Lisa Wingate in some ways is a pretty great storyteller. But in other ways her attention to detail is over the top. While muddling through The Prayer Box I was about to give up on her, but then the story really pulled me in so I decided I would overlook her superfluous ways and just focus on the story at hand.
This series walks us from the beginning of meeting the people at Sandy's Seashell Shop and gently winds around to some of the people affected by sweet and crazy Sandy. Besides the fact they live at the beach, I am more than a little jealous of the group of ladies in the Seashell Club.
The Sea Glass Sisters: Prelude to The
Prayer Box
Elizabeth Gallagher has been balancing on the
ragged edge for a while now. Then a rough case on the boards of her 911
operator’s job collides with a family conflict at home, and Elizabeth finds
herself finally coming apart at the seams. A four-state road trip—trapped in a
car with her mother—is the last thing she needs. Their destination may be
beautiful Hatteras Island, but the reason for going is anything by pleasant.
After one disastrous hurricane, and with a second one working its way up the
coast, it’s time to convince Aunt Sandy to abandon her little seaside store on
North Carolina’s Outer Banks and return to the family fold in Michigan. But
when the storm sweeps through, the three women will discover that sisterhood
and the sea can change hearts, lives, and futures . . . often in the most
unpredictable of ways. (picture and description at amazon)
The Prayer Box
When Iola Anne Poole, an old-timer on Hatteras
Island, passes away in her bed at ninety-one, the struggling young mother in
her rental cottage, Tandi Jo Reese, finds herself charged with the task of
cleaning out Iola's rambling Victorian house. Running from a messy, dangerous past, Tandi
never expects to find more than a temporary hiding place within Iola's walls,
but everything changes with the discovery of eighty-one carefully decorated
prayer boxes, one for each year, spanning from Iola's youth to her last days.
Hidden in the boxes is the story of a lifetime, written on random bits of
paper--the hopes and wishes, fears and thoughts of an unassuming but complex
woman passing through the seasons of an extraordinary, unsung life filled with
journeys of faith, observations on love, and one final lesson that could change
everything. (picture and description at amazon)
Tandi Reese and her sister, Gina, have always
been bound by complicated ties. Amid the rubble of a difficult childhood lie
memories of huddling beneath beds and behind sofas while parental wars raged.
Sisterhood was safety . . . once. But now? Faced with legal papers for a fraud
she didn't commit, Tandi suspects that her sister has done something
unthinkable. With Tandi's wedding just around the corner, a trip to the North
Carolina Tidewater for a reckoning with Gina was not part of the plan. But
unraveling lies from truth will require confronting strained sibling bonds and
uncovering a dark family secret that could free Tandi from her past or stain
her future forever. (picture and description at amazon)
Happy Reading!
O:)
Melissa
