Customer Reviews

Saints in Limbo

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River's writing is like a melody that you find yourself humming along to. Her words are brushstrokes that paint a picture so vivid that you know that place exists somewhere, that the characters are real people, and you've just been visiting them. Each character is a person in his or her own right, not just 2 dimensional props to help the story along. Each has strengths and weaknesses, flaws and redemptions.
"Saints in Limbo" is River Jordan's best yet out of truly great works. The main character, Velma, is a strong, steadfast old woman who seems a very unlikely person for a main character. She is mourning a recently lost husband, sorrowful over a seemingly lost son, and given up on a future that she will never have. Her own story seems to be winding down to it's end until a stranger gives her a gift that helps her relive it all again.
As her own story unfolds for her the second time, we are allowed to glimpse a life of quiet beauty and simple, strong love with roots so deep that the long years and even death can't shake them.
A something is out to steal her gift, a stranger is on her way home, mysteries unfold and people aren't everything they seem.
In this book you're invited to lay aside your prejudices and snap judgments, because people are just people and yet so much more. This is a story you'll want to read twice.

Saints in Limbo is a wonderful journey into a fading past. River Jordan's characters are so vividly described that you feel you have known these people, and have interacted with them personally. She has a way of drawing you into her stories, so much so, that you not only do not want to put the book down, but don't want the story to end. Mystery runs through the pages and holds you to the end. Thank you River for another wonderful trip !

In every sense of the word, Velma True's lifestyle on the outskirts of Echo, Florida, is an isolated one. The elderly woman has lost her husband, and her only child, Rudy, is a womanizer just barely aware of the day-to-day needs of his mother. Making things even harder, Velma suffers agoraphobia to such a degree that she can force herself out of her house only when her food supply runs dangerously low.

To Velma's great surprise, a stranger approaches her on her birthday and leaves her with an astounding gift, something that can transport her so deeply inside her memories that she is able to relive them exactly as they happened to her the first time. She finds somewhat to her dismay, however, that not all of her visited memories are good ones and that she is unable to choose the portion of her past into which she will be immersed. Most disturbing of all, Velma learns that something very evil is out there - and that it is willing to do whatever it takes to gain possession of her gift.

Velma is not at all happy with what she sees as the pointlessness of her life. She worries about her son's lack of ambition and his willingness to drift from one meaningless relationship to another. She knows that her oldest, and best, friend is growing impatient with her inability to go much more than a few feet from her front porch. Revisiting her past has filled her with regrets about what could have been and she has come to feel trapped "between what was and what is."

As Velma becomes more comfortable with what is happening to her, she is surprised to find herself filled with hope that she can release the past and change the "what is" part of her life. Things rush to a rousing climax as a young stranger makes her way to Echo on a surprising pilgrimage of her own, the forces of evil gather for a final showdown with Velma, and her son shows her that meaningful change is still possible for a man like him.

"Saints in Limbo," in an uncommon fusion of styles, is part traditional Southern novel, part Christian fiction, part romance novel, and part gothic horror novel. Surprisingly, the combination works well, and readers will find it to be a thrilling story with a touching message. It will particularly appeal, I think, to those who enjoy the Christian fiction genre.

If you'll just think about it, you KNOW these people - especially if you've grown up anywhere close to what's called The South. And when you rest in this beautiful writing, you'll realize that you know a little of each one in yourownself.

River Jordan managed to scare the daylights out of me, comfort me with warmth and light, bring me some hope and finish me off with joy - What else could I ask for from a story?

Dive in... Find that "Spirit" actually comes by the ordinary - a rock, a scraggly apparition, a best friend's loyalty, or the love of a son.

SAINTS IN LIMBO was my first River Jordan book...I'm hooked!

Velma True is an elderly and lonely widow with a lot of problems and personal sorrow in her life. She desperately misses her beloved husband, Joe. Their only child, Rudy is wasting his life away with liquor and casual relationships. Also, to make matters even worse, Velma is afraid to venture from her own yard. She has various colored strings tied to her front porch which she holds on to as she walks around her property. She's not even sure of what scares her.

