Into the Free by Julie Cantrell - Review

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Into the Free

David C. Cook (February 1, 2012)

by

Julie Cantrell



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A speech-language pathologist and literacy advocate, Julie Cantrell was the editor-in-chief of the Southern Literary Review and currently teaches English as a second language to elementary students. She has been a freelance writer for ten years and has published two children’s books. Julie and her family live in Mississippi where they operate Valley House Farm.



Julie served as contributing editor to MOMSense magazine and wrote content for Mothers of Preschoolers, Intl. for nearly a decade. Additionally, she has contributed to more than a dozen books. Into Th Free is her first book.



ABOUT THE BOOK

Just a girl. The only one strong enough to break the cycle.



In Depression-era Mississippi, Millie Reynolds longs to escape the madness that marks her world. With an abusive father and a “nothing mama,” she struggles to find a place where she really belongs.



For answers, Millie turns to the Gypsies who caravan through town each spring. The travelers lead Millie to a key which unlocks generations of shocking family secrets. When tragedy strikes, the mysterious contents of the box give Millie the tools she needs to break her family’s longstanding cycle of madness and abuse.



Through it all, Millie experiences the thrill of first love while fighting to trust the God she believes has abandoned her. With the power of forgiveness, can Millie finally make her way into the free?

My Thoughts:

“The colors of chaos spill around me. Little pulsing hues of warning. I am hit with an old, familiar smell, a haunting odor that brings me back in time to the moment when the mama mutt dog swallowed the last of her puppies.” (p.149)

Julie Cantrell is a master wordsmith. She marries emotions with all five senses and you know the characters in a very intimate way. You walk in their skin. The walk you take with Millie Reynolds is tragic, yet her spirit is never crushed entirely. She grows through her lifetime and longs to discover the answers to her many, many unanswered questions.

And that is all I can tell you so far. For you see, life has interrupted me in very sudden unexpected ways, and I’ve spent a lot of time in doctor’s offices and hospitals in the past five days. Into the Free is a book meant to be savored and thought about and reminisced over. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone back to reread a sentence just to enjoy it’s sound and rhythm. I’m not entirely finished with the story, and I don’t want to miss a single nuance. This is a beautifully written story! I am looking forward to reading more of Julie Cantrell’s work!



Watch the book video:







If you would like to read the first chapter of Into the Free, go HERE.