Women's Fiction

Finding Me by Kathryn Cushman

April 3, 2015 by Suzie Waltner Leave a Comment

What would you do if you found out the life you’d lived was a lie? After the death of her father and stepmother, Kelli Huddleston finds information in her father’s safe that points to her family—the family she has always believed to have died in a fire when she was a baby—is alive. Desiring to learn what happened, why her father thought it best to run with her, Kelli makes the drive across the country from California to a small Tennessee town in hopes of finding out information so she can return home and go back to her plans for the future. Once in town, Kelli finds it difficult to leave. After meeting her father’s best friend, her mother, and her sister, Kelli is confused and disappointed that her father was the kind of man she’s find out he was. Determined to make amends to these people, Kelli sticks around for the summer. What she doesn’t count on is the friendships, the feeling of belonging, and the love that is poured into her.

This is the third of Kathryn Cushman’s books that I’ve read and every time I am amazed and moved by her ability to pull a reader into the emotional turmoil of her main characters. Kelli’s struggle to find herself, to come to terms with the man her father—her hero—truly was, to befriend her sister knowing she will be leaving at the end of the summer to never see her again is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Then you through in the budding romance and Kelly’s life gets more complicated. As a resident of Tennessee (although a larger one), the small town is not at all difficult to picture. A story of finding truth, healing, friendship, and making the right choice instead of the easy choice, Finding Me is one that will stick with you long after you’ve read the last sentence.

***Bethany House provided me with a copy of this book (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest and fair review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Esther: Royal Beauty by Angela Hunt

January 31, 2015 by Suzie Waltner 1 Comment

The story of Esther has long been one of my favorites. It’s a fairly short book in the Old Testament (just ten chapters) but is filled with the wisdom and courage of one Jewish girl who risks her life to save her people. But what about the rest of the story? What about the historical accounts that are not found in the Bible? From the opening paragraph of Angela Hunt’s fictionalized account of Esther, I was engrossed.

“You may think you know me, but how could you? Others have related my story, and most of them paint a pretty picture. But unless a woman is allowed to speak for herself, no one will ever fully understand the events of a lifetime … and the secret recesses of a woman’s heart.” –Hadassah in Esther: Royal Beauty

The first book in Hunt’s A Dangerous Beauty series centers on a woman whose story is centered around her beauty. A woman who becomes queen because of that beauty. Through the book, readers follow Hadassah as a young, idealistic girl who dreams of becoming a queen someday until she discovers the sorrows of life. A girl who is selfish and cares about sneaking off with her friends or getting a peak at a boy until life intervenes and her heart begins to break at the loss she must suffer in her life. Even when Hadassah is taken to the king’s palace, she has not grown fully into the woman and the queen that God created her to be. She’s infatuated with life in the palace and with her new husband. She forgets about the cousin who raised her and taught her about her history. And for five years she lives her life wanting nothing, thinking of no one but herself. And then her people, and specifically her cousin, are put in danger and Esther must rise to try and save them, even if it means giving her own life for the cause. Through Esther’s eyes and the eyes of the king’s chamberlain, the eunach Harbonah, the story of Esther is brought to life.

When I was about a third of the way through this book, I was ready to pick up my Bible and re-read the book of Esther. I waited until I had finished the story to do that. The details are all there, down to the decorations at the banquet. Hunt mentions in her author’s note at the end of the book that nearly every event that occurs in her book comes from historical record. While the thoughts and actions of her main characters are fictionalized, they bring a newness to this story. I will never read the book of Esther in the Bible the same again after having read his book. I’m looking forward to the stories Hunt shares of Bathsheba and Delilah.

Pick up your copy at your local bookstore or order online today.

****Bethany House provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Heaven Help Heidi by Sally John

January 16, 2015 by Suzie Waltner Leave a Comment

Heidi Hathaway’s life is not only shaken up but altered when she crashes her car on the California freeway. Injured, too weak and exhausted to work, and unable to drive, Heidi has some major decisions to make about her life. When she happens across an acquaintance at the pier on the beach, she finds out about Casa de Vida, a small complex of bungalows hidden away in Seaside Village. When she meets the owner of the complex, she is washed with a sense of peace (the same peace she experienced with one of her nurses in the hospital). Heidi makes the decision to lease her sleek and modern condo–the one she can’t live in because she can’t navigate the stairs–and move into Casa de Vida. As Heidi tries to figure out her new life, her friendships with the other residents grow. The women are always willing to help her or talk to her, and the owner is like a mother figure to the entire group. They are a family. With Heidi’s new life comes strain between her and her best friend (and business partner). Heidi is ready to recover from her accident and get on with her life again. But what will life look like after?

Heaven Help Heidi was the first book I’ve read by Sally John. There were several different points of view in the book, but it wasn’t distracting. If anything, it made the story more well-rounded because as a reader, I was able to experience what many of the people were struggling with both in the past and present. The residents of Casa de Vida are all there divinely and all of them are likable. This book is about relationships, both disfunctional and functional. It’s about family, both traditional and the family that you make when you become about adult. It’s about friendship, how years of friendship can change and how new friendships can become a gift. And it’s about trust others and God with fears, pain, hope, and joy.

Available Feb 1, 2015. Order your copy here

****Harvest House Publishers provided me with a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

A Thing of Beauty by Lisa Samson

January 10, 2015 by Suzie Waltner Leave a Comment

A new year means a whole slew of new books. Several of my favorite authors are completing their series this year before they start on the next one, but everyone once in a while it’s nice to pick up a book that has no others attached to it, a book that was written with no follow up in mind. This is exactly why I chose to read and review A Thing of Beauty by Lisa Samson.

Fiona Hume left her Hollywood life ten years ago after an ugly divorce. She bought a beautiful home in Baltimore with dreams of becoming an artist (one that makes beautiful things with her hands as opposed to with her appearance). The only problem is that while Fiona has managed to collect plenty of “items” (junk from thrift shops and even from garbage piles off the street), she has yet to create anything. Instead her home has become a dumping ground for everything she’s collected over the years. Desperate for a makeover for an interview she’s scheduled and without money, Fiona decides to take on a boarder. Josia Yeu agrees to Fiona’s ridiculous terms and rents the maid quarters. As Fiona gets to know the man and sees how he transforms a place in her home, she begins to open up to the man and to other people in her life. Will she ever find the happiness that Josia embodies or will she always be stuck in her self-absorbed world (a life she despises her parents for living in)?

This book is not a romance, though there are several mentions of love throughout. No, this book is about a woman’s journey to discovery. Through the course of the book, Fiona discovers beauty, friendship, love, and truth. Because the book is written in first person point of view, the reader sees everything through Fiona’s eyes. Samson’s main character is quirky and funny at times but also pessimistic and uninspired. As you take the journey with Fiona, you find her growing as she lets others shine light into her world. There are no religious transformations in the book. In fact, I’m not even sure God was mentioned and I was more than a little surprised to find a few curse words in a Thomas Nelson book (not many, just three or four but some readers may find this offensive so I want to mention it). It was an intriguing story of how letting go of the past and allowing people to come alongside you in life can bring peace and happiness.

****Booklook Bloggers and Thomas Nelson provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.