Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: Heavy duty "Christian" theology; light-weight characters Review: Someone in my book group picked this book, and boy am I disappointed. I got through the Letitia section all right, and then the real preaching began. W.Publishing Group does nothing but "Inspirational" books. I consider myself spiritual, but I gagged on the piety and stereotyped characters. A spinster school teacher fulfilled by her students? The unwed mother rescued by the selfless restaurant owner after being taken advantage of by a Hollywood producer? Nasty untrustworthy men and the horrible rich! The poor Presbyterians geally get slammed in this book. Religious soap opera in print.
Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: Heavy duty "Christian" theology; light-weight characters Review: Someone in my book group picked this book, and boy am I disappointed. I got through the Letitia section all right, and then the real preaching began. W.Publishing Group does nothing but "Inspirational" books. I consider myself spiritual, but I gagged on the piety and stereotyped characters. A spinster school teacher fulfilled by her students? The unwed mother rescued by the selfless restaurant owner after being taken advantage of by a Hollywood producer? Nasty untrustworthy men and the horrible rich! The poor Presbyterians geally get slammed in this book. Religious soap opera in print.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Questions and Answers and Little in Between Review: The premise of this book is great: What happens when we chase our dreams and they don't come true? Where is God in the middle of it all? The lessons of this book are heartfelt: Even in our trials, even through the detours and hardships, God's plans can bear fruit in our lives. Our dreams sometimes come true in unexpected ways. Stokes starts the story strongly, following the lives of four women and their dreams, as discovered through the eyes of a disenchanted reporter. The stories fit seamlessly together and the characters come to life through Stokes' writing. Here's my complaint: Just as I became involved in the difficult questions facing each character, the story-line would make a huge jump and tack on the lesson each had learned through the years. The lessons and the questions were realistic; however, I would've appreciated seeing the wrestling of each personality through those difficult years. That wrestling process is implied and hinted at, but the answers seem almost trite when we are robbed of the entire story. I'm looking forward to reading Stokes' next book. She can write and she has a story to tell. I only hope that this time she shows me the whole story, instead of telling me the lessons.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Story about friendship, life's lessons, and growing up Review: This book is about four high school girls that are friends and have grown up together. They get together in one of their attics and made a time-capsule, of sorts, by writing their dreams down on paper and inserting them into a blue bottle. They "hide" this bottle in the rafters of the attic and essentially forgot about it because of major life events in all of their lives. The bottle was discovered when the demolition crew started tearing the house down over 3 decades later. This story shows how the depression affected different families in very different ways, all being very traumatic. This book deals with lost dreams, suicide, mental depression and breakdown, lost love, realized dreams, forgiveness, fake Christians, and so much more. I enjoyed this book because it made me realize how sometimes we take our eyes off of what's important and when that happens, everything gets cofused and doesn't seem to gel right. This book also educated me, in a way, about the stock market crash and the depression. Very enjoyable eventhough sad at times....but isn't that how life is?
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