"Sarah's Legacy" by Daisy Beiler Townsend ... and a GIVEAWAY!

Daisy has graciously offered to give away an electronic copy of this new release. You can enter by using the Rafflecopter link at the end of the post. (Giveaway ends April 6, 2018. If you are the randomly chosen winner, I'll contact you and pass on your information.) Here's Daisy...

The story behind the story...

In 1998, we researched the history of our home in Sandy Lake, built around 1860. The husband of a ninety-year-old friend of mine had grown up in our house from the age of ten, and she added more information to the history we'd found. I was so intrigued that I decided to write a historical fiction novel based on the lives of some of the former residents. I wrote 21 1/2 chapters, and then put my manuscript away in a box when my counseling ministry became too busy. A few years later, God called us to Japan as missionaries. A few years after returning home in 2011, I published my first book, Homespun Faith, an autobiographical devotional. People began asking me what I would write next. I pulled out Sarah's Legacy to decide if I should finish it. After reading what I'd written sixteen years earlier, I told my husband, "I have to finish this book so I can find out what happens!" After three years of writing, critiques, and rewriting, Sarah's Legacy is finally finished.

My review...

Eighteen-year-old Polly Dye is struggling to find the balance between pleasing her mother and keeping her boyfriend Garrett happy. Things get even more challenging when her family moves into a new house that chills Polly from the moment she first steps inside. She discovers a diary which was apparently hidden by the previous owner. It belonged to someone named Sarah Davis and is over one hundred years old. Polly hopes the diary will shed some light on the many questions she has about the house. As life’s circumstances unfold, Polly finds it hard to keep her faith intact, even though Sarah seemed to stay strong in the storms she encountered. How will God use Sarah’s journal in Polly’s life?

This is the first book in the “Sarah’s Legacy” series. The author weaves the dual stories together in a way that has the events unfolding in a natural manner. The characters demonstrate that life’s storms can be survived with the help of God’s grace and lessons from the past. At the beginning, there are a number of characters introduced in a short period of time, making it a bit confusing to follow, but that balances out as the story goes on. There are minor editing issues, but they do not significantly distract from the overall enjoyment of the story. This is the first in the series, so it will be interesting to see what happens to Polly and her family.

One for my favorite quotes from the story: “Will we allow ourselves to be molded, shaped, and changed into the image of Christ by our pain, or will we become brittle, hard, and easily shattered by the tragedies we encounter?”

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy, but I wasn’t required to leave a positive review.

Amazon link for purchase

About Daisy...

Daisy Beiler Townsend has been writing and publishing in magazines and periodicals for more than thirty-five years. Researching the history of their home in Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, in 1998 led to beginning a historical novel inspired by the lives of former residents of their home in the late 19th-early 20th century. In 2014, Daisy published her first book, Homespun Faith, an autobiographical devotional, and then completed Sarah's Legacy. She and her husband Donn live in Pennsylvania and have three children and six grandchildren.

Where you can find her online...

Website:       http://www.homespunfaith.com/

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/DaisyBeilerTownsend/

Twitter:        https://twitter.com/DaisyDonaisy

Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/daisybeilertownsend/

a Rafflecopter giveaway