Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Finding Yourself, Becoming a Writer and Romance

Samantha feels awkward around other people. She's never quite sure how to respond to them so she hides behind quotes from her favorite Jane Austen characters. She worked hard to put herself through college and thought she had found a way to escape from Grace House, a home for orphans. She wants to be on her own. But when she gets fired from her job, she lands back at Grace House.

Luckily a scholarship to allow her to attend graduate school is still available. Now Sam decides to take the challenge and apply to the Medill Journalism School at Northwestern University. However, there are strings attached. Mr. Knightly, whose foundation grants the scholarship, wants her to write to him. He won't write back, but she has to keep him abreast of how she's doing. The letters provide an outlet and also chart her progress in learning to keep from pushing people away and make friends.

I enjoyed the book. If you feel awkward in social situations, or are interested in becoming a writer, you'll appreciate this book. Sam's insights about herself are things I can relate to,
and I suspect others can also.

Although reading letters, can become wearing, the author did a good job of providing long stretches of description and dialog as part of the letters which provided a change of pace that kept me reading.

My one disappointment with the book was the ending. After Sam's struggles, I thought it wrapped things up too neatly. It wasn't a bad ending. You could see it coming, but it seemed weak after the tone of the rest of the book.

I reviewed this book for the Thomas Nelson Booksneeze Program.



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