Tag: Christian Women’s Fiction

13 November 2023

Book Review | The Secret to Happiness by Suzanne Woods Fisher

The Secret to Happiness is the sequel to The Sweet Life, which brought mother and daughter duo Marnie and Dawn to the seaside town of Chatham, where they own and run the Main Street Creamery. I had mixed feelings about The Sweet Life—the cover had led me to expect a romance, but it was more women’s fiction, and while I liked Marnie, I wasn’t so sure about Dawn.

I have some of the same mixed feelings about The Secret to Happiness.

It started with a Cast of Characters list, which I rarely find to be a good sign in contemporary fiction. It’s fine in historical fiction, where it can be important to know which characters are real historical people and which are products of the author’s imagination. In contemporary fiction, I find it’s often an excuse for the author to dump a bunch of characters on the reader without proper introduction. It’s not—Fisher does a great job with bringing each new character into the story—so I don’t know why the Cast of Characters was included.

While both Marnie and Dawn are point of view characters in The Secret to Happiness, this is Callie Dixon’s story.

Callie is Marnie’s niece and Dawn’s cousin, and she is currently unemployed after giving two hundred people food poisoning (oops). Two hundred people attending the annual Food Safety Conference (big oops). Callie has always been an overachieving perfectionist–she had to be, to be offered a role as executive chef in a top Boston hotel while still in her twenties. But she’s changed, and now she barely leaves her bed, which spurs Dawn into forcing her to attend a free class at the local community centre: The Secret to Happiness.

The class is taught by a local author and college professor, and while Callie is convinced she is happy and not depressed, she does find the class interesting. It’s pretty obvious Callie is depressed, so my biggest bugbear is that Dawn’s solution to Callie’s mental health issues was a free community centre class, not professional medical attention.

Mind you, that did fit with Dawn’s character.

Dawn is single-minded in her focus to the point of being self-centered, and she’s not great at seeing or considering other points of view. I also did not appreciate her “revelation” that moving to a (fictional) seaside town was the cure that “changed her life”. I live in a town by the sea, and people here need Jesus as much as anyone. From a secular point of view, Dawn’s advice is an irresponsible diagnosis. From a Christian point of view, it negates the need for Jesus.

But I like Callie’s character. It’s good to see a character who is struggling, and it’s good to see her come out the other side (even if I did question Dawn’s methods). And I loved Leo the Cowboy, the six-year-old who has made the ice cream store his second home (Leo was my favourite character in The Sweet Life.)

Despite my initial negative feelings about Callie’s diagnosis and treatment, the story did offer some good advice on happiness.

As such, I much preferred the second half of the novel to the first (perhaps because I guessed a major plot twist around halfway thought, so was waiting to see how and when the reveal would come).

The Secret to Happiness is women’s fiction rather than romance. I expect women’s fiction to tackle some tough issues—which it did. I also expect those tough issues to be dealt with in a mature and responsible way—which I’m not convinced it did.

I did enjoy the story overall but would have enjoyed it more if the mental health issues (which were central to the plot) had been treated a little more seriously i.e. with professional help. After all, if someone thought they had a broken arm, we’d suggest they go to a clinic, get an ex-ray, and have an expert decide if they need treatment. Why wouldn’t we do the same if we suspect someone has a mental health problem?

Thanks to Revell Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

As it happens…

I’d just finished scheduling this review when I received an email from Christian author Ginny Yttrup talking about her experiences with depression … which read as very similar to Callie’s experience. Ginny says:

When prescribed by a knowledgeable physician or psychiatrist, medications have helped many, many others who fight depression. If you struggle, please don’t allow stigmas and shame to keep you from seeking help.

I have found therapy with Christian counselors very helpful. I’ve learned techniques I can apply when the darkness looms. I’ve also found nutrition counseling very helpful. My moment-by-moment relationship with Jesus is most helpful, reminding me there is more. . . . More than myself, more than what I feel in this moment, more than what I attempt to control. There is the Spirit’s strength through my weakness. There is hope.

If you’re struggling with depression or other forms of mental illness, there are people who want to help, who are trained to help. Please reach out for help.

The American Association of Christian Counselors can help you find a counselor in your area. Search their database here.

Or visit the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

You can follow Ginny Yttrup at her website or on Substack.

