Friday, July 13, 2012

Road To The Christy's - Highlight Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin









Book Blurb:
Alice Grace Ripley lives in a dream world, her nose stuck in a book. But the happily-ever-after life she's planned on suddenly falls apart when her boyfriend, Gordon, breaks up with her, accusing her of living in a world of fiction instead of the real world. Then to top it off, Alice loses her beloved job at the library because of cutbacks due to the Great Depression.

Fleeing small-town gossip, Alice heads to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to deliver five boxes of donated books to a library in the tiny coal-mining village of Acorn. Dropped off by her relatives, Alice volunteers to stay for two weeks to help the librarian, Leslie McDougal.

But the librarian turns out to be far different than she anticipated--not to mention the four lady librarians who travel to the remote homes to deliver the much-desired books. When Alice is trapped in Acorn against her will, she soon finds that real-life adventure and mystery--and especially romance--are far better than her humble dreams could have imagined.


If you would like to read the first chapter of  Wonderland Creek, go HERE.
 
Author:


For many years, Lynn Austin nurtured a desire to write but frequent travels and the demands of her growing family postponed her career. When her husband's work took Lynn to Bogota, Colombia, for two years, she used the B.A. she'd earned at Southern Connecticut State University to become a teacher. After returning to the U.S., the Austins moved to Anderson, Indiana, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and later to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
It was during the long Canadian winters at home with her children that Lynn made progress on her dream to write, carving out a few hours of writing time each day while her children napped.
 Lynn credits her early experience of learning to write amid the chaos of family life for her ability to be a productive writer while making sure her family remains her top priority.

Extended family is also very important to Austin, and it was a lively discussion between Lynn, her mother, grandmother (age 98), and daughter concerning the change in women's roles through the generations that sparked the inspiration for her novel Eve's Daughters.

Along with reading, two of Lynn's lifelong passions are history and archaeology. While researching her Biblical fiction series, Chronicles of the Kings, these two interests led her to pursue graduate studies in Biblical Backgrounds and Archaeology through Southwestern Theological Seminary. She and her son traveled to Israel during the summer of 1989 to take part in an archaeological dig at the ancient city of Timnah. This experience contributed to the inspiration for her novel Wings of Refuge.

Lynn resigned from teaching to write full-time in 1992. Since then she has published twelve novels. Five of her historical novels, Hidden Places, Candle in the Darkness, Fire by Night, A Proper Pursuit, and Until We Reach Home have won Christy Awards in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, and 2009 for excellence in Christian Fiction. Fire by Night was also one of only five inspirational fiction books chosen by Library Journal for their top picks of 2003, and All She Ever Wanted was chosen as one of the five inspirational top picks of 2005. Lynn's novel Hidden Places has been made into a movie for the Hallmark Channel, starring actress Shirley Jones. Ms Jones received a 2006 Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Aunt Batty in the film.

My Thoughts: 
Alice Grace is a girl after my own heart! She loves books, and reading. She goes to a funeral to honor a gentleman who came to the library that she works at in her town of Blue Island, Ill. During the funeral when different people from the community were giving their eulogies which we all know can drag on and be boring she pulled a book out of her bag and started reading. Her boyfriend, Gordon was so appalled he wouldn't speak to her and ended up breaking up with her. To escape the "talk" of the town over Gordon's break-up she decides to go with her aunt and uncle to the coal mining community of Kentucky and deliver books that she has collected for
them. She was in contact with the librarian from the town there, Leslie. When she arrives she finds that Leslie is not who she thought her to be. Leslie was a man . . and he had Alice all a fumbled mess. Gordon accused Alice of living a fantasy world within her books, when Leslie the librarian is shot she has to start doing what she's only read about in books.
This book had me rolling with laughter just reading the first chapter! It will definitely make my top books for 2011! A must read!

1 comment:

Jessica said...

This book sounds great - thanks for bringing it to my attention! Alice's love for books is endearing.

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