Book Review: Baby, Baby by Karen Wiesner

Once again Ms. Wiesner has crafted real to life characters in a warm, believable story.

Baby, Baby [Family Heirlooms Series Book 1]  
by Karen Wiesner

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 377 KB
• Publisher: Whiskey Creek Press LLC (April 1, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0056HP6QK

     Genre:  Christian Fiction, Inspirational Romance
     My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Product Description Book One Family Heirloom: Accepting God’s will A Proverbs 31 wife wonders, does “submissive” mean giving up having anything of her own?

Thirty-seven-year-old Tamara Wolfe married her childhood sweetheart, Robert, right out of high school and proceeded to have a passel of children who fill her life to capacity. With the last of her children in preschool, Tamara decides to make a business out of her long-time love of creating designer gift baskets. She doesn’t expect Robert to be against it from her first word.

Robert has always prided himself on giving Tamara the option of staying home to raise the children, just as his father did before him. Since birth, it’s been drilled into him that a man who doesn’t provide for his family is the worst kind of loser. What will happen if her business takes off? She won’t have time to take care of the family. Worse, maybe she won’t need him anymore.

Although they’d agreed years before their family was complete, Robert considers that perhaps the cure for Tamara’s restlessness is another baby.

Tamara prays for wisdom. All she wants is a small space of time for herself. Is she being selfish? Or is God leading her to continue being an outdated model of the Proverbs 31 wife--submissive, but never equal?

Review:

Tamara and Robert have had a nice marriage raising several children together. They have shared their ups and downs and most importantly have shared their faith. As their youngest child enters pre-school, Tamara is encouraged by a stranger to market the gift baskets that have been a labor of love for her to make special and give as gifts. Before she even realizes it Tamara is buying the materials and passing out flyers through her friends and sister-in-law who think this is a grand idea.

Unfortunately, when Tamara presents the idea to Robert he is angered and threatened. Robert’s father had always insisted that it was the husband’s responsibility to provide for the family and his wife had no business going out to work. Robert had no idea how limiting this was for his mother and he has managed to forget his mother’s unhappiness at the restrictions placed on her.

Robert argues that setting up the basket business will effect Tamara’s household and family life. Also he insists that they don’t need the extra money that she could bring in. Even if it would help with upcoming college expenses which will stress their  budget if he doesn’t get the promotion he is fighting for at work.

Robert is a worrier and has had times of depression that Tamara has patiently worked through. Now he gets more tense as the promotion looks like it will go to a less qualified co-worker. He also wonders if Tamara might be attracted to another man at their church who has had a secret crush on her for years. Tamara is concerned that Robert may even be trying to force her to get pregnant to keep her with young ones so she can’t develop this side interest.  His behavior causes pain and hurt for Tamara and frightens his sister who thinks that he will be unreasonably dictatorial like their father.

Tamara is a beautiful, loving and supportive character - I’d love a friend like her. Robert’s work stresses are very vivid to me as my husband had to deal with a similar situation. The tension builds and secrets are revealed. The couple experiences much stress and some estrangement before they can talk clearly and hear each other’s concerns and desires. This communication problem is so real in life, as are the problem of worrying too much and the issue of submission being improperly used as a tool of control in some Christian households.

The writing flows well and kept me engaged in the interesting problems. I was anxious to learn how the matters were resolved.  I highly recommend reading Ms. Wiesner’s works if you enjoy life-like stories that deal with real Christian issues.

Interesting quotes:
Tamara's thoughts:
Has she been so giving that her own husband felt no compunction about being selfish and insensitive to her?  Location 1533

Tamara to a friend whose husband isn’t a believer:
“Ed doesn’t own your soul. The Lord does, and He wants to be the source of your reliance.”  Location 2033

Thank you to the Author for this book to enjoy and review.