Customer Reviews

Ida Caught By Grace

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An inspiring novel that deals with real life issues. This book will surely touch the depths of your heart. Looking forward to reading the second book of the series.

Ida Ford is a woman living in Evansville, Kentucky who has experienced more hurt and pain in her 30 plus years than people who are many years older than her. Ida, her sister Vileen, and her brother Ray grew up with a single mother who drank to much and had too many male friends.

Vileen, who is the oldest chronicles her view of her life and the family's daily struggles in a diary. She is tired of struggling and living in Evansville, so she devises a plan to get out by using her education. Vileen works extremely hard at school, and she graduates. After high school graduation, she accepted into a clerical training program and is awarded a grant to pay for her education. The best part about about the school in her opinion is that it was all the way in Texas.

Meanwhile, back in Evansville, Ida is not faring very well. She is using drugs and is constantly getting into trouble. One day a tragedy occurs and Ida and Vileen are forced together, the results are not good. Ida is determined to make the best out of a bad situation.

One day Vileen has a divine experience and she places her life and all of her troubles into God's hands. From this point on she starts to have positive experiences. Ida on the other hand continues to get into more trouble.

Tragedy which seems to be a permanent part of the Ford family history once again occurs and Ida is forced to rediscover her sister Vileen through her diaries. Ida not only rediscovers her sister she rediscovers herself. What makes her experience so unique is that this all takes place while Ida is in prison.

Ida Caught By Grace by Yolanda Magee is a heartwarming book that makes the reader remember how important God, friends, and family are. Overall this is a good book. However at times the book was not flowing quite right and was a little hard to understand . I also did not like the different fonts that the story was written in. On the RAW scale it is a 3.

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Debut author Yolanda Magee takes us on an overwhelming journey filled with trials and tribulations that a lot of us face in our lives, first as children and then later as adults as we search for our place in life. We are first introduced to the main character, Ida Ford, in the present time as she begins to tell her life story detailing all of the things she has gone through and how she was able to come to the present point in her life.

Several years prior, Ida is a hell-raising, know-it-all, drug addict who feels that she has her life together and needs nothing from anyone; including her older siter Vileen. It is after Vileen and her husband die in a car wreck that Ida finds herself incarcerated for a year and a half for possession of drugs with an intent to sell. She realizes that she's alone and has the desire to get her life together. It is during this time that she receives a package which turns out to be the beginning of another journey for Ida.

Inside the package is a box of seven books; the memoirs of her sister Vileen. Through these books, Ida begins to understand not only her own life, but also the life of her sister and her mother and how Vileen struggled to get out of their poor neighborhood away from drugs and alcohol and also how she yearned to make more of herself than their alcoholic mother and drug addict of a sister.

Ida relives her childhood and part of her adult life through the 18 years that Vileen chronicled the events of her life, her disappointments, her fears, her true feelings for Ida, her life-changing (first) car accident, and the time she spent in the hostpital in which she found hope through the Bible and God. Although Ida doesn't remember a lot of the events as Vileen details them, she begins to see her life as it really was and she's able to confront her past and obtain a desire to change herself in hopes of getting custody of her niece.

This book showcases the relationships between sisters and also between mothers and daughters. It helps us to understand that love has no bounds, not even through death as we're able to see Ida changing through the reading of her sister's memoirs. Magee gives us a story of love, forgiveness, and self- exploration that focuses on the relationships between women and how anyone can overcome anything with faith, trust, belief and love. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading future books by Yolanda MaGee.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal

An interesting way to share life-changing truths about our Saviour with others. Reads more like fact than fiction. This book deals with the avoidable pain and suffering we inflict upon ourselves and our families. It is subsequently followed by the unescapable feelings of guilt that can now only be lifted by the higher power.