WANDERING TOO FAR FROM A GIFTED HEART WILL MAKE YOUR WHOLE BODY HURT. Widowed at a young age Julia left everything she has ever known to accompany her brother, Mark, to Wisconsin. Will new surroundings prove to be the answer to healing her heartache? Will her tenuous relationship with her mother be strained beyond repair? Or will their bond grow stronger because of the miles between them?
Darlene Shortridge does a wonderful job in making a novella or short novel complete both with wonderful characters, a great plot, and a strong faith thread. Julie and Bert were great characters. Growing up with a mother who never showed love and always criticized had made Julie lack self-confidence and feel unwanted. Only her brother Mark, her Aunt Midge, and her faith had kept her going. When she feels obligated to return home and try to reconcile with her mother at Thanksgiving, she discovers her mother has breast cancer. This wake up call makes Julie realized that she has to put her hurts aside and try to reconcile with her mother. Roberto "Bert" has feelings for Julie but he is such a romantic as he tries to break through her shell and make her realize what he feels for her. Gallant, romantic, caring, and faith filled, he was the perfect match for Julie. With lots of sweetness, humor, warmth, and faith, this was a delightful, quick, Christmas read.
FAVORITE QUOTES: "The only thing you can control is yourself. How you react to this situation is entirely up to you and it will help shape the woman you are becoming."
"You will answer for your actions. Make them count. No matter what anyone else does, even your mother, you do what's right."
"People are going to die without Jesus. I know it hurts. But people choose where they want to go. They choose to either living knowing Him and loving Him, or running from Him."
"Knowing God can do something and believing God will do something are two different things."
I love Christmas stories and this was a good one. Not all of it took place at Christmas. It started before Thanksgiving. I enjoyed the main character and could connect with her and her feelings.
This was my first book by this author and I knew she wrote Christian books which I enjoy. But sometimes I felt like the religion over powered the actual story. It was a sweet story though and I would like to read more on the characters and what happened after that Christmas day.
If you are looking for a fairly quick read involving Christmas, love, hope, forgiveness and romance set in a very Christian theme, you will enjoy this one.
I read the whole book in one afternoon, only stopping to eat and stretch. It held my interest. The author uses same names/characters in all her books I've read so far, but I think I must have gotten this book out of sequence because I couldn't make some connections. Still it was a good book--good entertainment for a boring afternoon--and worth a cry at the end.
The perfect gift is to be known, loved, and cherished. Darlene Shortridge's book titled, "The Perfect Gift" is a super sweet story on how loving with a pure heart is indeed the most perfect gift we could give one another.
A cute story, with a good message. The main character's faith gets her through hard times--in spite of a heartless mother & other issues she has to deal with. I enjoyed the read, but it isn't one I will re-read. language: clean, heat level: mild
I liked how she was a Christian but didn't get along with her mom ever but flew back to try to make amends to her but her mom never changed and never will and you have to learn to accept that as long as you have Jesus in your life.