-- Grace Elizabeth --

-- Grace Elizabeth --

Monday, August 24, 2015

The Sea Keeper's Daughters

There are many great Christian authors that tell stories and then there is Lisa Wingate who is a storyteller that weaves magical stories . I first started reading her last fall and have read everything she has written and am amazed how magical her stories are. They are real people with real struggles trying to find how to keep going in life.

This story follows Whitney Monroe who owns two restaurants in Michigan, one struggling to keep afloat, and a cousin running the other one. She finds that she has inherited  a decaying Gilded Age hotel on the Outer Banks.  She thinks she can go down there to clean the hotel out and sell it to hopefully fund her failing restaurant. One problem, Whitney's stepfather, who she is at odds with, is staying there and will not budge.  He is in failing health and she figures she can find a center to take care of him. Since this is a three story historic building, the downstairs tenants want to save the building and not see it sold. Whitney has her work cut out for her when she arrives.  She thinks she has it all figured out until as she is weeding stuff out and trying to figure out what is valuable and what is trash, she comes across an old necklace among letters that date back to the 1930's. As Whitney puts the letters together she realizes that there are family secrets and memories she wasn't prepared for. The letters are to her grandmother from her sister.  The sister, Alice, was hired by the WPA to chronicle the lives of people throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains. You learn about the cruelty and prejudice in the mountains and how it affected Alice.

Absolutely fascinating how she wove the past and present together to create a story I was sad to see end.  Wish she could have gone on and on with the story. When you read Lisa's stories you will be thoroughly entertained and hooked on her stories as I am.

Thanks to Tyndale Publishers for sending me a free copy just for my honest opinion.

 Lisa Wingate is a magazine columnist, speaker, and the author of nineteen mainstream novels, including the national bestseller, Tending Roses, now in its eighteenth printing.  She is a seven-time ACFW Carol award nominee, a Christy Award nominee, and a two-time Carol Award winner. Her novel, Blue Moon Bay, was a Booklist Top Ten of 2012 pick.  Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others, as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life.  When not dreaming up stories, Lisa spends time on the road as a motivational speaker. Via internet, she shares with readers as far away as India, where her book, Tending Roses, has been used to promote women's literacy, and as close to home as Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the county library system has used Tending Roses to help volunteers teach adults to read.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

War Room

Chris Fabry does it again!. Another spectacular story from one of my all time favorite authors. Excellent sums up how I felt after finishing this book and so look forward to seeing the movie.  I knew this would be a good book but I was not prepared for how this story would impact my life.  We all know that prayer is a powerful weapon and we know we should pray more.  Sounds so simple, but how do we put this into practice and become better at conversing with the "one who made us"?  This book showed me different ways to put the power of prayer into my everyday life and make prayer a priority, which it should be.

The story centers around Tony and Elizabeth Jordan and daughter Danielle.  They have career's, money, and what they think is the charmed life. Their marriage is in trouble which sends this plot into a tale of  what causes this marriage to crumble.  Lots of things are present in their alienation to each other and bitterness is prevalent in Elizabeth.  Since Elizabeth is a real estate agent, God arranges her to meet Miss Clara who is interested in selling her house. That is where this storyline takes off.  Miss Clara realizes that Elizabeth needs help and she challenges her to fight for her marriage and family instead of against her husband.  Miss Clara has a war room where she prays for and encourages those around her to pray without ceasing. Miss Clara wants Elizabeth to start her own war room and begin fighting. Miss Clara tells Elizabeth that "prayer is God drawing us close and asking what's on our hearts. Now most people, if you tell them that, will go to their list. The first thing God wants to do is help you see.  See yourself.  See your sin.  See your helplessness without Him.  And then-He opens your eyes and bring everything into focus".

I have read every book Chris Fabry has written and this is one of the best ever.  Not often, do you highlight and turn corners down in a fiction book to remember what you loved and what really spoke to your heart. This book has plenty of those and it is one I will re-read just to remember how important prayer is. My own prayer life has taken on a new meaning. Please, please pick his up to read and recharge your prayer life.

Thanks to Tyndale Publishers for his free copy just for my honest opinion..