AMBER'S WAY

“Remission. If the English language had a more beautiful word, Jessica could not name one.”

Just after her fourth birthday, Amber Langston was diagnosed with cancer, specifically a high-risk neuroblastoma. The months of increasingly aggressive treatments ravaged her body but not her bright, curious mind and resilient spirit. With the constant support of close family, a devoted care team, and her loving mother, Jessica, she beat the cancer’s five-year survival rate of 50%. But years later, the cancer returned with a vengeance, leaving Amber, only 13, with just months to live. Unwinding over a span of years, the storyline follows Jessica from her whirlwind romance with an Army combat medic who died in Iraq before getting to meet the baby he cherished to her numb grief and road to healing following Amber’s passing. The story feels, in many ways, like a Hallmark movie: Everyone and everything is just a bit too good to be true. The characters are fairly shallowly developed; there’s a disconnect between the action on the page and the lack of deep emotional context, giving the story a somewhat detached feeling. Despite these shortcomings, however, the depth of love between the characters is palpable, and when the story finally hits its stride (about halfway through), readers may be moved to tears. Main characters are cued white; some references to Native people are culturally insensitive.

Warm and sincere if sentimental and lacking in robust characterization.