About the Book
Book: Facing the Dawn
Author: Cynthia Ruchti
Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Release date: March 2, 2021
Mara Jacobs has been struggling. While her humanitarian husband is digging wells in Africa and caring for widows and orphans, Mara has been battling the home front—working a demanding yet unrewarding job, trying to manage three detention-prone kids, and suffering from exhaustion and depression. Even her own marriage is deteriorating after a three-year separation.
Then Liam’s absence turns into something more, changing everything and plunging her into a sunless grief. As Mara leans on those around her to find her way to healing and renewed faith, she discovers that even when hope is tenuous and the future is unknown, we can be sure we are not forgotten . . . or unloved.
Facing the Dawn is an emotionally evocative novel that will resonate with readers’ lives and their life challenges. Hemmed in hope, this tender story will be one readers will not soon forget.
My Thoughts:
Wow this book was not a simple, easy read. It is quite a heavy story and you need to be ready for that when you pick it up (no, I was not!). There is loss, friendship, love, hurt, a HUGE range of emotions and issues to deal with, but there is also God. He is the one who can keep us together through anything.
I loved the trust and faith aspect of the book. Some of it was just so hard to read because the author is incredibly talented in painting the picture for us of Mara's grief. It really is a good and touching story that will make you think about life and how you would/do handle things. It just isn't one of those 'quick read, feel good' stories. It is deep and heavy. I really enjoyed it though.
4/5 for me.
Thank you to the author/publisher for the review copy of this book via Celebrate Lit. I received this book in exchange for an honest review and the opinions stated above are 100% mine.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
Afraid of the Light, Miles from Where We Started, As Waters Gone By, Song of Silence, A Fragile Hope, and They Almost Always Come Home. Her books have been honored with more than 40 readers’, reviewers’, and retailers’ awards, including Romantic Times’s Inspirational Novel of the Year, four Selah Awards, and five Christian Retailing’s BEST Awards, and has been a finalist for many others, including the Carol and the Christy. Former president of and current professional relations liaison for American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), Cynthia lives in Wisconsin and can be found online at www.cynthiaruchti.com.
More from Cynthia
When I sit down to write a novel, I sometimes have little more than a title or a single scene in my head. For Facing the Dawn, I had a mental picture of a woman who felt like circumstances had drained all the “color” out of her life, as if she were a piece of fabric that had been left out in the sun too long. Faded. Threadbare. Bleached out.
Where was I supposed to go from there? What would have made her feel like that? (Oh, I could imagine, but I needed to know THIS character’s story.) I visualized her called in the principal’s office at her kids’ school, not knowing which of the three was in trouble this time. But it was her. The ridiculousness of it all was almost enough to push her over the edge. Ever been there?
For Mara in the story, a long string of disappointments clogged her life like a backed-up sink (which she also had). Then true tragedy struck. And again. But I couldn’t leave her in that place.
When I wrote the last few words of the story, my heart was full. Tears fell on the pages—or the keyboard. And I reflected back on all the symbolism in the story that actually revealed bits of hope embedded in its fabric.
I’m excited to see how readers respond when they discover those little bits—a cardinal in a stand of birch trees, an oil painting with unusual brushstrokes, a papered wall, a cup of soup, a long-forgotten song, an envelope of ashes…
A story comes to life when readers dive in. I’m looking forward to hearing what they find when they do.
Blog Stops
Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, March 4
lakesidelivingsite, March 4
Through the Fire Blogs, March 4
Rebecca Tews, March 5
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations , March 5
Gina Holder, Author and Blogger, March 6 (Author Interview)
Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, March 6
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, March 6
Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, March 7
Reviewingbooksplusmore, March 7
A Modern Day Fairy Tale, March 8
Kathleen’s Blog, March 8
Book Bites, Bee Stings, & Butterfly Kisses, March 8
Texas Book-aholic, March 9
Cats in the Cradle Blog, March 9
Locks, Hooks and Books, March 10
Simple Harvest Reads, March 10 (Guest Review from Mindy Houng)
Mypreciousbitsandmusings, March 10
Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, March 11
Artistic Nobody, March 11 (Guest Review from Joni Truex)
Older & Smarter?, March 12
deb’s Book Review, March 12
The Christian Fiction Girl, March 13
Inklings and notions, March 13
Pause for Tales, March 13
For Him and My Family, March 14
Mary Hake, March 14
By The Book, March 15
Christian Bookaholic, March 15
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 16
Spoken from the Heart, March 16
Southern Gal Loves to Read, March 16
A Baker’s Perspective, March 17
Writing from the Heart Land, March 17
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Cynthia is giving away the grand prize package of a DrinkCo Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated BPA-free beverage container (keeps drinks cold for up to 24 hours/hot up to 12 hours), two Sunprint Notecards (Cynanotype art by Anna Atkins), an autographed copy of the novel Facing the Dawn, two Hemmed in Hope magnets/notecard inserts to encourage you or a friend, a Hemmed in Hope flash drive, and Facing the Dawn bookmarks (not shown in picture above)!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://promosimple.com/ps/108ce/facing-the-dawn-celebration-tour-giveaway
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