Customer Reviews

Morningsong: A Novel

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After Mona VanderMolen comes out of her coma from an accident in Lake Michigan where the water pulled her under and kept bashing her against the rocks. Most times she can't remember things and then she has these terrible headaches. She has an antique store that she tries to run with the help of a seventy five year old man Harold and a lady named Elsie who are always trying to help her.
Then there is her sister Ellen who is always drunk trying to raise a teen age daughter Hallie or is Hallie the one taking care of her mother.
Mona had a friend Adam that loves her but will she realize his love for her just the way she is. Mona has got where she tries to walk every morning but hate her neighbor's broken down cat that had been in the dryer when it was turned on. The cat has never done anything to her except sit in the window every morning as she is walking. Can she ever get to where she can ignore her physical problem in order to help her sister and niece.
As Hallie tries to get her life together and her mother is in the hospital unconscious Hallie decides that she is not going to take care of her drunk mom any longer. While Ellen is released and she and her daughter move in with Harold as they have no where in town to go too, they begin to reconcile their lives.
This book was interesting as this mixed up family and their friends make the best of a bad situation. Really interesting and this is the first time I have read anything by this author.
This book was sent to me free from Kregel Publications in order for me to review.

Morningsong by Shelly Beach is the powerful follow-up to Hallie's Heart. You don't need to have read the previous book to love this one, but you will probably want to by the time you finish. Mona VanderMolen has been through a rough couple of years: two years ago her niece Stacie drowned in Lake Michigan and three months she herself was beaten by the waves onto rocks until she needed brain surgery and spent time in a coma. Recovery has been a difficult process that manifests in her scarred scalp peeking through her short spiky hair and her antagonism toward Miss Emily the cat. Miss Emily also walks off-kilter and her eyes don't seem to work right either. Throw into the mix an alcoholic sister, rebellious niece Hallie, and determined suitor, Adam. She tries to juggle everyone else's problems and ignore her own, but soon discovers that she can't manage any of it without God. I love how Beach gives every character an extra pinch of personality, even the police officer acts in unexpected ways without Beach telling us exactly why. Mona sums it up best when in her joy she says that her sister is perfect, Hallie is perfect, everyone is perfect and completely messed up at the same time. That's just how God sees us, and Beach makes his shine in this poignant novel.

The character of Mona is believable. At times, when she clung to her stubborn solitary views, I sighed in frustration; how I wish I could sit her down for a good talking-to! On the other hand, the character of Mona's sister, Ellen, is quite unbelievable. After a life-time of heavy drinking, to a point that she ends up in a coma, and all she needs is two weeks in a rehab center? When she returns home, she is too cleaned-up, too perfect, and even though there's a small relapse, it's obscure. The male characters are all flat. Adam, Harold, and even Joe Spencer, the police officer are all too-good-to-be-true characters.

So I have a mixed review of this novel. This is the sequel to Christy Award-winning Hallie's Heart, and I'm sure the fans of that first novel will want to read this one. Read it and decide for yourself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story! Mona, recovering from a serious brain injury is afraid of the routine MRI might say, so she avoids the doctor, figuring that will take care the problem and I related to that so well! She has people in her life that love and care about her, yet she seems to push them away so she can like a two year old almost "do it herself". We can all relate to this as she tells others like her sister who is hospitalized for alcohol poisoning and her niece who survived a traumatic drowning that took her sister.
If you want a read that will get you thinking about life and how to deal with your relatives who have issues, you will relate to this book!
I felt like it was something that we all can relate to, when we face hard things in life, sometimes we would rather push them away than deal with them or face them. It can be painful. It was a great book living in fictional story of how to deal with them, rather than run away.

