Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Lisa Wingate Carolina Chronicles, books #21-23



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)

The Tidewater Sisters: Postlude to The Prayer Box 

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

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