Book Review - To Know You

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Julia Whittaker's rocky past yielded two daughters, both given up for adoption as infants. Now she must find them to try to save her son.

Julia and Matt Whittaker's son has beaten the odds for thirteen years only to have the odds---and his liver---crash precipitously. The only hope for his survival is a "living liver" transplant, but the transplant list is long and Dillon's time is short. His two older half-sisters, born eighteen months apart to two different fathers, offer his only hope for survival.

But can Julia ask a young woman---someone she surrendered to strangers long ago and has never spoken with---to make such a sacrifice to save a brother she's never known? Can she muster the courage to journey back into a shame-filled season of her life, face her choices and their consequences, and find any hope of healing?

And what if she discovers in her own daughters' lives that a history of foolish choices threatens to repeat itself? Julia knows she's probably embarking on a fool's errand---searching for the daughters she abandoned only now that she needs something from them. But love compels Julia to take this journey. Can grace and forgiveness compel her daughters to join her?

In To Know You, Shannon Ethridge and Kathryn Mackel explore how the past creates the present . . . and how even the most shattered lives can be redeemed.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Shannon Ethridge is a best-selling author, speaker, and certified life coach with a master's degree in counseling/human relations from Liberty University. She has spoken to college students and adults since 1989 and is the author of 21 books, including the million-copy best-selling Every Woman's Battle series. She is a frequent guest on TV and radio programs and mentors aspiring writers and speakers through her BLAST Program (Building Leaders, Authors, Speakers & Teachers.)

Learn more about Shannon: http://www.shannonethridge.com

Kathryn Mackel is a best-selling author and acclaimed screenwriter for Disney and Fox. She was on the screenwriting team for Left Behind: The Movie, and Frank Peretti's Hangman's Curse. She is the acclaimed author of "The Surrogate", "The Departed", and "The Hidden" and resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with her husband.

Learn more about Kathryn: http://www.kathrynmackel.com

MY REVIEW:

This is one of the best books I've ever had the privilege to read - seriously! The storyline was so unusual and I really loved how they wove the faith of these different characters into the story. It was real and it really spoke to my heart.

Julia is a woman with a past that haunts her. She gave up two baby girls for adoption when she was young and unwed. The men she chose to be with were not who she thought they were. Now she's married to a wonderful man, who loves God and her, and they have a son that is terminally sick and needs a liver transplant. They have exhausted every means of finding a donor and she is now forced to seek out her daughters, who are grown now, to see if they match her son and can save his life.

Destiny is her oldest daughter. She grabs life with both hands and is an artist in Hollywood. When Julia meets her, she is in the process of throwing her boyfriends things out of her apartment onto the ground below because he is now a Christian who wants to live the right kind of life. Destiny grew up a Christian, but she doesn't trust them and wants nothing to do with them.

Chloe is her youngest daughter, who at 22, seems to have life all figured out. She's married to a man who has their life all mapped out and scheduled. Chloe goes along with whatever her husband and mother want her to do. Meeting Julia is definitely not in their plan and they start off on a rocky start.

Destiny and Chloe become fast friends and have one demand of their birth mother. This demand takes them cross country where they have all kinds of adventures - good and bad. All during this, Julia's mind is never far from her son, Dillon. She knows that he needs a transplant soon and wants to be with him, but to do that, she must go along with Destiny and Chloe.

This book is fast paced and you just never know where it's going to take you next. There are some shocking revelations and I love how the authors chose to show what grace, redemption, and love really are all about. I also liked how they characters changed and grew as they got to know each other. The surprise ending will have you in tears. In the last part of the book, I never had a tissue box too far away. I wiped away sad tears and happy tears and this story just touched me in such a profound way! I really didn't want it to end! Happily, there were some sample pages from the next book in this series - yippee! I can't wait to read it! If you only read one novel this year, it should be this one!

*This book was provided to me by LitFuse Publicity Group

Blessings - Julie