Customer Reviews

Bridge to a Distant Star: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was attracted to Carolyn's book for a couple of reasons. First, I lived in the St. Pete area for several years while serving in the Air Force and was very familiar with the awesome length and beauty of the Skyway Bridge. Second, my grandfather was always a skeptic of the Silver Bridge in Ohio and refused to drive across it before it collapsed. So the idea of a story around the collapse of the Skyway Bridge intrigued me.
Carolyn opens with some very vivid action of the actual collapse of the bridge which really pulls you in to the tragedy of the situation. She makes you feel like you were there on the ship with the captain and you naturally want to know about the people that tragically drove off the severed bridge. I was initially concerned that moving immediately to family situations would lose my interest, but the character development is so real that I found myself drawn into each situation, and of course always in the back of my mind was what was going to bring them all to the bridge on that day. The weaving of the lives, the circumstances that tie to brief hints of the vehicles that plunged into the water from the start, and the very interesting relationship of the survivors all lead to a suspenseful read that won't let you put the book down. So plan accordingly! It's hard to put this book down.

Have traveled over the Skyway Bridge (and lived in St. Petersburg), so the story is a familiar one. It was a very scary, sad tragedy. I was excited to see what Carolyn Williford would do with her story of the three families affected by the bridge collapse.

As I read I was sure of what was going to happen to each family--it never was the way I thought it would be.

To me a really good book is one that you don't want it to end or you are anxious for a sequel to see what happens to the characters. With this book I wanted both. Not a book you want to put down until the end.

I have read all of Carolyn's books and devotionals and she has not disappointed me. She certainly has a gift for the written word.

For my library I had to haveboth the book and Kindle version.

This book was way beyond my expectations. Each time I had to put it down I couldn't stop thinking about it and wanted to get back to it ASAP! This was the first book I read by this author and I hope her others are as amazing as this one was. I read a lot of books each week but don't write many reviews but had to write one for this book one. I almost didn't pick it up to read but am so thankful I did.

Bridge to a Distant Star was my read of the summer! Williford hits the mark in connecting the characters in the story with the reader. Great book! Read and enjoy!

BRIDGE TO A DISTANT STAR is itself a bridge between three stories, essentially novella islands that are linked by a looming disaster. There will be death. There will be survival. There will be miracles.

The literal bridge is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida that collapsed in 1980. Walliford's novel moves the tragedy to 2009 and her three stories converge on the bridge as it fails.

Maureen is a stay-at-home wife and mother struggling to find meaning in her life and her faith. Her teenage daughter pushes all Maureen's buttons, her best friend's marriage is flailing, and even Maureen's husband is impatient for her to snap out of whatever is dragging her down. He agrees that she should take their younger daughter and go away for a long weekend of prayer and communion with God. She heads to Sanibel Island.

Fran Thomason, her husband, and their son are also heading to the Florida coast for a weekend of healing and reconnection. Thirteen-year-old Charles Jr. has just received a prosthetic leg after losing his to osteosarcoma. Fran and Charles Sr. disagreed, nearly violently, about how to treat Charlie during his treatment and recovery. They've finally come to an understanding and are eager to repair their family to help Charlie with the next stage of his fight to live.

Michal McHenry grew up in Ethiopia and is attending a Christian college in Tennessee. She's struggling to find God's will for her life. Return to Ethiopia as a missionary? Stay in the states? Two men are also interested in spending time with Michal and she is equally as lost deciding which one is God's will for her future. A crisis with her roommate compels Michal to flee to Fort Myers, Florida to seek her aunt's comfort and wisdom.

The three stories converge on the bridge on a Friday in May.

BRIDGE TO A DISTANT STAR is a considered and well-told novel about seeing ourselves as God sees us and what it means to be a believer who seeks God and His will.

Some readers may object to the culmination of the three stories, seeing the wrap-up as too coincidental. I found the connections to be plausible and indicative of how God often works, so attentive to the details of our lives. I do object to one character's wondering about whether he would find love with another character when his wife had just died. It would have been more effective, in this reviewer's opinion, to leave their future to the imagination of the reader. We could see where that relationship was headed, but it felt insensitive for him to think that so soon.

On a stormy night on the Sunshine Skyway, a five-mile bridge spanning the bay from St. Petersburg to Bradenton, the lives of three families intersect. One family is ravaged by a child's heartbreaking news, a marriage is threatened by a flimsy façade, and a college student is burdened by fear and self doubt. How will light come to these tragic stories?

Unfortunately, this isn't the worse. As the families start to cross the bridge, they don't know that the bridge is collapsing--and these families' lives are changed...forever.

BRIDGE TO A DISTANT STAR is based on a true story, an incredible tale of three families caught in a terrible tragedy. This is the first book that I've ever read by Ms. Williford, and I found her to be a very talented writer. Her writing is impeccable, and I couldn't find any fault with it.

The characters were very realistically developed, and stories based around real life are always fascinating. However, this book was very heavy. I usually can read through a book in a matter of hours, but BRIDGE TO A DISTANT STAR took over a week, it was just too much to absorb in a short time. This story is one that will stay with you, the characters ones you will remember long after you close the pages of this book. Particularly fascinating are the pages at the end of the book in "Afterwards" where there is a conversation with the author, the true story behind this book, and more.

