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What Tomorrow Will Be by Julianne MacLean

Jan20

A Work Of Great Beauty

What Tomorrow Will Be by Julieanne MacLean is the most beautiful contemporary novel that will lodge deep in your heart and soul. Every once in a while, a book comes along that profoundly impacts me – and this is that book. I know it will stay with me forever.

The action is in three main time periods – 1998, 2006 and 2025. These are pivotal moments in the lives of characters. They are the defining years. A life is bookmarked by two freak accidents – both have huge emotional impact for all those involved. We often wonder – why do bad things happen to good people? Sometimes there are just no answers but I was reminded of the Bible passage in Genesis 49 where God uses bad circumstances and flips it round to good.

You never forget your first love – especially if it has been ripped away. A character has had the big love of her life, and of her present love she says: “It doesn’t feel earth shattering. It’s a quieter kind of love.” It is a love on which lives and a family have been built – but are the foundations strong enough to weather the storms?

Personal dreams are good to have, to give you something to strive for, but not at the expense of today. “I spend too much time mapping out my future. As a result, I forget to enjoy the present.” Do not miss the present because the future is not guaranteed.

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Every Lifetime After by Jennifer Ross

Jan16

Love Remains

Every Lifetime After by Jennifer Ross is a very charming dual timeline novel that I loved.

The action is set in 2018 and 1943, and concerns the boys who flew from bomber command in Yorkshire. It is their story which is being filmed in 2018.

The leading actress has links to the area as it is where she was born and spent her first four years. Memories are awakened – some are her own, others are transcending time and space as she has a gift to ‘see’ past actions. Though their tale is already known, locations give her glimpses to the past. She is unsure what to do with her gift.

A character alive in 1943 is still alive and in a nursing home in 2018. He lives haunted by memories, grief and guilt. He grieves what he cannot change.

We see the pain of miscarriage. It affects the lives of the couple – until they share their grief, they are lone ships drifting along.

The reader ‘experiences’ the lives of the men and women of bomber command. Lives were uncertain – every time the boys left the base, they realised it could be their last.

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Tempest At Annabel’s Lighthouse by Jaime Jo Wright

Jan12

Love Is…

Tempest At Annabel’s Lighthouse by Jaime Jo Wright is a gripping Christian dual timeline novel that I just could not put down.

The action is set in present day, 1874 and twenty years earlier.

Once more Jaime Jo Wright has presented a dark and brooding novel where the elements mirror the action.

Obsessions dominate lives as they travel down the generations. Greed grips hearts. “Greed… it’s the root of … mankind’s problems.” The love of money is the root of all evil. When pound signs are all one sees, one is in trouble.

Greed and jealousy dominated a life who then inflicted cruelty on an innocent.

There is the difficult topic of domestic abuse. In the nineteenth century characters needed rescuing from their situations. We witness love stepping in. “Love meant giving oneself for another.”

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The Lost Boys Of Barlowe Theater by Jaime Jo Wright

Jan3

Let Go & Let God

The Lost Boys Of Barlowe Theater by Jaime Jo Wright is a powerful Christian historical dual timeline novel that I loved.

Once more Jaime Jo Wright has penned a dark and brooding novel that grabs the reader’s attention from the start. Scenes set at night and in an old dark theatre help to set the atmosphere. Amongst all the cloak and daggers, the reader tries to guess what is real and what is an illusion?

The action takes pace in 1915 and present day, with Barlowe theatre as its’ focus. There are rumours of lost boys and a woman in white walking abroad. What is real? Are there ghosts of the past that need to be put to rest?

In both time periods there are leading female characters who are struggling to find their place in society. Both feel abandoned by parents – one through death, and the other due to being adopted. They both struggle with feelings of self-worth. In 1915, one’s worth was attached to one’s position in society. “What would ruin someone of Eleanor’s status would merely go unnoticed by those in her world.” There are different rules for the different classes.

In present day the leading lady finds it difficult to trust that she is lovable as she was abandoned at birth by her birth mother. “Deep down… Kit felt disposable. Even her faith was challenged by the idea that God too must certainly have His limits of grace.” God is our loving Father. His love for us is unconditional and everlasting. The leading lady struggles to believe that God’s love is given freely to her and that she doesn’t have to earn it. “Human nature is conditional… But God is not.” Slowly her faith emerges. “A thin thread of belief that her value wasn’t based on conditions.”

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