Everything changes when a stranger visits Velma and they sit together on her porch. She senses that he's very unusual, but she has no fear of him. He leaves her with a rock and tells here he will take it back when she no longer has need of it. Of course, she's nervous about the rock and keeps it safe in her pocket. As the days pass, she learns the value and the magic that the stone holds for her. Her senses also warn her that their is something evil out beyond her house that desires the mysterious rock. She also has the feeling that there is more to her life, but she can't guess what it might be!

The author of this wonderful story is River Jordan. She has a lovely way with words and her storytelling carries the reader magically from page to page.

After receiving her husband Joe's death certificate in the mail, Velma True refused to go out of the front of her house without the safety net of strings anchoring her to the porch. She did allow herself the go out the back door and through the woods to the grocery store but that was it as far as leaving the house was concerned. Her son Rudy and her best friend Sara both tried to get her to leave to no avail.

On the afternoon of her birthday while Velma was sitting on her porch a visitor steps out of the woods and hands her an innocent looking river rock. Despite its plain appearance she quickly learns is very special indeed and someone very dangerous is looking for it. The rock has the ability to take Velma back to special moments in time when Joe is still alive. The trips back are meant to show Velma that her life still has meaning but she's skeptical.

Having lots of potential to succeed in life Rudy disappointingly grew up to lead a mediocre life. His biggest achievement is to claim to have had most of the eligible women in town. When strange things start happening with his Mom he makes the decision to move back home for a few days and keep a closer eye her but she's not the only one experiencing something strange and Rudy steps up to the plate to become something special.

If I had to sum up this book in two words they would be strangely awesome. There is an incredible story filling these pages and the writing is wondrously flowing. The opening jumps right into the story so initially was a little awkward but once I got the hang of what was going on I COULD NOT put this book down.

Part supernatural, part romance and part suspense Jordan brings an amazing story to life with lovable characters. This is a must read for all fiction lovers.

Reason for Reading: I love Southern fiction, especially when old ladies are involved for some reason. The mysterious visitor angle got me and knowing this was Random House's Christian Fiction imprint I just felt the story would resonate with me somehow.

I don't know where to begin to describe this story. Southern fiction is usually defined by its quirky characters and this book certainly has its fair share of those. All of them as lovable and quirky as the next, even the irritating ones end up showing their compassionate side. Plot wise we start off with an elderly woman, Velma, but just how old we are never told; she could have been anywhere between 60s and 80s, though I tended to think of her as in her late 60s. She has been widowed one year and basically had a nervous breakdown at her mailbox when she received his death certificate and now will not leave from the front of her house or travel by road. She has many brightly coloured strings leading from her porch to the mailbox, the birdbath, bird feeders, plants around the yard, etc. so she can be grounded to the house while she takes care of these needs. Velma is visited by a mysterious stranger one day and given a small rock with awesome power. It shines amazing colours when it wants to and can take Velma back into her memories, both happy and sad. But something evil wants this rock, which is much more than it seems. The evil makes its presence known bit by bit but it isn't until the end that it outright shows itself and an epic spiritual battle of good vs. evil must be fought.

I absolutely adored this book! The story crosses so many genres within one plot but for the main part is simply a southern fiction story about a group of people in a small town with an added magical realism element. The spiritual battle/paranormal/horror or whatever you want to call it based on your own beliefs, because this book is perfectly readable by any creed. If you are Christian, you'll get the plot from a believer's view, but if you are not Christian, you'll simply read it from your own world view. There is no preaching, and really know mention of God; it's all in how you read the story.

The characters are wonderful! Velma, the main character, I've mentioned. Then there is her best friend Sara who is the absolute opposite of Velma, a former school teacher, who has been looking for someone to share her knowledge with all her life and is now slowly losing her memory from Alzheimer's. Rudy, Velma's only son, though she had wanted a multitude, is a bachelor of choice, a womanizer who works as little as he can to get by, which means pay the bills, buy the booze and spend his nights with a good woman, currently he works part time as the rural route mail man. These are just the main three and there are plenty more to meet as well. The book's writing is also beautiful. The author captures the feel of the place, northern Florida far away from the ocean, and transplants the reader into her world. Her writing is lyrical and a joy to read. I really enjoyed this book; I think I said that already but it's true! Anyone who likes Southern Fiction will enjoy this book as long as they are able to suspend belief and accept the magical realism that is an integral part of the story. Highly recommended!

