Redeeming the Time by Alexandra T Armstrong

Redeeming the Time by Alexandra T Armstrong
Series: Book 1 in Armstrong’s Faircourt Friends Series
Publisher: Parable Print (June 20, 2023)

REVIEW BY PRISCILLA BETTIS

Redeeming the Time is book 1 in Alexandra T. Armstrong’s hilarious series about seven older friends living together in retirement. If you liked The Golden Girls but cringed at some of Blanche’s bedroom exploits, then you’ll love Redeeming the Time. LOL, actually there is a bedroom scene, but it’s behind a closed door and shrouded by music.

The stars of the show—I mean the characters in the book and their distinguishing traits—are:

• Pastor Marcus, who’s wise and speaks with a Caribbean accent, and Ava, his wife, who appears to have her act together.
• Grant, who’s a numbers man, and Marie, his wife, who rocks styles from the 1940s.
• Cal (picture Fred Mertz), who’s riddled with health problems, and his wife, June, who prays and praises God through playing the piano.
• Finally, there’s Elodie, a sharp-tongued woman you don’t want to mess with!

Armstrong writes from an omniscient point of view, and readers get a peek into all the characters’ emotions, troubled pasts, and current struggles, including faith struggles. We feel their anger and their remorse and are privy to their prayers. For instance, Cal can be an oaf, so when I read a heartfelt prayer from him, it felt like such a private moment that he had me bawling! Or rather, Armstrong had me bawling.

I took off a star for the way Marcus’ accent is depicted. I know, I get it, accents are hard to write, but I think Armstrong took it a little too far, like in this snippet when he’s commenting on Marie:

Dat’s our Marie, always looking forward to da next ting while da rest of us are still trying to catch our bret from da last ting!

Alexandra T Armstrong, Redeeming the Time

Ironically, because of Marcus’ wisdom, patience, and interesting Bible knowledge, he was my favorite character.

Like a sitcom, the chapters were episodic. A few of them could even be switched around and read out of order without losing the overall story arc. This allowed for a message behind virtually every chapter and a satisfying end to every chapter.

That’s not to say there aren’t challenging topics covered. After all, The Golden Girls addressed HIV and domestic abuse. Armstrong handles family breakups, prison, death, the process of aging, anger at God, and how to deal with that horrid lady, Christine Williams, from across the street. We never get her backstory, but I found out she’s prominent in book 2, so I snatched up book 2!

This is a humorous book with serious topics and feel-good episodes (and Marcus doesn’t have that much dialogue), so I give it an enthusiastic four fish. And like I said, I’m already reading the second book!

I read Redeeming the Time through Kindle Unlimited.