All That Fills Us by Autumn Lytle REVIEWED

 About the Book:

The journey toward healing starts with a single brave step--but it is never walked alone

Mel Ellis knows that her eating disorder is ruining her life. Everyone tells her rehab is her best option, but she can't bring herself to go. Broke, broken, and empty in more ways than one, Mel launches one last-ditch effort to make hers a story worth telling. She will walk her own road to recovery along the lesser-known trails of the North American wilderness.

Though she is physically and mentally unprepared to face the difficulties that lay ahead, she sets off on foot from Michigan. Her goal? Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State. During the long journey, she meets strangers with their own stories, as well as ghosts from her past who can no longer be ignored. But though the land she travels threatens her success at every turn, it's her own dark thoughts she'll have to overcome in order to find peace in the life and the body she has been given.

My Thoughts:

"One day, after all this is over, we'll sit down together and I'll tell you all about this.  And you'll look at me like you did when you first saw the Grand Canyon, and we'll both know that I finally made it."  (p. 115)

This is the story of Mel Ellis' unique and seemingly impossible journey to overcome a problem that has consumed her entire being - literally to the point of almost dying.   I got to know Mel and relate to her in a very personal way through the pages of this precious novel. This is not exactly a light read, but the way Lytle tells Mel's story brings you in as a friend, and keeps you engaged.  As you read, you'll learn a lot about eating disorders and the behaviors that surround and confound the people who struggle with this particular emotional demon.

Mel chooses a path that is rather extreme in the "real" world, so some level of suspended disbelief is required.  I love the way the author inserts her life into the lives of other she encounters along the way.  I love the way she is able to reconnect with the very person whose life choices so unknowingly and profoundly affected Mel's path.  It really made me want to be more self-aware so that I don't inflict my pain onto others who are, always, dealing with their own stuff.

I highly recommend this novel!  For me, it was an opportunity to examine my own life and the way I relate to others who may need encouragement along their life journey.  As always, God divinely appointed the timing of this story - He knows how to get my attention!  I will come back to and share this story with others, because it it a beautiful way to illustrate that only God's presence in our live can ultimately heal and feel the deepest longings of our heart!

About the Author:

Autumn Lytle identifies with a strange group of humans who enjoy running long distances and writing even longer books. Along with being a forever-recovering anorexic and exercise addict, she is a weirdly good checkers player and finder of four-leaf clovers. She spends her days thinking up stories and trying to figure out this whole parenting thing with her son. She can often be found out exploring her hometown of Seattle, Washington, with her family in tow. Learn more at www.autumnlytle.com.

The Master Cratsman by Kelli Stuart REVIEWED

About the Book:

In 1917, Alma Pihl, a master craftsman in the House of Fabergé, was charged to protect one of the greatest secrets in Russian history--an unknown Fabergé Egg that Peter Karl Fabergé secretly created to honor his divided allegiance to both the people of Russia and the Imperial tsar's family. When Alma and her husband escaped Russia for their native Finland in 1921, she took the secret with her, guarding her past connection to the Romanov family. 

Three generations later, world-renowned treasure hunter Nick Laine is sick and fears the secret of the missing egg will die with him. With time running out, he entrusts the mission of retrieving the egg to his estranged daughter, Ava, who has little idea of the dangers she is about to face. As the stakes are raised, Ava is forced to declare her own allegiance--and the consequences are greater than she could have imagined.

My Thoughts:

"Mrs, Andrews,....I believe you just made your first big breakthrough."  (p.265)

It's hard for me to believe that there are folks who thrive, chase and even capture the lifestyle of a treasure hunter, but I've watched enough reality television to know that such people do exist.  Kelli Stuart builds an entire novel on the premise that all of us seek treasure in this lifetime...and some are fortunate to realize what that treasure is, long before others.  Stuart weaves present day and history into a very realistic, and somewhat tragic tale of a family caught up in a treasure hunt that takes them far beyond the goal they thought they were headed toward.

Ava and Carol have built a life without including Nick Lavine - father to Ava and husband to Carol.  The life of a treasure hunter didn't allow the luxury of a family.  Although world renowned, Nick's fame and fortune do little in the face of terminal disease.  What begins as an attempt at a final reconciliation turns into the adventure of a lifetime for this estranged family.  As they look across time into the lives of the Faberge family of royal jewelry fame, they begin to seek a jeweled egg that may or may not exist.

Existing or not, this unlikely team sets out on one last treasure hunt that spans the globe in search of a jeweled egg with a history they couldn't begin to imagine.  Stuart masterfully weaves the past with present-day and tells the tale of two families seeking much the same thing - relationships that ground them in truth, love and meaning.  The journey is both dangerous and rewarding, but in ways the reader cannot possibly anticipate!

This was not an easy book to lay aside!  I encourage anyone who likes a healthy mix of history and mystery to pick up a copy of this book today!!  You will be well satisfied in all the ways that matter!! Enjoy the search!!

About the Author:

Kelli Stuart is the author of the Carol Award-winning Like a River from Its Course, as well as A Silver Willow by the Shore and Life Creative: Inspiration for Today's Renaissance Mom (with Wendy Speake). Stuart has written for The Huffington Post, 5 Minutes for Mom, Tonic.com, Disney, American Girl, The MOB Society, Extraordinary Mommy, God Size Dreams, Short Fiction Break, and (in)courage. Kelli is a storyteller at heart, fluent in the Russian language, and has spent the last two decades studying the Russian and Ukrainian culture. Kelli lives in Tampa, Florida, with her husband and five children.