As a life-long southerner, I find that River Jordan's books speak to my soul. Her lyrical style is pure magic and her characters could have stepped right out of my own childhood. Somehow she manages to convey through her words that elusive sensation that occurs when reality and the spiritual realm collide. I know that Saints in Limbo is only a fantasy but how real it seems!

I would like to tell you about Saints in Limbo but that is best done by the author in the story itself. There is no way that I could do it justice without totally giving away the things that are best discovered on your own. It is a tale of several people, each with their own struggles, whose very lives become entwined in a way that changes each of them forever. It is a story about overcoming apathy and fear and truly living life.

I will say that Saints in Limbo has given me an appreciation for the people in my life, both the living and those who have left this world. It makes me want to live every moment without regret and to move ahead in my relationships because there are no do-overs in this life.

I highly recommend Saints in Limbo and suggest that you pick up a copy for yourself. You can find more information on the Random House website.

I also recommend that you immediately check out River Jordan's website because her blog is also very good reading.

I think I'm still high from this book. From the first sentence:


It was the kind of day when even the lost believed.


through the end, I was transported into an everyday world that was somehow more. Marvelous imagery and evocative prose cause you to smell the wisteria and hear the plop of the mullets as they jump up and hit back down into the water of Echo, Florida. A world where a plain, smooth rock suddenly eddies and flows with color, opening the door into a magical place of remembrance, and an evil that feeds on regret comes knocking in whatever face it wants to don that day.

We meet Velma, clinging to threads in her front yard to keep from being swept away by the current that gripped her when she opened her mailbox to find her husband Joe's death certificate waiting there.

We meet her best friend Sara Long, a retired teacher whose memories are slowly slipping away.

We meet Rudy, Velma's son, handsome and charming, but never living up to his potential. Drinking and womanizing to keep the bugs that he sometimes feels crawling on his skin at bay.

We meet Annie, a musically-gifted teen being raised by an uncaring and emotionally abusive aunt after the sudden death of her mother from a brain aneurism. She journeys on her own from Texas in search of something that is calling to her in Echo.

There's Rose, owner of the local tavern and pizza joint, who has bailed Rudy out of trouble and been his friend and confidante.

And finally, Mr. Springer, Rudy's retired schoolteacher neighbor, who Rudy enlists to watch his mother one day when he feels an unnamed dread lurking in the trees surrounding his mother's house.

It is difficult to classify this story; a mixture of fantasy, a touch of horror, a drama of friendship and family - it is all of this and more.

I absolutely loved it.

QUOTES:


They sat quietly for a while, a little more shook up than they would like to admit - both of them being strong women in different ways. It's not every day that they tussled and rolled in the dirt and traveled through time.

That night Rudy slept in the old bedroom by the front porch, the one closest to the door. He listened for anything that sounded like it might be hungrily searching for something that now belonged to his mama.

Eddie looked at Rudy and smiled. Rudy saw him then in the light of his mother's front yard. He didn't see his lonely neighbor. He saw the man, the retired teacher from Chicago. Rudy saw that he held his back up straight when he walked and that he had a gentleman's grace that Rudy didn't possess and never would. Not like that. Mr. Eddie Springer had his own magic, but Rudy had been too self-absorbed to see it.

As someone who has lived in Pensacola, I was happy to see a novel set in the rural around around the city. The description of the setting and the characters make a person feel as though she lives in the story. A unique plot and a riveting sense of urgency, Saints in Limbo enticed me to turn the next page and the next page. So wonderful, I hated to see the end come. I still want to pick it up and read it. The ending left me feeling good about life and unanswered questions. No matter where you live, you'll know Echo, Florida and the characters who live within the pages of Saints in Limbo. No cursing, nothing lewd, but not too wholesome to believe. Splendid. Inspiring.