A Secret Escape by Sarah Morgan

Jun8

The Sisterhood

A Secret Escape by Sarah Morgan is a perfectly delightful contemporary novel that I adored. This is a book about friendship and love and family.

We see that life can be a complicated affair but family should be faithful and provide a cocoon from life. We drop in on a multi-generational female family who all love and support each other. We see that patterns have a habit of repeating down the generations.

Parenting can be hard, especially when our children are grown up and we cannot ‘fix’ life for them. “It’s the hardest thing about being a parent. You can’t fix everything.” And no matter how old your child is “when your child suffers, you suffer too.”

The love within a family provides a secure base for life. We see that not all families provide a foundation of love. “She envied her friend Milly who never had to earn praise or affection.” Love should be freely given but one mother seems unable to have the capacity to love. Her grown up daughter laments “maybe it’s me…Maybe I’m just the kind of person people leave.” All her life “she was determined to be the child her mother would be proud of, but how?” It does seem that there are just some cold fish in the love department. All her life a character tried to earn her mother’s love. The fault lies with the mother and not the daughter.

In contrast her friend Milly’s family have love in abundance. Their love extends to include all, especially a heart crying out for love. She was “desperate for any evidence that I was worth loving.”

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The Singer Behind The Wire by Shari J Ryan

Jun8

Songs Of Hope

The Singer Behind The Wire by Shari J Ryan is a powerful historical novel that will simultaneously horrify and also break your heart as you witness man’s inhumanity to man.

The action is set in Warsaw during World War II before moving to Auschwitz. We see that there were those who could not stand by and do nothing. When they witnessed the persecution of others, they felt compelled to act, regardless of personal safety.

Life was hard for all, but especially for the Jewish population. We witness the erosion of their liberties until they were squashed behind the ghetto walls – 400,000 in the Warsaw ghetto.

We see that love can still happen – even ‘banned’ love. A young couple meet where they can – even eventually forced to meet in a sewer. “They can force us to behave in a certain way, but they can’t control the way we think.” When minds are free, there is still hope.

Hope is what kept people going. A hope for a better tomorrow – but also aware that today was all they had. “Anything can happen tomorrow, so today is important.”

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Aria’s Travelling Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin

Jun7

Serenely Beautiful

Aria’s Travelling Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin is the most delightful contemporary novel that I absolutely adored. It is the second book in The Travelling Shops series but can be read as a stand-alone.

This is a book about love, and grief, and life. It is a book about friendship, and travelling, and reading. It is a book that will completely take over your life for a few hours as you never want it to end.

We join the lead characters who live out of their camper vans, selling various items. The leading lady sells books and is passionate about them. She is incredibly easy to empathise with, with her love of reading, of browsing bookshops, and of sniffing books (who hasn’t?)

The reader follows the characters from busy London to the sunny, carefree South of France in Summer. We can almost ‘feel’ the heat, ‘see’ the landscape, and imagine the local food and wine.

Grief is a journey. “It’s a process… And the only way to get through it is to keep moving forward… But you can’t outrun grief.” Each person has to navigate grief in the best way they can. “I feel so robbed and bitter at the world. I try so hard not to fall down that dark hole but sometimes it just swallows me up.” Grief brings out many emotions – including guilt. Guilt at being alive and learning to live again. “Stop letting guilt drive you.” Guilt is a negative emotion and we need to cast it out.

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Wondrous Grace: The World As I See It by Kirby Lee Davis

Jun7

Stunningly Beautiful

Wondrous Grace: The World As I See It vol 1 By Kirby Lee Davis is a simply beautiful book of poems and images that will sink into your heart and soul.

The words penned by the author, over the years, also resonate with the reader as we realise life is nothing without God.

“But it’s in Christ I stand,

Clinging always to His hand.”

The hand and heart of God guide us through life.

We see our need for God in:

“Just give me the strength, Lord…

For I know I’ll never make it through this without You.”

As we journey through life, we do not journey alone.

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