"While her humanitarian husband Liam has been digging wells in Africa, Mara Jacobs has been struggling. She knows she's supposed to feel a warm glow that her husband is nine time zones away, caring for widows and orphans. But the reality is that she is exhausted, working a demanding yet unrewarding job, trying to manage their three detention-prone kids, failing at her to-repair list, and fading like a garment left too long in the sun.
Then Liam's three-year absence turns into something more, changing everything and plunging her into a sunless grief. As Mara struggles to find her footing, she discovers that even when hope is tenuous, faith is fragile, and the future is unknown, we can be sure we are not forgotten . . . or unloved.
With emotionally evocative prose that tackles tough topics with tenderness and hope, award-winning author Cynthia Ruchti invites you on a journey of the heart you won't soon forget."
This was well written, but such a hard read. So much sorrow, with an even greater amount of healing. But, oh, the sorrow. And yet, amidst the sorrow, the author did a phenomenal job of pointing the reader to the only true Healer.
"I can't know the end of my story, God. And I have to be okay with that, don't I? But I know your heart. Verse-verse-verse Redemption. Sorrow-sorrow-sorrow-Jesus."
Mara starts out as bitter as she believes her name implies, but just as the story of her biblical namesake, she finds love and healing in the people who still surround her and teach her that life is still worth living, and there is still hope to be found.
4 stars; the hope within was beautiful, but it was almost too hard for me to read.
You can find Facing the Dawn HERE.
You can find the author HERE.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.
