My Mother's Wish by Jerry Camery-Hoggatt - GIVE AWAY!

About this book: (from the publisher)

Something strange is brewing
at the Comeback Café

A grandfather’s song has turned a diner into hallowed ground. A contrary girl with a gypsy heart feels the tug of home. And a truck driver named Jedidiah keeps his foot on the gas, ready to sweep you into an unforgettable story of belonging and grace.

It’s the 1960s Midwest, and Ellee Crumb wants to change the world, starting with her mother, but she’s having trouble even getting her teachers to know her real name. So Ellee sits at the Comeback, her broken heart lying there on a table, when a three-armed waitress and a quirky stranger show up and hand her back the pieces.

An affecting tale, My Mother’s Wish will remind you of the power of grand hopes and effect of impossible expectations. You’ll witness the influence every life has on another, and you’ll find new reasons to believe in the comfort and joy in an everyday, American version of the story of Christmas: being known and loved, just as you are.

MY REVIEW:

“If hunger does strange things to a person, so does being fed.” (p. 63)

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who isn’t hungry for love and affirmation. I’ve never heard anyone claim the ability to explain why some children are unable to accept the love of their parents or why some parents are unable to make a meaningful connection with their child. There seems to be a tear in the fabric of some families, and sometimes that tear causes a child to leave home in search of what they are missing in their own lives.

Ellee Crumb McKutcheon is a child who has keenly felt the brokenness of her mother/child relationship all of her life. It seems she has somehow fallen short of her mother’s Iron-Will ideal of a perfect daughter. When she finally overhears her father take a stand on behalf of her individuality and uniqueness, she decides to find her own way to love and acceptance. What happens on her journey is something that whispers God’s love to her searching heart. It will surprise you. It will remind you. It will cause you to know that our earthly parents try to love us the best way they can, but that they are only human and they bring some of their own brokenness to their efforts of parenting.

Only God can fill our hunger. May we always feed those around us with His love, for we never know when someone around us is just aching to be fed.

I have two beautiful copies of this book to offer as a give away! Please leave a comment and your contact information to be entered for this drawing! I will draw winners next week!!

You may purchase copies to give as gifts of your own this holiday season at Amazon, Christian Book or Family Christian Stores.

About the Author:

Jerry Camery-Hoggatt, Ph.D., is professor of New Testament at Vanguard University, in Costa Mesa, California. A professional storyteller, he is the author of the highly-acclaimed Christmas stories When Mother Was Eleven-Foot-Four (in trade adult and children’s picture book editions) and Givers of Gifts; plus Irony in Mark’s Gospel and Grapevine: A Spirituality of Gossip. His passion is theology and storytelling, which he believes are meant to go together. Jerry and his wife, Shaleen, are the parents of three children.