Disordered Eating
Book 1
Review:
What a wonderful, meaningful story about people and the demons they fight. I loved the parallels of good & evil throughout the book.
Holly Burgess
SUMMARY:
Colette Tolliver, Amanda Barnes and Jilleen Calderon are an unlikely alliance.
Discipline rescued Colette from a desperate childhood, but she remains unfulfilled. Mandy lacks nothing financially yet yearns for the thing that escapes her: motherhood. Gripped by years of emotional pain, Jilleen struggles daily and has considered ending it all.
Their lives intersect at a single point: disordered eating.
A dash of racism, a sprinkle of religious tradition and a generous helping of dysfunctional families advance the issue. Witness the spiritual conflict behind the story as each woman travels her own road to healing.
Will they listen to the voice that drives them or the One who offers deliverance?
EXCERPT
Rooted in place and afraid to move, the weeping girl crouches, placing her hands over her ears to block out the menace.
His roar ceases. She plays possum for a while, until her back aches and her legs begin to tremble from holding the position. She lowers her hands and stands slowly- inch by inch, her head cocked to one side, straining to hear.
The room is silent. With eyes closed and pulse pounding, the brave girl takes a deep breath and lunges for the door. She doesn’t make it.
When the screeching at last ends, she is sprawled on the cold tile, whimpering softly. Her hands are aching, glad to be released from their grip on the commode. Her stomach hasn’t quite settled; an occasional rumble has her fearful of a second round. He speaks again, softly this time. Though he feigns concern, the girl can’t misread the scornful mocking in his voice.
Doesn’t that feel better?
available in eBook and print
Book 2
Review:
This is a great read. I was hooked with the introduction and was drawn in further with each page. You can genuinely feel each character's struggle with issues that are very current today.
Sharon H.
SUMMARY
Pastor Vicente Calderon’s life is in a tailspin. Despite his vocational success, personal matters leave him questioning all he’s come to believe. His sister Jilleen has a similar burden. Joy over recovery from a serious illness is tempered as she struggles with guilt and religious tradition. After years of infertility, Amanda Barnes is finally going to be a mother. Why isn’t she happy?
Miranda Morris is the counselor guiding the trio as she battles her own issues.
Generational darkness and fear are no match against the never-ending power and freedom of grace. Whose report will they believe? ** Story topic: sexual abuse **
EXCERPT
Mandy sat on the edge of the tub, gazing at the two blue lines recorded in the pregnancy test. Positive. What she’d wanted for years was finally happening.
Her maternity track record was somber. There were numerous false alarms- gestations born purely of an eager heart. When the little girl who briefly set up home in Mandy’s womb returned to her heavenly Father on the dawn of her ninth week, the departure affected Mandy’s body and mind. Her eventual physical recovery did not heal the self-blame and drifting from God.
“We need Him more than ever, babe,” Steve whispered, while assuring her that the miscarriage wasn’t punishment for years of disordered eating. She struggled to believe him. As she considered the current glad tidings, a whispered melancholy enveloped the mother-to-be.
Your baby will die.
available in eBook and print
Book 3
Review:
A powerful book exploring the depths of the human soul. This is a tale with many twists and turns leading to an emotional avalanche to the end............or is it the end?
Susan Heely
SUMMARY
“If anything ever happens to you, you tell God, then you tell me.”
One would think this declaration made to young Christopher Best would foster love and protection. It doesn’t. It merely reminds him of a horrible night he’d rather forget.
Growing up, Chris struggled to reconcile the duality he witnesses in his pastor father, his demure mother and members of their church. Following his father into the ministry amplifies his issues. Apathy and rebellion, advanced by a spirit committed to his destruction, pushes Chris to the breaking point.
The promise of heaven and the snare of hell collide as Chris is called upon to make a spiritual decision. How will he answer?
EXCERPT
A loud noise snatched him from slumber. He sprang up with a start, heart pounding, eyes scanning the dark bedroom. The eight year old craned his head sideways- listening, expecting. He sat upright a few seconds more, until the quietness convinced him it had only been a dream.
Exhaling a sigh of relief, he turned to adjust his pillow for the journey back to sleep when a primal scream pierced the darkness. It was his mother’s voice- anguished and pleading. Next came his father’s slurred threat, followed by another sound he recognized: flesh striking flesh.
Like lightning, the boy charged into the living room. He found his parents, both with red faces- hers from tears and bearing the wrath of her husband’s hand, his from alcohol, privilege and generations of misogyny. Both turned when he entered.
available in eBook and print