This week a writing friend, Christina Suzann Nelson, offered her first story If We Make It Home to the reading world. I had purchased an advanced copy at a summer conference and have read the work. If you want to sit on the edge of your seat, hyperventilating, this is the book for you.
The story involves three women who were roommates in college, who return to the house where they once lived for a reunion and final goodbye. One woman is a university professor, the second a nationally televised women’s ministry leader, and the third a mother of three. When they meet after twenty-five years, life has taken them different directions and they no longer have anything in common.
To rekindle their friendship they decide to share a wilderness backpacking trip together. As the story unfolds, and one disaster after another finds them, they struggle with the physical demands of the environment they have chosen. As they realize this adventure may bring them face to face with death, each must examine her inner conflicts as well. The spiritual journeys of the three women is as heartbreaking as the dangers they face.
The story reminded me of the book of Job in which everything of value to Job is lost and he comes face to face with his creator. Job cries out for answers. He senses God is at work in his life, yet God does not answer. Job begins to wonder if God is really there. When God speaks, (Job 38:1-3), he reminds Job of who He is: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” Job has been set straight.
As the three women come to terms with their battles, they also arrive at the point of questioning God. The reader will make the trip with them and won’t be able to put the story down. Do they survive? That’s for you to discover.
The novel is available on Amazon and is published by Kregel.
Thank you! I’m so thrilled that you read my book.