Review: Out of the Ashes by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse

Okay, as you might have picked up by now.... when I have too many feelings for a book, I find it necessary to use an official blurb from the back of the book.

After the death of their father, Collette and Jean-Michel Langelier are no longer tied to post-war France. While his sister dreams of adventure, Jean-Michel is hoping to finally escape reminders of the horrors he faced in the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925. When an unexpected invitation for them to visit Alaska and the Curry Hotel arrives, it seems like the perfect opportunity.

Young window Katherine Demarchis is also traveling to the foot of Mt. Denali with her grandmother-a last trip before she retreats into a quiet and solitary life, finally free of the dangerous husband she was forced to marry. Yet when she encounters there a Frenchman from her past, her plans for the future are thrown into question.

Both haunted by the violence of their pasts, can Katherine and Jean-Michel rediscover the bond they once had? Or, when Jean-Michel's nightmares return with terrifying consequences, will it be impossible to heal what's been broken for so long?

(Apologies in advance for my excitement for this book, which will come through in a rainbow of text colors. It's exuberant, but I'm excited and it's my blog anywho!)

Shall I start with the obvious, and by that I mean, 5 stars for a book that I only put down because I wanted to keep my job and not fail my classes! Alright, let's get started. Ummm.... hello!?!?! ALASKA!!!! This is my happy place in books. It's wonderful! I want to go so badly! And this book just made that desire all the stronger. I want to see Denali!! And the caribou and the northern lights and the trains! And then the characters! I got to revisit my favorites from the last book (Incidentally, the book that introduced me to Kim Woodhouse!) and got to see where they were going. I found out that where they were going was exactly what my heart had hoped for. Honestly, this book is goals BrilLiaNt!!! New characters were introduced, and I loved them too. Reading good books is like making friends all over the world! Can I just say that Mrs. Johnson is one of my favorite people in this series!!?!! I'm a sucker for the hard-to-crack-really-actually-teddy-bear people! And of course Mrs. Harrison was hilarious! Cassidy..... my heart! (No, I can't tell you! I need you to read this for yourself!) Of course, the spiritual side to this book was uplifting and real, as always! You could see God working across the pages! Now THAT'S a good book! When scary things happen at the end, well.... if I hadn't been at work with like 50 kids in close proximity, I'm 99.9998% certain that I would have dissolved into a heaping mess of tears and love for literary characters. In fact, when I had the last 5 pages to read, my roommate stepped out of the room. I told her, "Allie, if you come back and I'm sobbing my heart out, just don't touch. I need to have my real tears for my literary characters on my own." Thankfully for the both of us, I was fine. Long story short, if you don't read this you'll probably regret it for ages and ages! But that's okay. I'm not telling you how to live your life. (Lies! I totally am!) Anyway, I'm sure you want to see the beautiful cover.

P.S. I'm sure you're wondering what happened when I GOT TO MEET MY TWO FAVORITE AUTHORS! And I'll tell you, as soon as I have a good long time to sit down and think through my words so that I don't discombobulate anyone, because I was so happy that I can't speak about it coherently. (Pardon me while I roll my eyes at myself, and also as I realize that "was" is the wrong tense for that sentence....)

I received this book from Bethany House in exchange for my honest review. (But let's face it. We all knew that I would have bought it if I had to.) Thanks Amy!!!! (I also got to meet her, and that was great! I was very excited about that too!)