Home. What does the word mean to you? Is it a house or a place or a state of belonging somewhere? Or to someone? A particular chair where you curl up to read a book or a dining table where laughter and good food are shared? For me, home always conjures up a time of warmth – happy memories, usually from childhood or times past. It’s unique for each of us, but I’m delighted to report that my friend Courtney Walsh has captured coming home with seasoned prose and grace in her newest novel, A Sweethaven Homecoming.
This week A Sweethaven Homecoming is featured with the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance. Kindly read all the way to the end for my review and a sweet giveaway.
Courtney Walsh is a published author, scrapbooking expert, theatre director and playwright. Her debut novel, A Sweethaven Summer, was released in February, 2012 by Guideposts Books, and will be followed by two additional novels in the series. She has also written two papercrafting books, Scrapbooking Your Faith and The Busy Scrapper and is currently working on her third, The Scrapcrafter’s Idea Book (F&W Publications, February, 2013.)
Courtney has been a contributing editor for Memory Makers Magazine and Children’s Ministry Magazine and is a frequent contributor to Group Publishing curriculum, newsletters and other publications. She has also written several full-length musicals, including her most recent, The Great American Tall Tales and Hercules for Christian Youth Theatre, Chicago. Courtney is a member of ACFW and is the current PR Manager for Webster’s Pages, a scrapbooking manufacturer. She lives in Colorado with her ultra creative husband and three children.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Suzanne’s daughter, Campbell, journeys there in search of answers to her questions about her mother’s history.
Suzanne’s three friends-Lila, Jane, and Meghan-were torn apart by long-buried secrets and heartbreak. Though they haven’t spoken in years, each has pieces of a scrapbook they made together in Sweethaven.Suzanne’s letters have lured them all back to the idyllic lakeside town, where they meet Campbell and begin to remember what was so special about their long Sweethaven summers.
As the scrapbook reveals secrets one by one, old wounds are mended, lives are changed, and friendships are restored-just as Suzanne intended.
If you would like to read the first chapter of A Sweethaven Homecoming, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
There’s so much to love about this novel as childhood friends reunite after a season apart. In this installment, though, the prodigal Meghan, who left and became a country singing phenomenon returns to Sweethaven, broken and desperate to rebuild her life. She’s met with a variety of reactions – skepticism, curiosity, disdain – from her friends and family because of regrettable events from the past. The pull to establish a new relationship with her children and to provide a “home” for them keeps her from fleeing back to Nashville and her old, but empty life. Courtney writes with a fresh new voice in Christian fiction, and I particularly liked the way the characters relationships with one another deepened, and new twists made me anticipate what will happen in the next book. It was a little like coming home myself to familiar warmth, to people who love you in spite of your flaws, and rekindling old ties with tears and laughter and sweet reminiscing. Come home to Sweethaven. You’ll be glad you did.
GIVEAWAY:
Courtney has graciously offered a signed copy of A Sweethaven Homecoming to one of the readers here at Those Were The Days. I love celebrating home and memories and good books, so to get your name in the hat, leave a comment telling me what “home” means to you. I’ll draw for a winner next Monday, August 20. It’s a chance you don’t want to miss. Thanks, Courtney!
Disclaimer:Chances of winning dependent on number of entries. Void where prohibited. US and Canadian residents only.