Rating: 
Summary: Christian Book Previews
Review: <i>The Salt Garden</i> by Cindy Martinusen is a beautifully woven story of three women: Claire is young, and unsure of where her life is leading her; Sophia is a reclusive author who is questioning love and loss, and the choices she made so long ago; Josephine is a widow from a hundred years earlier, whose ship sank under mysterious circumstances.
The story unravels the mystery around the ship, as revealed through Josephine's recently discovered diary. Claire and Sophia are searching for answers independently, but Sophia's fears keep her in seclusion. They learn from Josephine's words as well as each other when God intersects their lives on a treacherous Pacific shoreline. Marinusen's language is almost poetic in its beauty. She brings the truth of God's love to life within the pages of The Salt Garden. It's a book to be savored and lingered over. I highly recommend it. -- <b>Mary Connealy, Christian Book Previews.com</b>
Rating:
Summary: The Salt Garden
Review: Cindy Martinusen writes another can't put down book. The story is enchanting like spending a day solving mysteries at the beach. The characters are so real you want to sit down and share a cup of coffee with them.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful read!
Review: Cindy Martinusen's newest book, The Salt Garden, is a tale of three women whose lives impact one another, each in a different, but substantial way. I was pleased to be able to buy this book even before it was "technically" released because I attended an author night at a local college where Cindy was a speaker. (She is an excellent speaker, by the way!) After Cindy read the opening - where we meet Sophia - I could not wait to get started. And, as I expected, it was a page turner from first to last. Also a serene read, it is one to be savored. Cindy's amazing desciptions of the small coastal town where the story takes place made me want to go there, even though it is a mythical spot. Her beautiful, moving details of the sea made me feel the wind whip through my hair and the waves bounce beneath my feet. The story kept my interest and I had to keep myself from looking ahead to see what happened. It is told in multiple first person from three points of view: Claire - a young writer who returns home, not planning to stay; Sophia - a reclusive novelist who finds the world's pain too much to bear; and Josephine - a woman who, through her journal, reaches to the others from the grave. And it is Josephine, who is the catalyst that causes Sophia and Claire to reach beyond themselves, beyond their comfort zones, toward relationship. The Salt Garden is the kind of book to take to that quiet place when everything is still. Then, with feet snuggled up and a cup of steaming Earl Grey nearby, open the covers, experience and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful read!
Review: Cindy Martinusen's newest book, The Salt Garden, is a tale of three women whose lives impact one another, each in a different, but substantial way. I was pleased to be able to buy this book even before it was "technically" released because I attended an author night at a local college where Cindy was a speaker. (She is an excellent speaker, by the way!) After Cindy read the opening - where we meet Sophia - I could not wait to get started. And, as I expected, it was a page turner from first to last. Also a serene read, it is one to be savored. Cindy's amazing desciptions of the small coastal town where the story takes place made me want to go there, even though it is a mythical spot. Her beautiful, moving details of the sea made me feel the wind whip through my hair and the waves bounce beneath my feet. The story kept my interest and I had to keep myself from looking ahead to see what happened. It is told in multiple first person from three points of view: Claire - a young writer who returns home, not planning to stay; Sophia - a reclusive novelist who finds the world's pain too much to bear; and Josephine - a woman who, through her journal, reaches to the others from the grave. And it is Josephine, who is the catalyst that causes Sophia and Claire to reach beyond themselves, beyond their comfort zones, toward relationship. The Salt Garden is the kind of book to take to that quiet place when everything is still. Then, with feet snuggled up and a cup of steaming Earl Grey nearby, open the covers, experience and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best book
Review: I wasn't too impressed with this book. There seemed to be a lot of different story lines, and I didn't see where they all
converged.
There was Claire, returning back to her hometown, getting used to small town life after spending time in the
bigger city. There was Sophia, who is reclusive for many years after losing Philip, her love. There are the underlying
feelings between Ben and Sophia, and the struggle for Sophia to let Ben leave the island and her. There was Josephine and
her story, which was anticlimatic. And there was Claire's brother, on the run for "kidnapping" the child of the woman he
loved, who died at the hands of an abusive ex.
Any of the above storylines may have been interesting in and of themselves. But there were so many things going on that it was hard for me to see what the story was trying to get across.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent, grace-filled work
Review: If you're looking for a novel that will challenge your thinking, I recommend "The Salt Garden." Cindy Martinusen has written a novel that makes you examine your faith--for the purpose of deepening it. Here are some examples:
"If only grace came without the need for it."
"There is something fearful in revealing our true selves, allowing others to peer intimately inside. It takes such trust, and none of us is completely trustworthy."
"The past is like a coat I put on every morning, defining me in many ways."
