A friend of mine blessed me with a complimentary copy of Eight Twenty Eight: When Love Didn’t Give Up. Here’s my review:
This book is the story of Ian and Larissa, a couple who have inspired millions through this video testimony.
Ian and Larissa’s story started in a fairly typical manner. They met during their college years, and a simple friendship began to transform in to something much more significant. They began dating, and each of them sensed God was as work in this newfound love. Ian began working to save for an engagement ring, and it was only a matter of time before he would propose marriage.
But their lives were interrupted by a horrific automobile accident that left Ian with severe brain injuries. Larissa was told her boyfriend was not likely to live. Ian did miraculously survive, but their future together was anything but certain. Their relationship, if it survived at all, would never be exactly what either had planned.
Eight Twenty Eight takes the reader through Larissa and Ian’s extraordinary journey (through her perspective). She watches Ian fight his way back from the brink of death and the darkness of a comatose state. She reflects on memories of their courtship, all the while wondering if she will ever be able to relate to him again in a meaningful way (doctors warned that he may not even remember her).
I would say their story has a “happy ending,” but I don’t think that expression quite does it justice. Larissa’s commitment to Ian becomes something more costly and beautiful than she ever would have imagined.
Read this book–it’s definitely worth your time.
