Tag Archive | Baker Publishing

Meet Me At The Starlight by Rachel Hauck

Mar8

Immanuel God With Us

Meet Me At The Starlight by Rachel Hauck is a powerful and beautiful Christian dual timeline novel that I adored from the start.

The novel is set during the Depression of the 1930’s and in 1987 in Sea Blue Beach as we follow lead character Tuesday Knight in both periods – as a young mother, and then an old grandmother. She is the owner of the Starlight skating rink.

The Starlight skating rink is very much a character in its’ own right. It is the place where life happens from the 1880’s when Prince Blue encountered Immanuel after a shipwreck on Sea Blue Beach. Prince Blue had the rink built and had a giant mural of Immanuel painted on a wall, looking down over the people.

Immanuel is not just a painting. He meets people just when they need Him. “He was more alive than anyone she’d ever known.” He breaks bread, cooks fish, and imparts His Presence into hearts. “You saw God and He left you a piece of heaven.”

Lead character, Tuesday, was shown kindness by Prince Blue when she was down on her luck. She now helps others in need, with the one request – that they pay-it-forward when they can.

When the Starlight is threatened with demolition, people step forward as they want to save it. Tuesday believes “I know I can trust Him [God]. If He doesn’t save us, He must have a better plan.” Sometimes we have to trust God in the dark. Hold on, hope is coming. “We’ve seen what man can do, now let’s see what God can do.” God’s best is more than we could ever hope for.

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What Happens Next by Christina Suzann Nelson

Feb20

Heartbreakingly Beautiful

What Happens Next by Christina Suzann Nelson is a most beautiful and heartbreaking Christian dual timeline novel that consumed me from the start. I never wanted it to end.

The action is set in 1987 and then thirty-five years later. We hear the events in the third person from several different points of view. We get to know the characters intimately from ten-year-old Heather in 1987 to her best friend and her mother thirty-five years later. It is love and memories which link the lives.

Since 1987 Heather has been missing. Her mother has been unable to grieve as she is keeping hope alive. “Hope was life-giving… Could she survive without hope?”

The loss has torn the family apart. The love of God and each other is the glue needed to help them all to live again. We hear “she’d turned her back on God… But that didn’t stop Him from being there, still waiting on His lost child.” God, our Father lovingly awaits the prodigal returning home.

Heather’s mother, Dora, held everyone at arm’s length since her daughter’s disappearance. “Her heart battled to keep a barrier between herself and the kind of love that could end in devastating loss.” To love and to lose hurts too much to do again, so it is easier to wall up a heart. “The world kept spinning, no matter how much Dora needed it to stop.” We can never fathom why life continues when our hearts are broken.

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The Best Summer Of Our Lives by Rachel Hauck

Feb11

Coming Home

The Best Summer Of Our Lives by Rachel Hauck is the most beautiful Christian dual timeline novel that I savoured and never wanted to end.

This is a book about friendship. It is a coming-of-age novel. It is about love, which is the glue that binds people together. We see four eighteen-year-olds as they are determined to have the best summer of their lives. After a prank gone wrong, they find themselves as councillors in a summer camp for eleven-year-old girls. “What if the best summer of our lives isn’t about parties or shopping… but giving these girls a summer they’ll never forget.” It is a summer that will be pivotal. Lives will be shattered and new paths forged but the summer of 1977 will be in the minds of them all. “8 weeks, 8 Saturdays, and the summer of ’77 still defined her.” Everything hung on that summer. For the friends, and the reader, there is a gap of twenty years before the tale resumes in 1997.

The novel is written in the two alternating time periods and in four different voices. The teens are all easy to empathise with, easy to picture, and they all lodged in my heart.

Rachel Hauck includes a real-life murder event that rocks the girl’s world as the camp goes on lockdown for the summer in order to protect the innocent. They must all look out for each other. The reader can ‘feel’ the fear and apprehension.

All four teens are carrying secrets that are burdening them down. They need to open their hearts to each other, no matter what the consequences.

We all need God, whether we recognise it or not. There are some beautiful scenes with The Preacher. We see that He calls us each by name – will we answer His call? “ ‘You feel like you’ve been in a desert.’ She turned at the sound of His voice. The Preacher walked towards her… Part of your journey is to draw you to Me.” Jesus waits patiently for us to answer His call.

There is a beautiful moment when a character asks why there are so many empty chairs in the large tent. “Hundreds of empty chairs, waiting for the hurting, the sick and the lost, the broken to come.” God calls us to come just as we are.

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Yesterday’s Tides by Roseanna M White

Jan28

God’s Faithfulness

Yesterday’s Tides by Roseanna M White is a powerful dual timeline novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The action is set during both world wars, and is linked by the generations of a family. The chapters alternate between the two time periods. Much of the action is set on Ocracoke, a small American island.

All the characters were well drawn and believable. I loved the fact that there were cameo appearances of characters from other Roseanna M White’s books. This added to the feeling a familiarity for the reader.

Lies and suspicion happens within a family as well as during times of war. Characters in both time periods are cruelly treated and time with children is snatched away. As is the time with a spouse.

There is the theme of forgiveness. When there is much to forgive, it does not come easy – but forgiveness is a s much for the welfare of the giver, as it is for the receiver.

There are several generations of strong women. They have had to rise above their circumstances. They are overcomers. The reader’s heart breaks for the abused wife who tells her small daughter: “You hear him [her father] coming, and you run, baby girl. You run to Lulu and spend the night with her.”

Many of the women have grown up under the Jim Crow laws, shunned because of their skin colour. The prejudices remain. The women are so much more than the colour of their skin. They are hardworking, and full of goodness, serving others where they can.

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