Synopsis

Paige Abernathy was once the epitome of high school perfection—beautiful, popular, and deeply in love with Lucas, the most sought-after boy at Alverna High.

But everything changes when her mother forbids her from seeing him, and Paige’s world takes a devastating turn. After a website she creates inadvertently sparks a wave of teenage suicides, she finds herself at the center of the world’s hate and blame.

Fleeing to a homeless shelter to escape an angry mob, Paige is left broken and penniless, cooking meals for those in need as a way to atone.

Her life appears to be on the upswing when a kind businessman offers her a job, but the bounty on her head leads to a tragic shooting, leaving her in even deeper guilt and pain.

Determined to make things right, Paige sets out on an eight-hundred-mile journey across Texas, struggling to heal from her trauma and grappling with the consequences of her actions. Along the way, she faces emotional challenges that force her to confront painful truths about herself while searching for redemption and forgiveness.

The Samaritan’s Patient is a powerful, thought-provoking novel about the impact of social media, the complexities of mental health and depression, and the difficult journey toward forgiveness. With elements of psychological fiction, crime and investigation, and Christian reflection, this contemporary fiction will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

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Review

This is an amazing book about compassion, hope, and new beginnings.

Paige is a teen in a small Texas town who has a brilliant idea for a class project: create a website for those who are lonely to find a community that supports them until they figure out their next move. However, as is the case with nearly anything online these days, it becomes a place where people start discussing suicide and how to be successful at that. She shuts it down, but not before damage is done, despite her best efforts.

At the beginning, there are conversations from the website forum. I must admit, these were harder to read than expected, and I don’t trigger. However, having just lost a stepson to suicide, it hit a little close to home. However, I persevered and I am glad that I did. This story, while harrowing for Paige at times, gave me hope that there are people out there who want to help those around them. I admired Paige’s fortitude and desire to do the right thing, even though she did nothing wrong. That was a heavy burden for a 17-year-old to carry.

In addition to this website issue, she also has an overbearing mother, Lydia. Lydia’s career is partially to blame for her actions. However, her actions reflect how little she stopped to think about how they impacted others. Luckily, it is not too late to change her ways.

This novel warmed my heart, and also revealed how precious life is and not to waste a moment.

I highly recommend this book, and give it 5 paws up.

About the Author

Chevron Ross is a pen name I use because I see myself as an instrument of God, with Him as the true author. Until 2016, my writing was limited to business, and I never considered myself a novelist. But one day, God inspired me to craft a story around America’s gun rights controversy, leading to my debut novel, Weapons of Remorse. It won the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Indies Today Award for Christian Fiction.

Soon after, He guided me to write The Seven-Day Resurrection, about an elderly man confronting his painful past with his late mother. My third novel, The Samaritan’s Patient, was inspired by a news broadcast.

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