The Wedding Shop by Rachel Hauck is a mysterious historical story within a story.

I love historical fiction. Sometimes, I do want a sappy love story to just lose myself in. This novel has two – a modern one and a flashback to an earlier time, during the Great Depression. And wouldn’t you know it – they’re all connected.

I started out a little disappointed in the writing. The plot was fine, moving along, though predictable. There were some editing issues and I had trouble with some modifiers, rereading several sentences to make sense of them.

More than halfway through, there are some fun surprises – twists and turns that are delightful and unexpected.

I was a little put off by the kissing scenes. They made me roll my eyes a bit.

The dialogue was stilted in many places, full of exaggerated Southern euphemisms and clichés.

I felt the ending was rushed, missing out important resolutions that left me wondering and could have easily been wrapped up with a few more pages of dialogue.

Overall, the book was interesting and offered hope, redemption, forgiveness. I look forward to the others in the series.

Book Description:

From The New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Dress and The Wedding Chapel comes The Wedding Shop.

Two women separated by decades. Both set out to help others find their dreams when their own have crumbled.

It’s the early 1930s, but Cora Scott is walking in stride as a career woman after having inherited her great aunt’s wedding shop in Heart’s Bend, Tennessee, where brides come from as far away as Birmingham to experience her famed bridal treatment. Meanwhile, Cora is counting down the days until her own true love returns from the river to make her his bride. But days turn into months and months to years. All the while, Birch Good continues to woo Cora and try to show her that while he is solid and dependable, he can sweep her off her feet.

More than eighty years later, former Air Force Captain Haley Morgan has returned home to Heart’s Bend after finishing her commitment to military service. After the devastating death of her best friend, Tammy, and discovering the truth about the man she loved, Haley is searching for her place in life.

When Haley decides to reopen the romantic but abandoned wedding shop where she and Tammy played and dreamed as children, she begins a journey of courage, mystery, and love.

As Cora’s and Haley’s stories intertwine through time in the shadow of the beloved wedding shop, they both discover the power of their own dreams and the magic of everyday love.

About the Author:

Rachel Hauck is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author.

A graduate of Ohio State University with a degree in Journalism, Rachel and her husband live in central Florida. She is a huge Buckeyes football fan.

Visit her at www.rachelhauck.com or www.facebook.com/rachelhauck

I just love Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle.

My review:

I recommend this book to any writer or artist, anyone in the creative world.

This book is not just for artists. This book is about creating, and the connections between faith and art. Anyone who appreciates the creative will be touched by this book.

This book is more than a devotional. It’s more than a writing manual. It’s not just an inspirational journey.

It’s not biblical doctrine. It’s the summation of a writer wrestling with God and the world and revealing what she’s learned from decades of experience.

Within twelve little meditations, we are encouraged to strive to be more than we are, because God calls us to be. We are encouraged to use our intuition and imagination, to trust and believe. We are exhorted to be vulnerable and love, love, love. We are reminded that none of us is qualified but only to give God glory.

Some of my favorite quotes:

Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability… To be alive is to be vulnerable.

But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career.

We don’t want to feel less when we have finished a book; we want to feel that new possibilities of being have been opened to us. We don’t want to close a book with a sense that life is totally unfair and that there is no light in the darkness; we want to feel that we have been given illumination.

About the Book:

In this classic book, Madeleine L’Engle addresses the questions, What does it mean to be a Christian artist? and What is the relationship between faith and art? Through L’Engle’s beautiful and insightful essay, readers will find themselves called to what the author views as the prime tasks of an artist: to listen, to remain aware, and to respond to creation through one’s own art.

About the Author:

Madeleine L’Engle was the author of more than forty-five books for all ages, among them the beloved A Wrinkle in Time, awarded the Newbery Medal; A Ring of Endless Light, a Newbery Honor Book; A Swiftly Tilting Planet,winner of the American Book Award; and the Austin family series of which Troubling a Star is the fifth book. L’Engle was named the 1998 recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards award, honoring her lifetime contribution in writing for teens. Read More About the Author.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.