If a book doesn't make me think more deeply about life, God and who I am, it's not worth my time. That's what I loved about Martinusen's book.
I also thought her multiple first person narrators were an interesting trio. I related a lot to Claire, the city news reporter who goes home to her small town with an inflated view of her importance. We all need to learn we're wrong about others and life sometimes.
I highly recommend "The Salt Garden."
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent, grace-filled work
Review: If you're looking for a novel that will challenge your thinking, I recommend "The Salt Garden." Cindy Martinusen has written a novel that makes you examine your faith--for the purpose of deepening it. Here are some examples:
"If only grace came without the need for it."
"There is something fearful in revealing our true selves, allowing others to peer intimately inside. It takes such trust, and none of us is completely trustworthy."
"The past is like a coat I put on every morning, defining me in many ways."
If a book doesn't make me think more deeply about life, God and who I am, it's not worth my time. That's what I loved about Martinusen's book.
I also thought her multiple first person narrators were an interesting trio. I related a lot to Claire, the city news reporter who goes home to her small town with an inflated view of her importance. We all need to learn we're wrong about others and life sometimes.
I highly recommend "The Salt Garden."
Rating:
Summary: Mystery Wrapped in Beauty
Review: Martinusen is an underappreciated author. In the past, she's woven thoughtful suspense stories around WWII secrets; she's crafted characters we care for and can't forget. Here, in "The Salt Garden," she tries a different angle--with remarkable results.
Less overtly suspenseful, yet full of mystery and secrets, this book takes us into the hearts and minds of three women--a modern, frustrated reporter; a reclusive, elderly novelist; and a deceased journal writer. The threads of these women's stories intertwine, then pull tighter and tighter as more facts come to light. The pages are filled with beautiful imagery and thought-provoking introspection. Martinusen shows her skill, letting each character have a voice distinctly her own.
I believe Cindy Martinusen has many more tales to tell. Her heart for God, her struggle with the issues of life, and her honesty in the midst of it all lend weight to her words and emotion to each of her stories. More readers should take notice!
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining spiritual character study
Review: San Francisco News & Review reporter Claire O'Rourke is coming home to visit mom for a day when her car breaks down. Too dark to walk, Claire spend the night in her car. At dawn cold and dying for a Starbucks, Claire begins her walk towards Harper's Bay. Her trek enables her to meet her childhood idol septuagenarian author Sophia Fleming. Sophia has spent three decades hidden from everyone except for her only friend Ben Wilson, who refuses to allow her to become a total recluse. However, Ben sadly informs Sophia that his son wants him to move away and live with him; Sophia feels depressed that her only connection to the world might leave. Ben also gives Sophia a salt watered journal that apparently came ashore from the nearby salvaging of the wreckage of the Josephine. The book contains the diary entries of Josephine Vanderook, a passenger in 1933 on the Josephine when it went down. Claire and Sophia forge a friendship over dreams, the journal, and their different paths to God. This is an entertaining character study that rotates narration between the two modern day women and the journal entries of Josephine. The story line enables the reader to contrast the trio. Claire has had an unwavering constant belief in God; Sophia found the healing of God after a tragedy left her practically a hermit; Finally Josephine in her shortened life marveled at the miracles God had provided her. Though San Francisco is portrayed as modern day Sodom while Harper's Bay is Eden (with a serpent) fans of contemporary Christian literature will appreciate this deep look at the paths of faith. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: entertaining spiritual character study
Review: San Francisco News & Review reporter Claire O'Rourke is coming home to visit mom for a day when her car breaks down. Too dark to walk, Claire spend the night in her car. At dawn cold and dying for a Starbucks, Claire begins her walk towards Harper's Bay. Her trek enables her to meet her childhood idol septuagenarian author Sophia Fleming. Sophia has spent three decades hidden from everyone except for her only friend Ben Wilson, who refuses to allow her to become a total recluse. However, Ben sadly informs Sophia that his son wants him to move away and live with him; Sophia feels depressed that her only connection to the world might leave. Ben also gives Sophia a salt watered journal that apparently came ashore from the nearby salvaging of the wreckage of the Josephine. The book contains the diary entries of Josephine Vanderook, a passenger in 1933 on the Josephine when it went down. Claire and Sophia forge a friendship over dreams, the journal, and their different paths to God. This is an entertaining character study that rotates narration between the two modern day women and the journal entries of Josephine. The story line enables the reader to contrast the trio. Claire has had an unwavering constant belief in God; Sophia found the healing of God after a tragedy left her practically a hermit; Finally Josephine in her shortened life marveled at the miracles God had provided her. Though San Francisco is portrayed as modern day Sodom while Harper's Bay is Eden (with a serpent) fans of contemporary Christian literature will appreciate this deep look at the paths of faith. Harriet Klausner
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