About Suzanne Woods Fisher

Suzanne Woods Fisher is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than 30 books, including On a Summer Tide and On a Coastal Breeze, as well as the Nantucket Legacy, Amish Beginnings, The Bishop’s Family, The Deacon’s Family, and The Inn at Eagle Hill series, among other novels. She is also the author of several nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace and Amish Proverbs.

Find Suzanne Woods Fisher online at:

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About The Secret to Happiness

Escape to Cape Cod–where you just might find the secret to happiness

Callie Dixon had the world by the tail . . . until it all slipped away. Fired from her dream job after making a colossal mistake, she’s escaped to her aunt’s home on Cape Cod for time to bounce back. Except it isn’t a home, it’s an ice cream shop. And time isn’t going to help, because Callie’s bounce has up and left. There’s a reason she made that mistake at work, and she’s struggling to come to terms with it.

Things go from bad to worse when Callie’s cousin Dawn drags her to a community class about the secret to happiness. Happiness is the last thing Callie wants to think about right now, but instructor Bruno Bianco–a curiously gloomy fellow–is relentless. He has a way of turning Callie’s thoughts upside down. Her feelings, too.

Bruno insists that hitting rock bottom is the very best place to be. But if that’s true, how is it supposed to help her figure out what–or who–has been missing from her life all along?

Find The Secret to Happiness online at:

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2 January 2023

Book Review | What Happens Next by Christina Suzann Nelson

True crime podcaster and mother Faith Byrne is newly and unhappily divorced.

She’s even less happy when her ex wants to take her two daughters to Hawaii for the three whole months of summer, not just the short holiday she’s originally agreed so they could attend their father’s wedding.

But that does mean she’s free and unencumbered when she gets a strange request from the sister of a childhood best friend. Back when she was ten, she’d spent a summer at her grandmother’s house in Deep Valley, Oregon, where she’d befriended Heather, the girl next door.

Despite their promises to write, Heather never replied to any of Faith’s letters. Now Faith finds out why: Heather disappeared a matter of days after Faith left Deep Valley. And her parents never told her.

That got me hooked.

The story itself was told from three points of view: Faith, Dori (Heather’s mother, who is still grieving for her lost daughter and can’t understand why everyone else – including her husband – has moved on), and Heather herself, from 1986.

We therefore saw Health and Faith becoming friends at the same time as we saw Faith searching for her lost friend. It was an effective way to unravel the mystery and show Faith’s investigation.

While I enjoy a good crime novel, I’m not a fan of true crime novels (or nonfiction). True crime has real victims, and I’d much rather engage my imagination with make-believe than dwell on something that actually happened to someone … and which left behind mourning family and friends.

I think this is why I liked and appreciated Faith’s take on true crime: because she wasn’t focusing on the crime.

She was focusing on the people.

Her listeners expected stories of hope and healing, of people who fought through loss to come out stronger and still maintaining compassion and wholeness.

I’d describe What Happens Next as dual timeline women’s fiction with a touch of mystery. We did find out what happened to Heather, although I didn’t think the mystery was the main focus. It was more a story of relationships, particularly marriage, and grief.

Recommended for those who enjoy well-written novels with great characters.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Christina Suzann Nelson

Christina Suzann Nelson is an inspirational speaker and Christy award-winning author. Her first novel, If We Make It Home, was honored as one of Library Journal‘s top five inspirational novels of 2017, and her 2021 novel, The Way It Should Be, won the Christy Award for general fiction.

In 2017, Christina was named the OCW Cascade’s Writer of Promise and received a Cascade award for her novel Swimming in the Deep End. Her stories have been published in the Cup of Comfort for a Better World, Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families, as well as other publications.

Christina is over-the-top about her passions, including the stories created somewhere in the twists and turns of her less-than-focused brain. When she’s not writing, Christina serves on the board of Every Child Linn-Benton, a nonprofit where she has the opportunity to influence the lives of families and children in the foster care system.

On a typical day, she chases escaped farm animals, reads, hikes with her dog, and enjoys her husband and six kids.

Find Christina Suzann Nelson online at:

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About What Happens Next

Popular podcaster and ex-reporter Faith Byrne has made a name for herself telling stories of greatness after tragedy–but her real life does not mirror the stories she tells. While her daughters spend the summer in Hawaii with her ex-husband and his new wife, she must manage life on her own. But all that changes when she’s asked to spotlight her childhood best friend’s missing person case on her podcast.

