Tag Archive | Revell Books

The Secret Keepers Of The Old Depot Grocery by Amanda Cox

Jan22

A Place Of Community

The Secret Keepers Of The Old Depot Grocery by Amanda Cox is the most delightful Christian dual timeline novel that filled my soul with love.

The novel is set in present day and from 1965 working forwards. It is a story of family and love and life.

A character has been grieving her whole life for a boy who went to Vietnam and never returned. Life still kept turning and she had to learn to live again in spite of her grief. Grief never leaves us. We just need to find our way through it.

We witness the horrors of war in the lives of those who return. “How could they find normal after that? Love when they’d been baptized in hate.” Some lives buckle with PTSD and they escape through alcohol and drugs.

There is the theme of guilt. A character is drowning in it, carrying burdens that were never meant for her. “I’d become so tainted by darkness that I couldn’t feel the warmth of the sun anymore.”  It is time to let go and let God.

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Under The Bayou Moon by Valerie Fraser Luesse

Sep10

Of Love And Community

Under The Bayou Moon by Valerie Fraser Luesse is a most delightful Christian historical novel about community.

The tale is set in 1949 in Bernadette in the Bayou. It is an area where the Cajun people live. The community all exist side by side, it is outsiders who make all the rules and disturb the balance.

The white superintendent’s father is prejudiced against the indigenous population. He outlaws the speaking of French in schools and prevents those who are not white from a right to education. School has been hard and unhappy for all the children until a new teacher brings love, light and care. She believes in education for all and sets out to achieve this.

Greed is a dreadful master. Greed prompts people to behave in awful ways, believing they are above the law and some are guilty of hubris.

The community welcomes strangers into their midst. It also pulls together when a need is spotted. People are welcomed as they serve each other.

There is much love that infuses the novel. It reaches from the pages to encompass the reader.

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A Christmas In The Alps by Melody Carlson

Sep7

Treasure Hunt

A Christmas In The Alps by Melody Carlson is a most delightful contemporary Christian festive read. Every year Melody Carlson releases a new Christmas book which I eagerly look forward to and greedily devour.

The setting of Paris followed by the snow-covered Alps warms the reader’s soul. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming and perfectly complemented by the crisp cold air outside. Melody Carlson has captured the essence of Christmas in a book.

A character is searching for her inheritance and her history. She discovers that riches turn up in the most unexpected places. As she relentlessly searches, the reader is reminded that God passionately pursues us as He longs to bring us home.

Family rifts and feuds need putting to bed. Life is too short to live with self-erected barriers between us.

Once again Melody Carlson has produced a wonderful festive offering. I love her annual book release that is full of warmth and love.

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The Nature Of Small Birds by Susie Finkbeiner

Aug15

Simply Beautiful

The Nature Of Small Birds by Susie Finkbeiner is an absolutely beautiful Christian novel that is written around the true event of Operation Babylift – giving children from Vietnam a new life in America after the war.

The action is set in 1975, 1988 and 2013. The novel focuses on a family. This microcosm would be repeated in homes all over America. The reader sees life through various eyes in one family. It is all very beautifully written. Your heart will break for the orphans and children of war.

The war in Vietnam took many American lives. Those who did return were scarred physically or mentally. The Vietnamese children were scarred too. They saw terrible things no child should ever see and were very traumatized.

The novel is a book of love. We see a family with a huge capacity to love – from four year old Sonny up through the generations. There was one exception – a grandmother who lost her son in the Vietnam war. She laid the sins of the soldiers on the shoulders of a young child and needed time to adapt her views.

God is a God of love. He cares for each and every one of His children. “God is so kind… and He’s always up to something.” Sometimes we cannot see Him working, life seems bleak but God never leaves us. His eye is on the sparrow and His eye is on us.

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