Leap of Faith by Queen Noor

Leap of Faith is first and foremost a love story, maybe not in the conventional sense but a love story nonetheless.  Queen Noor, born Lisa Halaby, sets the stage for the reader to understand her perspective by describing her childhood in the < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />United States as well as her early adulthood.  The real intensity of the book begins when she meets King Hussein.  She describes her reactions throughout the beginning of the relationship in a way that immerses the reader in her moments of confusion as well as her moments of joy.  She gives the reader an inside look into her experience becoming royalty as well as her perception of world events and Jordan’s place in the world.  She talks of the deceptions that are prevalent in world politics and the games politicians play.  She describes her struggles to find her place as Queen in a country where she wasn’t born or raised as well as to balance her role as Queen with becoming a mother figure to her husband’s children and to raise the children they had together.  Leap of Faith is a beautifully written memoir that provides insight into the workings of government, politics on the world stage, Jordanian culture, the combining cultures, and the merging of families.