THE REVEAL: Becoming Beka #4
Sarah Anne Sumpolec
Moody Publishers
Fiction
ISBN-10: 0802464548
ISBN-13: 9780802464545
272 pages

At last, Beka Madison is a senior. If her tumultuous junior year is any indication of how her final year of high school will unfold, Beka is ready to walk across the stage to receive her diploma. Interestingly, author Sarah Anne Sumpolec weaves a more upbeat set of circumstances into this, her fourth installment in the Becoming Beka series. While Beka is still new to the Christian faith, she continually allows God to interject His ways and principles into her heart and mind. Rather than go it alone, Beka is finding strength and solace in her newly found faith and in her deepening relationship with God.

Beka's big step of faith occurs when an on-again, off-again short-term missions trip to Haiti forces her to depend on God in uncertain and unfamiliar settings. Frazzled and afraid, Beka admits to her best friend, Lori, that she might have made a mistake in committing to volunteer on this church outreach. Regardless of her unraveling emotions, Beka is going --- and what she learns there, amidst poverty and material lack, prepares her for the challenges of school.

With the lingering after-effects of an assault still on her mind, Beka wonders how her friend-turned-enemy Gretchen will treat her. But it isn't the now-demoralized Gretchen who's the threat anymore. It's Mai, another one of Gretchen's former friends. Beka watches, somewhat helplessly, as Mai cunningly befriends Beka's younger sister, Lucy. Warning her off does no good, and Beka is eventually forced to decide among sisterly loyalty, personal integrity and obeying God. Stepping out in yet another act of faith, Beka stretches and grows in her Christian journey as she chooses the hard road of personal accountability and sure social rejection. Somehow, Beka isn't quite so dependent upon the good opinions of others --- and this is a real turning point in her life.

While Beka steadily makes internal progress, external chaos is reigning. Her father begins openly courting another woman, her best friend's adopted parents are in crisis, and Beka is constantly in a state of flux as she wrestles with her feelings for two boys. Nothing from Beka's standpoint seems simple; even the decision about college is keeping her up at night. Yet, God continues to provide Beka with just enough grace, insight and hope for the day.

Readers will enjoy the continuing journey of Becoming Beka as this character faces down her fears by learning to lean into God and His promises to provide for her every need.

   --- Reviewed by Michele Howe

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