Review of Deceitful Survival

[Maroy Gloria Ailly]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Deceitful Survival" by LC Lee.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Have you ever wondered why priests or nuns go down that path which they choose? Why they’d take vows of celibacy and poverty? Why they’d devote their whole lives in serving the church and people?Are they always genuine with their choices or they’re fueled by different motives? All these questions
are answered in this book. You will come across different circumstances where priests and nuns find themselves unable to adhere to their callings due to different reasons fueled by life’s paths. In Deceitful Survival by LC Lee, you meet father René and sister Andrée who made their vows to serve but due to what life threw at them, they decided to get married and start a family.

This book, was written in the era when Spain and France were ruling most of the native states around them and those natives were fighting for their independence. They had their own traditional religious practices that the civilized church perceived as evil and would not in cooperate the native gods alongside the saints. This brought a lot of animosity between the church and the native religious people. Father René and sister Andrée were assigned to go serve at a church in a native village in Haiti, they were accepted by some people but the majority of the natives did not take them with open arms. Once the uprising conflict between Napoleon and the Spaniards heated, the church in Haiti suffered. The local people were aware of the impact the church had in grabbing their land, causing so many deaths and on top of that making natives to pay the church in the name of offerings. All this fueled the hate among the natives towards the settlers.

Reading this book took me aback and had me wondering whether religious people were genuine in their services or it is just an easier way to manipulate people into following their foreign doctrines and rules. I actually noticed how the church took part in colonization of states and imprisonment of people. Whether directly or indirectly, this book made it clear of how deceitful religious people can be just to get their way through life. Sister Andrée joined the convent because she had nowhere to go and all she needed was a place to stay despite how much she’d leave behind. She went along and did a lot of deceiving just to get through life. One thing I loved about her character was her courageous nature and willingness to press on despite how much life had taken from her.

LC Lee developed a really strong character for Andrée, from her young age, until late in her forties, she always knew what she wanted and how she wanted it. One thing I really like about this book was the vivid description of events that had me feel all the emotions felt by the characters. At some point I
found myself shading tears at the misery encountered by Andrée. I really loved the twists and unpredictability of events in the book. I was really impressed at how part one left me longing to go to part two because of the profound suspense I encountered there.

There's absolutely nothing I disliked about the book. From the beginning to the end, events unfolded so genuinely with a touch of realism and I really found that commendable. Despite a number of typos, it was evident that the book was professionally edited. I found no profanities even in sexual scenes, there
was nothing offensive that would prevent anyone from enjoying the book. Despite the fact that this book was written along religious paths, nonreligious people would still enjoy the book without feeling biased. Due to all this positivity, I am compelled to rate this book 4 stars out of 4 stars. This book is recommended to any audience interested in state conflicts, romance, betrayal, family conflicts and a
bit of historical fiction. This was a good read for me and I commend the author for such a good job.

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Deceitful Survival
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