Dora Crane has never accepted that her younger daughter could be dead, keeping her home looking the same as when her daughter disappeared. But when her husband leaves her, and her older daughter intervenes, she agrees to counseling and to pack up her missing daughter’s belongings under one condition: Faith Byrne comes to Deep Valley and sheds light on the cold case.

As the investigation moves forward, the two women uncover desperate secrets, and Faith and Dora must face the long-hidden truth before they can begin to move forward.

Award-winning author Christina Suzann Nelson masterfully leads readers on a journey of discovery, healing, and friendship in this suspenseful and poignant tale.

Find What Happens Next online at:

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5 December 2022

Book Review | The Promised Land by Elizabeth Musser

The Promised Land is the story of three Americans who each decide – for reasons good and bad – to walk a portion of the Camino de Santiago, from the village of Le Puy in southern France to the Spanish border (the full walk ends in Santiago, and covers a thousand kilometres or more, depending on where the pilgrim chooses to start: Rome, or somewhere a little closer).

I’ve been interested in the Camino since I saw the Martin Sheen movie, The Way. Based on the book description, I was expecting the characters to start their Camino pilgrimage at the beginning of The Promised Land, and for most of the story to be set on the Camino (as it was in the Way).

That was not the case. The first part of the story is spent introducing the main characters: Abbie, the housewife whose well-organised life is unravelling; Bobby, her oldest son, who wants to be an artist even though his mother wants him to go to college, and Caro, a sometime photographer for the online paper where Bobby interns in photography and graphic design.

Abby is a strange combination of annoying and endearing. She’s a complete control freak, something which has driven her husband and sons away. And she’s endearing in that it’s hard to feel any ill-will towards her, because she’s always acting out of love. She just doesn’t realise she’s been smothering her husband and children, and that’s effectively pushed them away.

Bobby is a typical teenage boy in many ways, but his heart is in the right place and he has good motives. He’s likeable and responsible, even when his mother is annoying him and everyone else.

Caro was probably the most complex character. The story flips between her present and her past, back to a time where she made a bad judgement call over a relationship that had far-reaching effects, effects she hasn’t been able to forgive herself for.

As with all Elizabeth Musser’s stories, there are deep spiritual truths hidden in the pages, particularly with Abby’s personal journey (or perhaps I thought that because she’s the character who best represents my stage in life). The challenge with deep spiritual truths is to show them in a way that feels consistent with the characters, as opposed to preaching to the reader. Musser achieves this with a seeming ease.

The Promised Land is a standalone story that includes characters from several of Elizabeth Musser’s earlier novels: The Swan House, The Dwelling Place, and The Long Highway Home. Recommended for those looking for Christian fiction that will both inspire and challenge their faith.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Elizabeth Musser

Elizabeth Musser writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France. Elizabeth’s highly acclaimed, best-selling novel, The Swan House, was named one of Amazon’s Top Christian Books of the Year and one of Georgia’s Top Ten Novels of the Past 100 Years (Georgia Backroads, 2009). All of Elizabeth’s novels have been translated into multiple languages.

From an interview with Publisher’s Weekly, “Elizabeth Musser likes to say she has two part-time jobs. Not only is she an award-winning novelist, but she and her husband serve as missionaries at a small Protestant church in Lyon, France. In both lines of work, she avoids preaching and simplistic answers, choosing instead to portray a God who cares in the midst of life’s complexity…”

Elizabeth adds, “My desire is to offer the best literature I can write, drawing the reader into a story that is compelling, believable and sprinkled with historical detail. I seek to give a realistic picture of what faith lived out in this world looks like, and, as always, I hope that my stories can be appreciated by all audiences, not just those readers who hold my same religious beliefs. It is a delight to receive confirmation of this through reader letters.”

For over twenty-five years, Elizabeth and her husband, Paul, have been involved in missions’ work in Europe with International Teams. The Mussers have two sons, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren who all live way too far away in America.

You can find Elizabeth online at:

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You can read her Friday Fifteen here.

About The Promised Land

With her oldest son taking a gap year in Europe, her aging father losing his sight and his memory, and her husband of twenty years announcing that he’s leaving her, Abbie Bartholomew Jowett is surrounded by overwhelming loss.

