Larkspur Cove by Lisa Wingate

Let me say first that I enjoyed this read. It is a very engaging novel. There are some things that I do not like about it because of it being considered inspirational fiction.

The main female character,Andrea Henderson leaves her life in Houston, to return to her parents' lake house in Larkspur Cove, an exclusive resort at Moses Lake. Since she is now a resident of Moses Lake, she and her son get to know the residents of Moses Lake and not just the vacationers. I have had this experience when I worked at local businesses at the beach two different summers in college. You begin to see the vacation paradise in a new light and that there are problems among the pretty facade.

Andrea begins working for a counselor who does long term meeting with the clients of the county child welfare program. Through this she begins to leave her country club facade behind and deal with the real issues of the society. There is great poverty on the lake. The mystery of this novel involves the town recluse who now seems to have a little girl with him wherever he goes.

Andrea and her son are damaged from the public disgrace of her ex-husband who was a church leader. Andrea arrives in Moses Lake scared and angry and afraid that she and her son can ever heal. She is bitter and she abandons the church and the most part God. I think this is a very timely subject because the facade of the perfect church is fading. I like that it shows that Christians aren't perfect, they need to be the people God is calling them to be. In this new environment they thrive as people want to be with them because of who they are and not their church position

Andrea through her work meets the local game warden, Mart McClendon. He has returned to his boyhood home to escape himself and his family. He also needs forgiveness. Primarily from his own inability to forgive himself.

So this is my dilemma, these two people find forgiveness and healing and they find the ability to be real and genuine people. I just don't like that this healing  seems to come more from their relationship with each other then from God. I like that Andrea begins to see herself as free. This freedom seems to always express it self by running into the night for clandestine meetings with Mart. Although their relationship does not involve sexual relations, making out in the dark in the moonlight just doesn't seem like appropriate behavior for the mother of someone who is reeling from his father's adultery.

I think a new man is a very worldly solution to healing and forgiveness. I wish this novel had shown the healing more from God or even a community of faith. I think inspirational fiction should point to Jesus as the healer not just a man.

I received no compensation for this review. I did receive the book free of charge from Bethany House.


Keep Reading,
Dawn

The girl in the gatehouse

I love to read Jane Austen. I think that I am a bit of a fan but yet I really don't explore her past. I have never joined a Jane Austen society (such things do exist). I know very little about the Regency period. Until reading this book, I am not sure I knew what that period of time when Jane Austen lived is called (A regent ruled in place of the actual sovereign). I also do not really read books that are written in the style of Jane Austen. There are books that retell Pride and Prejudice, add monsters, tell what happened next. I had seen books at the bookstore that were Christian versions.
As reported in a previous post, I have been given the opportunity to review books for Baker publishing. I chose this selection because of my love of Jane Austen.  The girl in the gatehouse by Julie Klassen is written in the time of Jane Austen. Most of Jane Austen's stories tell of the struggle of woman to get along in their society. Usually this involves obtaining a husband in order to secure a happy future. With the exception of Emma, the heroine does not have a prominent enough place in society to assure that is going to happen. Fanny of Mansfield Park is a poor relative. Eleanor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility are the daughters of a happy second marriage but are left with little prospects after the death of their father and when the brother the heir takes over their home. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and her sisters' lack of prospects are because there are five of them and the estate belongs to a relative who is the heir because they have no brother.  Sometimes, in Jane Austen novels, some of the characters take matters in their own hands and do something that we would not be shocked by today but would be the ruin of the girl and her family in that time. These girls lose their virginity. Usually their punishment is that they are sent away. Jane Austen never tells what happens to these girls. The "good" girls end up happy ever after but what of the "bad" girls.
In The girl in the gatehouse, this is where Julie Klassen begins her story. Mariah Aubrey is sent away because she has brought shame on her family. Mariah is sent to live in the gatehouse of the estate of her "Aunt Fran" (the wife of her late uncle who is remarried and rewidowed). She is banished from her family and the neighborhood where she lived. Mariah is accompanied by her Dixon, her former tutor turned companion. These two women must start a new life with very little assistance.
What I enjoyed most about this story is that they build their own community. They take their difficult situation and start afresh. They learn to cook and clean. Mariah begins earning a living by writing which as Jane Austen herself knew was not proper for young women. Mariah like Jane Austen writes without her own name on her books.They make friends with the staff of the estate and they begin to get involved in the lives of the residents, young and old, of the poorhouse adjoining the estate. There is a man who haunts the roof of the poorhouse. Why is he there? Why is the poorhouse so close to the estate? Why is the gate locked?Dixon finds love for the first time. Mariah is not caught up in her own guilt and own misery but begins to move on and reach out to others.  These people are not the of the society that she has been banned from. Martin, who they inherit from Aunt Fran when she dies, is a man of many secret talents and he begins to change their gatehouse into a home. Aunt Fran also leaves Mariah her treasure, but what is it?
 Mariah meets the estate's new tenant, a naval captain who now has wealth but wants so much to enter the life of a gentleman. Mariah and he form a friendship that helps them both find a path to forgiveness and acceptance. In trying to find the mystery behind the locked gate, they find the path through the gate that leads to Christ. I won't reveal the mysteries of the estate and if they find love with each other. You'll have to read it to see.
I would recommend this book as a fun story of redemtion through the means of a community who accept you as you are. In doing so, they help each other find true acceptance in Christ.

I received this book free in exchange for this review, but received no other compensation.

A Poet??

So I have been tutoring high schoolers. One group of students is interested in poetry. I encouraged them to write some poetry. I also pledged to write my own. So here it is!

Renewal

He calls me, I hear his voice.
“Wake up, wake up my sleeping one, for your presence I long.
Escape the darkness, the light is coming.
I desire the sound of your melody; bring me your new song.”

I rise and escape into the night,
Walking into the darkness, I carry only a single light.
The call of the ocean roar draws me to Him.
“Come lay down your burdens, give up the fight.”

Upon reaching the shore, I see the light.
It pushes through the clouds breaks through the night.
The night ends, a new day is dawning,
The crashing waves push forward, pulling the sun burning bright.

The beauty calls forth my song. My voice I raise.
The sun’s parade of colors washes over me.
I exchange my melodious tone for the peace.
Renewed, restored, a new day, a new life I see.