, writes, drinks coffee, raises her kids and is wife to her husband, in the Ozarks.
Okay, now to first person because a third person bio sounds like someone else wrote it about me, and is just license to create flowery prose about myself.
I grew up on a farm in the Ozarks. It was long ago and far away, in a land before cable TV, video games and the internet. To pass the time we read books, watched (gasp) network TV that rarely came in clear, and had friends over on weekends to play music on the front porch, or card games in the dining room.
The result of growing up 'country' was an active imagination. For fun I wrote stories to entertain myself and I dreamed of being an author. Oh, but first, before writing, I wanted to be a jockey.
Writing won out over being a jockey. In the spring of 2006 I got the call that made those dreams come true: the call that welcomed me into the Steeple Hill family of authors.
The moral of this story, never stop dreaming.
Okay, now to first person because a third person bio sounds like someone else wrote it about me, and is just license to create flowery prose about myself.
I grew up on a farm in the Ozarks. It was long ago and far away, in a land before cable TV, video games and the internet. To pass the time we read books, watched (gasp) network TV that rarely came in clear, and had friends over on weekends to play music on the front porch, or card games in the dining room.
The result of growing up 'country' was an active imagination. For fun I wrote stories to entertain myself and I dreamed of being an author. Oh, but first, before writing, I wanted to be a jockey.
Writing won out over being a jockey. In the spring of 2006 I got the call that made those dreams come true: the call that welcomed me into the Steeple Hill family of authors.
The moral of this story, never stop dreaming.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 24, 2025
This book was depressing. I did not care Michael at all.
May 17, 2018
This is the 4th book I read by Brenda Minton. I really liked this book's storyline. This book's storyline was sad 😢 & heartbreaking 💔. I really liked the Christian theme of this story. I really liked Maggie's character. I really liked Michael's character. I was proud of Michael. I really liked the serious topics this story addresses. I really liked the ending.
April 8, 2009
it was very cute and i know how it goes because it is really hard to trust someone again when youve been betrayed by another
March 3, 2013
Absolutely beautiful! Definitely a great read!
February 27, 2022
This book has all the elements of a good story: plot with suspense, redemption message, love interest... but it just. falls. short. As in, it completely misses the mark. In every way.
Michael is fresh out of prison and trying to deal with parole officer visits, random drug tests, getting pulled over for no reason (just cuz the author says so?) and trying NOT to get sucked back into his old life of dealing meth by old contacts following him. He's a rich boy with a racy red car, motorcycle, Bluetooth... but he's also wanting to make his life meaningful by helping with a church group. And he wants to stay clean.
My first problem is the church youth group. It's about connection, community, giving to others, learning respect - BUT NO MENTION OF FAITH for the kids. Because CGM church, apparently? For an 'inspirational' novel, they're more worried about the kids' behaviors than their faith. That's a problem for me. A really, really big one. Faith is what matters THE most, hello.
Second, there is NO WAY any pastor would let a small, young, timid woman be in charge of a low-income neighborhood program by herself, with no escort from the building after hours, etc. It's just common sense, but she's given free rein, and she CANNOT handle it. BAD writing, bad premise. I can't even figure out this author. She should know better.
Worse, Maggie is the full time youth minister... but because they're in school, she reads novels at the church all day, until there's an event. Must be nice to get paid for nothing, like that...?
Third, the book talks in circles. Reformation, realization, hard reality, shaky pasts, moving forward, reformation, realization, etc. Around and around and AROUND the same things, but there's no rhyme or reason to WHY the author is doing it. It's like she's just filling pages with the same thing, over and over and over.
Which is unnecessary, because there is NO SHORTAGE of hard-hitting topics, here. Abandoned by father, alcoholic mother, college rape, rejection, drug use, prison, rehabilitation, stalking, bribery, the DEA and a possibility of working as an informant, kids ministry, redemption... Honey, PICK A TOPIC and write about it, for the love of Mike. There's just too much, and with too little attention given to any one bit of it with too little description and/or fleshing out of the story. It's a HOT mess.
