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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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The Invisible Thread by Sue Lamoree

Jan25

Entertaining & Thought Provoking

The Invisible Thread by Sue Lamoree is a beautiful contemporary children’s novel and just perfect for the over tens. It has a powerful message of forgiveness at its’ heart.

Following a dreadful accident, a family is fractured when a young boy ends up wheelchair bound. There are feelings of both guilt and anger within the family, as it falls apart. What the family really need is love and forgiveness. They need to celebrate what they do have, instead of mourning what they don’t.

We witness how life has changed for the young boy. He misses his past life. “He’d been so angry with Dad over the past year that he’d forgotten how much fun their adventures used to be.” Anger has eaten away at him. His eyes need opening to the new world of possibilities around him. This includes new friends and hobbies, such as competitive horse riding for the disabled.

A spirit from heaven, whom only children can see, falls to earth for a special mission. Her ethereal presence wafts through the tale, spreading peace and love. She reveals the heart of God the Father: “He’s got millions of children, but I always feel like I’m special to Him… He says I am.”

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