Deborah D. Rhoades’ “Finding Faith” is two books connected in one novel.

Part One is a multi-generational saga of a family’s heartaches and failings.

A story about how the trauma endured in youth can trigger the sins committed later in life and how one traumatic event – one betrayal of trust – can spark violence and woe from one generation to the next.

The first part stretches back to the early 1800s through the mid-20th century.

Part Two of the story opens in the early 1980s and deals with Faith, the heir to this litany of family tragedies.

Though she has no idea of the generations of her family’s history because she grew up in foster care then is raised by adopted parents.

In “Finding Faith,” readers know more about Faith’s genealogy than she does. She bears the scars of her family’s past but does not know how that past shaped her circumstances.

As a child she wonders about her birth parents. She endures the traumas that too many young women face during the high school years. Faith marries an abusive man who can be like Jekyll and Hyde. She tries to find herself and love, with many obstacles in her way.

As the blurb on the back of the book notes, Faith “discovers secrets about her family that draw her to people who might otherwise be strangers. In her quest, she discovers the chance to heal herself and to find love and meaning beyond what she may have once hoped to have.”

Rhoades is a South Georgia author. “Finding Faith” is her first novel.

The book notes she’s been working genealogy for the past 20 years and some of her studies inspired “Finding Faith.”

She writes in a gripping style. Some readers may wonder why the whirlwind tour through several generations in the first half of the book but it all makes sense upon reaching the second half and Faith.

“Finding Faith” is a book worth finding for readers looking for stories about what women endure and how they survive.