"I'm here, Lord, broken, asking for forgiveness, and I'm laying myself down. I'm giving it all to You - the pathetic way I've held on to my life, my fears, my doubts, my anger. I'm exchanging it for whatever You've chosen for me, as hard as that may be." (p. 211)

Morningsong is the first Shelly Beach novel I've ever read, and I am eager to tell you what a POWERFUL book this is! The prayers offered by those struggling are so real and poignant, that if you didn't read anything but their prayers, you'd be changed! However, Shelly gives the reader a story that is beautifully written, a story that carries you into the brokenness of bad choices, hard circumstances, painful relationships and a longing for hope so real that you will feel your heart ache. Dear reader, you do NOT want to miss this story!

This is an amazing book! You will appreciate the honesty of the open relationships in this book, the frank conversations the characters share with one another, the selfless and unconditional way Christians love one another...there is SO MUCH to love about this book and the characters that make up this story!

Shelly Beach just rocketed to the top of my favorites list. Her writing is beautiful, the message within the story is life-changing, and the topics she deals with are REAL! Folks, I LOVED this book!! Buy your copy today and read it....you will be changed.

One subject with which I have trouble is differentiating between God's active will--those things He chooses to have happen to people and His permissive will--those things He allows to happen as a result of a sinful world. It is easy to say "God blessed me with this child" when you got pregnant after you were married, the first month you "tried". Did God also bless the 14 year old incest victim who just found out she is pregnant? Did God actively will both pregnancies? Neither? The first, but not the second? If He willed the second, does that mean He willed the rape? How much is God a puppet master, moving us around the stage of the world and how much is he a watchmaker, who put us all together, but then winds us up and lets us go?

If you are wondering where the book review is, it is coming. I wrote the above because it ran through my mind while reading Morningsong by Shelly Beach. It is the story of Mona, a 40ish single woman who recently suffered a traumatic brain injury in the same accident as claimed the life of her teenage niece. Until the accident Mona had been an independent athletic woman. Now she has balance and coordination problems, problems with math, and gets frequent headaches. She talks in the book about it being God's will that what she had before was taken from her so that God could give her more. I ask, does God operate that way?

The book is mainly about Mona's relationships with her niece, sister to the one who was lost. Hallie, the niece has been caring for Ellen, her alcoholic mom, since the accident, but then Ellen ends up in the hospital in an alcoholic coma. Hallie comes to live with Mona. Ellen goes to rehab. The story is also about Mona's relationship with Adam, the man in her life. Will she learn to accept his love? When you don't see yourself as lovable, it is hard to allow yourself to be loved. Uncle Harold, the last main character, is the one who holds all these people together and leads them to wholeness. We find that his wisdom is not only a result of age, but also of sorrow. The book ends on a happy note, but as in real life, sorrow isn't far away.

This is Christian fiction. The faith of the characters and the effect it has on their lives is paramount to the story. Take out the faith, and this book fails. However, this is not an "accept Jesus and life will be grand" book either. These people have hurts, they are imperfect and they sin. They also love the Lord and it shows in their lives. This book is a good emotional read and I'm glad I read it.

Question for discussion: Do you see God more as a puppet master or as a watchmaker--or as something else? How much of what happens can we credit to (or blame on) God and how much is just the way He allows things to be?

[...]

Mona's transparent humanness coupled with self-absorbed fifteen-year old Hallie, mixed with Adam, to-good-to-be-true boyfriend, sprinkled with several other animated characters proved a worthwhile read. I could personally relate to the fear of being held captive in an MRI cocoon--the author painted that scary picture accurately.

Scenes within the book created a desire to visit, live in and shop those unique locations. Shelly Beach's two books in the series, which can also be appreciated independently, came alive due to the settings--some of which I have personally visited (such as the Prayer Tower at Maranatha).

After reading "Morningsong," I now have a desire to go back and re-read "Hallie's Heart." I hope to see more from Shelly Beach and the characters in the next segment of their complicated lives.

Just when I thought the book was slowing down a new surprise in the plot kept me reading. I enjoyed the book until the end. Beach again does a nice job of developing her characters so you can relate to them. She continues to improve as a writer of novels which keeps me coming back. Enjoy!