by Julie Cantrell
I love {LOVE} my Kindle Fire and the freebies I am able to score with my Amazon Prime membership. I was lucky enough to download a novel {for free} by a new author to the fiction genre. Julie Cantrell has written an amazing book with her new release 'Into the Free'.
I had difficulty reading this book at times, yet I didn't want to put it down. Julie Cantrell made my heart wretch with Millie's pain. As a young teenage girl, Millie, suffers heartache and despair due to alcohol abuse and the unrelenting anger of her father and the drug abuse and deep depression experienced by her mother. With her father often on the road with the rodeo, his absence {both a gift and a curse} leaves Millie the one to parent her mother.
The story follows Millie's heartbreaks and triumphs before and after the death of both of her parents. This book keeps the pages turning with family secrets, wisdom from a old gypsy lady, whispers in her ear from a long gone elderly neighbor, and love. It ends with forgiveness and hope for a once lost soul. It's not over done, it's done just right.
A few of my favorite quotes from the book as Millie struggles to find herself in the midst of chaos:
“For years, I have searched and searched for this God. This feeling of complete love and acceptance. He was always out of reach. But here, where food is scare, money is tight, heat is heavy and tensions should run high, God is everywhere. Just as during the night around the gypsy fire, I am mesmerized by watching people who are truly happy. At peace. Kind. Grateful.”
“Maybe God doesn't care if we get all dressed up and sit in the pew every Sunday, as Diana believes. Instead, maybe God comes to us through men like Sloth, watching over us as we make our own decisions. Maybe God has always been with me. Opening doors, leading me to opportunities, letting me choose my own path, and loving me even when I chose the wrong one. Never giving up on me. Knowing all along that I am on a journey. That I must find my own way to Him. Maybe River was rights. Maybe God does still believe in me.”
Julie Cantrell more than delivers on her first novel. A sequel is to follow at some point, I'm anxious to see where Millie goes in life with the hope she had at the end of this book!