The writing sucks, too. For example, we start out 'cleaning' a trailer for Michael to move into. Maggie dusts a ceiling fan, lets the dust fall to the floor "to be cleaned up later", and two sentences later is packing up and calling it done for the day because going out with her bestie who's bored/hungry. With Michael on the way, and the dirt/dust all over the floor. What the farts?! What about cleaning, doing a good work? Nope. The author just whisks her out the door for no apparent reason. It makes no sense.
Or how about when they go to Michael's homecoming party, and there's this HUGE thing about NOT getting drinks at a bar, and going to the kitchen for sodas, because Michael's past with drinking and Maggies' mostly unspoken (!?) past with drinking... but the moment Noah shows up, Michael shoves Maggie at the bar, to go get a drink?! WH....?!!?!?!?!? NO!
Maggie goes home Saturday night to find Grandma making a wedding quilt - staying late up into the night working on it for her. Sunday after church? Michael's bringing rolls to the table that Grandma made Saturday night. ?! I thought she was quilting, just a page ago.
Same vein, on pg 115, it's torrential rain, thunder, pouring, leaking roof, loud and blowing... and I kid you not, FOUR PARAGRAPHS later? "Sunshine, golden and warm, poured through the window. No more rain." Homigosh, MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!!! BaD, bAD, BAD, *BAD* writing!!
Then his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor's number is disconnected... ?!?!?!?!?! Written so that he'll call Maggie, instead. BAD writing. C'mon...! And out of the blue, "where'd you get that scar on your stomach?" (((?!?!?!))) "A scar," the author writes, "that is evidence of a life lived outside of church". So... if you don't go to church, you get scars. SERIOUSLY!?!!!?
How about page 144:
Him: How about dinner?
Her: Sorry, I have things to do.
((Phone call for him))
Him: I forgot. I have a dinner engagement. I gotta go.
Her: [She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up about dinner.]
WHEN DID SHE DO THAT?! She'd said NO, hello!!!!
BAD, Bad, hideous writing. I'm pretty sure my twelve year old could do a better job.
At that point? I was *DONE*. DNF @146 pages.
It's not WORTH it.
Michael is fresh out of prison and trying to deal with parole officer visits, random drug tests, getting pulled over for no reason (just cuz the author says so?) and trying NOT to get sucked back into his old life of dealing meth by old contacts following him. He's a rich boy with a racy red car, motorcycle, Bluetooth... but he's also wanting to make his life meaningful by helping with a church group. And he wants to stay clean.
My first problem is the church youth group. It's about connection, community, giving to others, learning respect - BUT NO MENTION OF FAITH for the kids. Because CGM church, apparently? For an 'inspirational' novel, they're more worried about the kids' behaviors than their faith. That's a problem for me. A really, really big one. Faith is what matters THE most, hello.
Second, there is NO WAY any pastor would let a small, young, timid woman be in charge of a low-income neighborhood program by herself, with no escort from the building after hours, etc. It's just common sense, but she's given free rein, and she CANNOT handle it. BAD writing, bad premise. I can't even figure out this author. She should know better.
Worse, Maggie is the full time youth minister... but because they're in school, she reads novels at the church all day, until there's an event. Must be nice to get paid for nothing, like that...?
Third, the book talks in circles. Reformation, realization, hard reality, shaky pasts, moving forward, reformation, realization, etc. Around and around and AROUND the same things, but there's no rhyme or reason to WHY the author is doing it. It's like she's just filling pages with the same thing, over and over and over.
Which is unnecessary, because there is NO SHORTAGE of hard-hitting topics, here. Abandoned by father, alcoholic mother, college rape, rejection, drug use, prison, rehabilitation, stalking, bribery, the DEA and a possibility of working as an informant, kids ministry, redemption... Honey, PICK A TOPIC and write about it, for the love of Mike. There's just too much, and with too little attention given to any one bit of it with too little description and/or fleshing out of the story. It's a HOT mess.
