Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair
Faith is disgusted by her drug-dependent mother’s agreement to carry a child to term for a pair of her junkie acquaintances. Determined that this baby won’t fall into the family’s cycle of poverty and neglect, Faith stockpiles baby supplies and, as soon as the baby is born, swipes Mom’s money and car and makes a run for Florida with newborn Addy carefully strapped into a rear-facing car seat. The care and feeding of an infant is especially hard for a seventeen-year-old with limited funds, no childcare experience, and the likelihood that the police are hot on her trail. YA literature has been known, however, to shower improbable blessings on its heroines, and Faith ends up renting a tidy little room in the cozy home of a gorgeous, sensitive, caring young man with mad hot baby-soothing skills, an extended family that adores little ones, connections to a restaurant business in need of an evening waitress/cook, and, eventually, great sex that repressed Faith never expected to enjoy. While the books many clichés make Faith’s own assessment—“I think I’m falling for a guy who’s in love with my kidnapped baby. My life is a bad [End Page 139] prime-time drama”—more than accurate, plenty of readers will nonetheless enjoy this misbegotten escapade for the fanciful romance/caper that it is. Even after the police threaten to close in, and Faith ditches her dream man to face the music, a happy ending is still in sight. Who can resist a plot like that?