Desperate to mend her marriage and herself, she follows her son, Bobby, to walk the famed Camino pilgrimage. During their journey they encounter Rasa, an Iranian woman working in secret helping other refugees, and Caroline, a journalist who is studying pilgrims on the Camino while searching for answers from her broken past.

Each individual has their own reasons for the pilgrimage, but together they learn that the Camino strips you bare and calls you into deep soul-searching that can threaten all your best laid plans.

You can find The Promised Land online at:

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And don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

30 May 2022

Book Review | When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown

It’s 1936 Georgia, and seventeen-year-old Opal Pruitt works alongside her Granny Birdie as cook and housekeeper for Miss Peggy and her family—her daughter, Mss Corinne, and her college-age grandson, Jimmy Earl. She even has a crush on Jimmy Earl, but he is white and lives in Parsons while she is colored and lives three miles away, in Colored Town.

Jimmy warns Granny Birdie that the Ku Klux Klan will be “visiting” Colored Town. Some think the best response is to stay inside, while others believe they should fight. As When Stars Rain Down shows, both answers have merit … and both answers have issues.

Yes, When Stars Rain Down is a novel about racists and racism.

The author has a strong voice that brings out the difference between the characters in a way that feels natural yet is still easy to read, despite the difficult subject matter. We need more novels like this to be published and read. In particular, we need more novels from own voices or BIPOC authors … authors who have lived these experiences and can share their own feelings and reactions. As Opal says:

I didn’t want to hear another voice of another white person try to tell me my feelings weren’t mine to feel.

It’s not always an easy read, but it’s also not easy to stop reading. It’s a compelling read that shows some of the difficulties of being born Colored in the South in a when the Ku Klux Klan were openly active, when everyone knew who hid under the masks but no one did anything. Mostly.

It would be nice to think these kind of activities have been relegated to victory, but as I write this review, a white teenager has just livestreamed himself opening fire in a supermarket and killing ten Black people. The Ku Klux Klan may not exist in the same way as they did in 1930s Georgia, but the attitudes haven’t changed and the violence has only become worse.

But the novel is also uplifting, particularly as Opal, her grandmother, and many other residents of Colored Town show and life their Christian faith. Recommended.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing an ebook for review.

About Angela Jackson-Brown

Angela Jackson-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and playwright who is a member of the graduate faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. In the fall semester of 2022, she will be joining the creative writing program at Indiana University Bloomington as an associate professor. Angela is a graduate of Troy University, Auburn University, and the Spalding low-residency MFA program in creative writing. She has published her short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in journals like the Louisville Courier Journal and Appalachian Review.

She is the author of Drinking from a Bitter Cup, House Repairs, When Stars Rain Down, and the upcoming novel The Light Always Breaks. When Stars Rain Down is a highly acclaimed novel that received a starred review from Library Journal and glowing reviews from Alabama Public Library, Buzzfeed, Parade magazine, and Woman’s Weekly. It was also a finalist for the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American historical fiction.

Find Angela Jackson-Brown online at:

Website

About When Stars Rain Down

The summer of 1936 in Parsons, Georgia, is unseasonably hot, and Opal Pruitt senses a nameless storm brewing. She hopes this foreboding feeling won’t overshadow her upcoming 18th birthday or the annual Founder’s Day celebration in just a few weeks. She and her Grandma Birdie work as housekeepers for the white widow Miss Peggy, and Opal desperately wants some time to be young and carefree with her cousins and friends.

But when the Ku Klux Klan descends on Opal’s neighborhood, the tight-knit community is shaken in every way possible. Parsons’s residents—both Black and white—are forced to acknowledge the unspoken codes of conduct in their post-Reconstruction era town. To complicate matters, Opal finds herself torn between two unexpected romantic interests—the son of her pastor, Cedric Perkins, and the white grandson of the woman she works for, Jimmy Earl Ketchums. Both young men awaken emotions Opal has never felt before.

Faced with love, loss, and a harsh awakening to an ugly world, Opal holds tight to her family and faith—and the hope for change.

You can find When Stars Rain Down online at:

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11 February 2022

First Line Friday | Week #223 | Something Good by Vanessa Miller

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from Something Good by Vanessa Miller, a new-to-me author. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Something Good

When three women find their lives inextricably linked after a terrible mistake, they must work together to make the most of their futures.