I have read and own all of Carolyn's books and devotionals and have been thrilled with all of them. She is an accomplished writer and gets right to the point of having faith and using that faith. I was "hooked' from the very first paragraph of Bridge and could not put the book down. Having lived some of the tragedies, I was pleased how she brought the families of the three stories together at the end. It was wonderful, enjoyable, yet spellbinging and sad - but incorporated great faith lessons to be learned. Definitely worth 5 stars. I am anxiously awaiting her next novel.

Bridge to a Distant Star by Carolyn Williford is a heart-rending story of tragedy turned into hope. Maureen Roberts has always relied on the friendship of her three college buddies, but when one of their marriages is shattered, Maureen finds herself questioning everything in her own life as well, especially her relationship with her rebellious teenage daughter, Colleen. Maureen decides to take a vacation to Florida with her younger daughter Aubrey in hopes of finding some peace of mind. Charles and Francine Thomasen struggle daily in their attempts to parent twelve-year-old Charlie. Charles, a lawyer, wants his son to fight his way through life, toughing even the darkest circumstances out without an inch of fear. Francine is like most mothers, wanting her baby to be safe and happy. This puts the couple at odds, especially when Charlie is diagnosed with cancer and they are forced to make a terrible decision. Michal McHenry is attending a Christian college with the intent to become a missionary in Ethiopia, just like her parents and grandparents before her. Growing up an MK (missionary's kid), she doesn't seem to fit in with her classmates, so when two men suddenly show interested in her, she is lost and confused. These three stories will come together tragically on a bridge in Florida on a stormy May afternoon. This is an incredibly beautiful book, and even though reading feels a bit like watching an impending train wreck, the writing is so elegant, there's no desire to look away. Each scene comes to life through the author's careful and intricate descriptions. When the reader smells, hears, and tastes everything the characters do, you become pulled into the story, and it becomes very personal. This is a book you read with your heart as well as your head. I read the last few pages through tears, tears of both grief and joy. Read it for yourself; it's really that good.

Three families are about to find themselves united in an expected way and their lives will never be the same again.

On a foggy morning as the clouds began to thunder overhead, a weary captain leered out of the windows attempting to see just how far from the pillars of the Sunshine Skywall Bridge in Tampa Bay he was. Keeping in between the buoy markers would help steer his empty cargo ship in the safety of deeper waters. Even as the lightning struck overhead at times lighting up the dark skies, it still wasn't enough to aid the captain on his journey. Before it was too late, disaster would strike and there wouldn't be anything he could do except look into the dark murky waters for survivors.

Maureen Roberts is struggling to find herself within her marriage and to find a way to happiness in serving her family. When her close friend Emilie tells her and two close friends over lunch that her marriage is on the rocks and her husband is leaving her, Maureen begins to feel her own walls closing in around her.

Charlie Thomasen is a bright young soccer hopeful for his high school team and one who is trying to live up to all the expectations his over enthusiastic father has in mind for him. A believer of never give up and push through the pain, his father pushes Charlie to the literally breaking point before he will see what he has been sacrificing all along.

Michal McHenry has been deemed a MK or a missionary kid. Leaving her parents behind in Ethiopia she has been attending boarding school hoping to learn enough so she can join her parents as a missionary as well. But since arriving, she's been having nightmares about returning. Finding solace in her studies and in her friends, Michal prays for God to show her the path He has in mind for her. Not sure if she should date, she visits her Aunt Sarah for clarification on summer break. What she finds there may not answer the question she really needs an answer for.

In the latest novel Bridge to a Distant Star by Carolyn Williford, she takes the story from an accident that occurred in May 9th of 1980 and creates a cast of characters and immediately immerses us into their lives. We become such a part of them that when they face tragedy head on, it's as though they are a part of our family and we grieve for them. It's what happens at the very end that will tie the meaning of deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me to the very core of each of their lives.

I received this book compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and David C Cook for my honest review and was hooked from the prologue. Not knowing the direction this author was taking me, I inhaled most of the story, not wanting to put it down until my eyes couldn't stay open any longer. This book is that great, worthy of 5 out of 5 stars and one, you won't want to miss out on. Care to take a sneak peek?

The cover grabbed my attention from the start. This author weaves the unexpected events of a real tragic mishap that happened on May 9, 1980, Friday morning on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, in Florida. I jumped at the chance to receive a review copy of this book to better understand the events of that day.

This author plunges the reader into the middle of three diverse family situations. She shows their struggle to deal with life's unique issues that have them wrestle with their faith and relationships with one another. Their lives will never be the same after May 9th's tragic accident.

The author starts out with the bridge collapsing and her thoughts on why this happened, and then she introduces the reader to one family at a time. Helping the reader care about every member and the struggle each faced! She brought all three families together on that stormy day when the unthinkable happened. She showed how these families dealt with love, loss and hope! This story will grip your heart and make you appreciate every day with your family. You never know when it will take a sudden unexpected turn when you will "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me." It won't be easy but this author shows a way when there seems to be no way to survive and love again! Good summer reading!
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