"Farishta" by Patricia McArdle

368 pages

Twenty-one years ago, diplomat Angela Morgan witnessed the death of her husband during the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Devastated by her loss, she fled back to America, where she hid in desk jobs at the State Department and avoided the high-profile postings that would advance her career. Now, with that career about to dead-end, she must take the one assignment available-at a remote British army outpost in northern Afghanistan. After her arrival, Angela finds that she has to fight to earn the respect of her colleagues, especially Mark Davies, a British major who turns out to be both her most loyal ally and her fiercest critic. Frustrated at her inability to contribute to the nation's reconstruction, Angela slips out of camp disguised in a burka to provide aid to the refugees in the war-torn region. She becomes their farishta--or "angel," in the local Dari language-and discovers a new purpose for her life.

This book sounded really interesting to me before I read it, and it had a lot of potential. It just sort of fell flat to me, though. I never felt like I really got below the surface of Angela's character, so I didn't feel a connection with her at all. Some parts of the story are slow and seem to drag on and on, and then all of a sudden a bunch of stuff would happen at once. I did enjoy getting a glimpse of what life as a diplomat is like, but I wish there was a better-developed story to go along with that.