Friends Don’t Let Friends Date Jason

“What are you doing?” I said.

He didn’t answer but slipped something onto my finger. It was a tiny flower bud, still attached to its stem that he had worked into a circle. He snuggled it onto my finger like a ring.

“I’d have bought you a real one for tonight if I’d know this was going to happen,” he said. “But maybe we don’t need a real ring. Maybe we don’t need a ceremony or a license or anything. Maybe we just need God’s blessing.”

“For what?” I said.

He sat on the bench and put both arms around me. “To be one,” he said. Pulling me tight up against him, he kissed me – long and hard. One hand slid down the V in the back of my dress. I could hear the party sparkling and tinkling beyond us. I could smell Jason’s Polo Sport. I could feel him pressing insistently against me.

But I couldn’t feel me.

Book: Friends Don't Let Friends Date Jason (Raise the Flag) by Nancy Rue, Waterbrook Press, 1999

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 14+

Subjects: Premarital Sex, Dating Relationships, Identity in Christ, Family Relationships, Friendship, Prayer, Anorexia

Summary: Confidence. Marissa has none of it. So when a cute guy at the conference takes an interest in her, she soaks up the attention like a sponge. But Jason doesn’t just want to date her. He wants to possess her, control her. He believes himself to be superior to her and show that in all he says and does. It’s going to take something extreme for Marissa to see through him and recognize his ulterior motives.

Notes: Fifth in the Raise The Flag series, this book tells the story of Marissa. In the first book six girls show up for See You At The Pole and begin to form a friendship and prayer group. Each book in the series tells the story of one of the girls as well as continuing the overall story of each of the characters. In this book Marissa has to find confidence in her own relationship with God. Between her family, her boyfriend and her own personality, she suffers from major doubts, assuming there is nothing good about her to the point where when a mentor tells her to write down all of her strengths, Marissa can’t think of anything. This is the big issue. It’s just played out through a boyfriend trying to get her to have sex with him by attempting to persuade her that it’s not only ok, it’s what she’s supposed to do. The issue of Anorexia is also touched on, hinting at the 6^th book in the series. The spiritual elements are woven throughout the entire story. I highly recommend this book as well as the others in the series.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

James 5:13 – Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.