Alexis Marshall never meant to cause the accident that left Jon-Jon Robinson paralyzed—but though guilt plagues her, her husband hopes to put the past behind them. After all, he’s in the middle of selling a tech business—and if Alexis admits to texting while driving, the deal could collapse and cost them millions. Meanwhile, Alexis’s life is not as shiny and perfect as it may seem from the outside. She has secrets of her own. As she becomes consumed with thoughts of the young man she hit, can she reconcile her mistake with her husband’s expectations?

Trish Robinson is just trying to hold it together after the accident that left Jon-Jon dependent and depressed. As the bills pile up, Trish and her husband, Dwayne, find themselves at odds. Trish wants to forgive and move on, but Dwayne is filled with rage toward the entitled woman who altered their lives forever. Trish can’t see how anything good can come from so much hate and strife, so she determines to pray until God intervenes. Then one afternoon Marquita Lewis rings their doorbell with a baby in her arms and changes everything.

Vanessa Miller’s latest inspirational novel reminds readers that differences may separate us, but if we cling to each other, God can bring something good out of our very worst moments.

You can find Something Good online at:

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Click the button to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today:

You can then click the link which will take you to the master page of all this week’s #FirstLineFriday posts.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

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11 November 2021

Book Review | Straight Up by Lisa Samson

Straight Up is an older book, first published in 2006, which I picked up from a charity book sale last year. I bought it because it was cheap, and because the cover and book description intrigued me:

They are living lives they were never meant to live.

That’s a profound statement that didn’t seem relevant in the first part of the story but was key at the end (and while I loathe giving spoilers in a review, I don’t think commenting on the back cover constitutes a spoiler).

The way the author chose to show this was unusual, but it worked.

Did the author provide a solution to this problem? No, but that’s because the solution is going to look different for all of us. But it’s certainly an idea that got me thinking: Is this the life I was meant to live?

The novel is written in first person and present tense, from several points of view. The main character is Georgia Bishop, a talented jazz pianist, but it’s not just her story. It’s also the story of her cousin, interior designer Fairly Godfrey, their Uncle George, and a band of Christian misfits Fairly refers to as “the cult”.

Their intertwined stories form the basis of the novel, which is more about their individual character journeys than based on any kind of plot.

The other point of view character is Clarissa, who grows from a baby to a teenager over the period of the novel. It was never clear how she (or her mother, who got one or two scenes) fit into the novel and this subplot actually distracted me because I thought it was going to go in a completely different direction.

While the characters and story were interesting, they didn’t turn the cover from interesting into compelling until probably the last quarter of the novel. But the writing was compelling from the opening page, and that’s what kept me going even when I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening or how the characters were related.

I didn’t highlight any phrases because it was a paper book … and because if I started highlighting, there would be no way to stop. (Also, because a lot of the brilliant writing was brilliant in context. It doesn’t necessary translate to a simple quote meme).

The writing was literary and clever without being pretentious, and that’s a rare skill.

As such, I think this is a great book for writers to read—not for the plotting, not for the characterisation, not even for the theme. But for the lyrical writing that pulls the reader through the words.

Straight Up by Lisa Samson is a good story for anyone who enjoys Christian women’s fiction featuring messy characters living messy lives. #BookReview #ChristianFiction Share on X

It’s also a good story for anyone who enjoys Christian women’s fiction featuring messy characters living messy lives. Recommended.

About Lisa Samson

The Christy-award winning author of nineteen books including the Women of Faith Novel of the Year Quaker Summer, Lisa Samson has been hailed by Publishers Weekly as “a talented novelist who isn’t afraid to take risks.” She lives in Kentucky with her husband and three kids.

Find Lisa Samson online at:

Website

About Straight Up

They are living lives they were never meant to live.

Georgia Bishop, a could-be jazz great, has thrown away her life, her marriage, and her talent for her drinking habit. Her cousin, Fairly Godfrey, is living the good life in New York but wonders if deeper meaning exists beyond the superficial world in which she finds herself.

It takes a Congo refugee, a soul food chef, a persistent husband, and one desperate night on the brink of freedom for Georgia and Fairly to realize how far they have come from their God-given purposes. When they face the most difficult choices of their lives, only the power of grace can bring them to true healing.

You can find Straight Up online at:

This was originally published in 2011, so you’re probably not going to be able to find a paper copy unless you’re in a second-hand bookstore or visiting a charity book sale (which is where I found my paper copy).

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