The writing sucks, too. For example, we start out 'cleaning' a trailer for Michael to move into. Maggie dusts a ceiling fan, lets the dust fall to the floor "to be cleaned up later", and two sentences later is packing up and calling it done for the day because going out with her bestie who's bored/hungry. With Michael on the way, and the dirt/dust all over the floor. What the farts?! What about cleaning, doing a good work? Nope. The author just whisks her out the door for no apparent reason. It makes no sense.
Or how about when they go to Michael's homecoming party, and there's this HUGE thing about NOT getting drinks at a bar, and going to the kitchen for sodas, because Michael's past with drinking and Maggies' mostly unspoken (!?) past with drinking... but the moment Noah shows up, Michael shoves Maggie at the bar, to go get a drink?! WH....?!!?!?!?!? NO!
Maggie goes home Saturday night to find Grandma making a wedding quilt - staying late up into the night working on it for her. Sunday after church? Michael's bringing rolls to the table that Grandma made Saturday night. ?! I thought she was quilting, just a page ago.
Same vein, on pg 115, it's torrential rain, thunder, pouring, leaking roof, loud and blowing... and I kid you not, FOUR PARAGRAPHS later? "Sunshine, golden and warm, poured through the window. No more rain." Homigosh, MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!!! BaD, bAD, BAD, *BAD* writing!!
Then his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor's number is disconnected... ?!?!?!?!?! Written so that he'll call Maggie, instead. BAD writing. C'mon...! And out of the blue, "where'd you get that scar on your stomach?" (((?!?!?!))) "A scar," the author writes, "that is evidence of a life lived outside of church". So... if you don't go to church, you get scars. SERIOUSLY!?!!!?
How about page 144:
Him: How about dinner?
Her: Sorry, I have things to do.
((Phone call for him))
Him: I forgot. I have a dinner engagement. I gotta go.
Her: [She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up about dinner.]
WHEN DID SHE DO THAT?! She'd said NO, hello!!!!
BAD, Bad, hideous writing. I'm pretty sure my twelve year old could do a better job.
At that point? I was *DONE*. DNF @146 pages.
It's not WORTH it.
August 2, 2023
Overall not a bad storyline, but it was a bit all over the place. It would talk about one thing and next thing you know serveral days passed by and it is something else going on. I kind of wished there was more to some parts or maybe not have so many characters that were just mentioned occasionally, but still good for a quick, simple read if looking for one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2020
Excellent writing, great story line, realistic characters...highly recommended....
June 4, 2022
Started out really well but didn't grow enough to maintain interest through the middle section and just didnt build to any kind of finish. By the last few chapters was over it.
August 22, 2024
this is the second time I’ve read this story
I have to say it was better the second time the character are well written and the story lines is great. Keep the Kleenex handy .
I have to say it was better the second time the character are well written and the story lines is great. Keep the Kleenex handy .
January 10, 2017
Hmmm...it was an okay read. Maggie annoyed me for some reason
January 11, 2022
As a youth pastor and romantic, this story is one of my absolute favorites. Realistic and raw details were strung throughout this fictitious love story making it seem like it could be someone’s true life. Trusting Him was about trusting God more than anything to overcome our life’s greatest issues including our sins so that we ultimately can trust in new relationships. The ending was beautiful and at times I actually questioned if it would really work out, which is great amidst the happily ever after romances in its competitive genre. I got this book at a library but ended up purchasing it from Amazon after loving it so much.
April 10, 2016
Michael is just out of prison and working at his dad's law office and volunteering with the church teens. Maggie has been the teen volunteer coordinator for a few years and is unsure about Michael.
June 18, 2008
i REALLY like this one. characters were very real and down to earth
a VERY easy quick lite read, w/ a little suspense thrown in
a VERY easy quick lite read, w/ a little suspense thrown in
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews