Somehow I feel like there was a lot of hype about this book that I somehow missed. I saw it in my Instagram feed one day with the hashtag "WhateverTheCost" so I decided to look it up. It was available for review, and the story intrigued me, so I decided to give it a try. I found it to be a little disappointing, but not for reasons you may think. I had never heard of the Benham brothers before, but their names have been in the media before, so you may have.
These twin boys were a little on the wild side when they were younger, but had parents who taught them to use their energy and develop their characters for Christ. They were saved at an early age, and both went on to play major league baseball, but felt that God had other plans for them and walked away. After a few stops and starts along the way they became realtors, and began flipping houses. They were offered a show on HGTV where they taught families how to flip. Their show was protested by GLAAD due to their religious beliefs, and HGTV pulled it before it ever aired. The brothers remained positive, and faithful to God through all the circumstances.
This story is told in first person plural tense. It's a little strange to read something written that way, with "we" instead of "I," but it mostly works in this book. It's really like you're sitting down with them as they tell you what happened, including little comments where the brothers poke fun at each other. There are times when they break off to tell their story individually, but that's rare since they seem to have spent nearly their whole lives doing the same things. This method of writing wasn't as annoying as I thought it would be and actually added to the story.
What I did not like about this book was the brothers' tendency to use multiple Bible versions. I know that their is only one accurate translation of the Bible (I only use the King James Bible), but since I know others don't feel the same, I'm not here to preach that. I just disliked the fact that they seemed to just choose the version that best fit what they wanted to say, and went with it. I would have liked to see some consistency at least. I guess it's because I'm a woman that I wish they had included more about their personal lives. Suddenly they were married, and suddenly they had nine kids between them. That brings me to the main reason I was disappointed in this book. I think it's mostly a book for guys. It could be subtitled, "A Man's Guide to Serving God in Business." That's definitely not a bad thing, and their story is surely inspirational and encouraging to anyone who wants to live for God in these troubled times. I thought their practices and beliefs were pretty sound, even if they were off-kilter a little in some of their doctrines. The book does have some great quotes that I highlighted to reference later. I would recommend this book to men and boys who are looking for encouragement in serving the Lord, but I just didn't really find much in it to apply to me. Overall, though, not a bad read.
Happy Reading!
Lyndsie
I was given an advance e-galley of this book by the publisher in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own and a favorable review was not required. Whatever the Cost is on sale now.
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