Monday, January 18, 2016

I Hope You Dance by Beth Moran - REVIEWED



About the Book:  (from Kregel)
Ruth Henderson has moved back in with her parents--something she swore she would never do, especially not at the age of thirty-three. But in the face of the mountain of debt left by her late partner, and the fact that her teenage daughter, Maggie, is expressing her grief through acts of delinquency, there was really only one option. Returning to a house Ruth swore never to set foot in again is...

My Thoughts:
Thanks for friends who see us differently than to how we see ourselves and aren’t  afraid to tell us when we’re being pitiful. Thanks for love in dark places, for hope …”  (p. 311)

These words, uttered from Ruth Henderson’s heart to God’s ears in prayer, represent some difficult battles that have been won….some foundational truths that have been learned…and a faith community composed of everyday people whose mess had been redeemed by God alone!  I have to say that I Hope You Dance has been a rare gem in my book discovery!  I don’t know what I really expected to find, but what I did find was a cast of characters that were fully fleshed out into an accurate picture of how I’m sure we look to God….broken people, stumbling through our messes in search of redemption.  And what does our Heavenly Father do?  He sets us among others who point the way to our redemption!

Ruth has come through so much when we meet her!  She and her daughter Maggie are reeling from loss, and then have to face being uprooted and set down in a place that they never wanted to be.  As they meet the folks in their new hometown, they begin to realize that all is not well within the relationship between Ruth’s mom and dad. (the only folks able to give them a home at the time) Add to that a church family that is busy meeting the needs of those in their community, a school setting that Maggie is resistant to and an old flame from Ruth’s past and you have an intriguing, heart tugging story that will keep you r imagination completely  entranced!! Oh, and did I mention that there is a very unsettling character that inserts an insidious danger into the plot as well!!


Honestly, this is one of the best written, most tender, realistic love stories – but it’s so much more!! It is friendship, and fellowship and family and just plain ‘ole life!! I LOVE IT!!!  I am excited to recommend this to readers one and all!!  And I hope you dance!!!

About the Author:
Beth Moran grew up in a Nottinghamshire before studying biochemistry at Leeds, working as a scientist in Liverpool, and then as an antenatal educator back in Nottinghamshire.

Following some deep soul searching, Beth embarked on her next adventure. By the time she’d tapped out the first chapter she knew she’d found what she was born to do, and suddenly all those hours spent daydreaming made sense.

When not writing novels, Beth works as a bid writer, and is part a church leadership team, running a youth club and the annual ladies’ night where she gets to dig out her dancing shoes.


Having overcome childhood selective mutism, Beth regularly speaks at conferences and on BBC Radio Nottingham’s Pause for Thought. She is a trustee of Free Range Chicks, a women’s network, and I still living in Nottinghamshire with her husband and three children.

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