Here Burns My Candle Review and Giveaway

Do you know Liz Curtis Higgs?  I may not know her personally (though I have met her), but I really appreciate this Christian woman's books.  I had the opportunity to hear her speak last year.  She was incredible.  Funny.  Inspiring.  Lovely.  Real.  Godly.  She is, by far, my favorite speaker (and I have heard several).  I intend to hear her again in November in Hershey, PA.  (Anyone interested in joining me?)


I jumped at the opportunity to review Liz's newest book, Here Burns My Candle.  View the trailer here.

     
Summary:
A mother who cannot face her future.
A daughter who cannot escape her past.
 Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her.
    Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips.
    His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.
    One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown.
    A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illumines the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.


LIZ CURTIS HIGGS is the author of twenty-seven books with three million copies in print, including: her best-selling historical novels, Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, Christy Award-winner Whence Came a Prince, and Grace in Thine Eyes, a Christy Award finalist; My Heart’s in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland, an armchair travel guide to Galloway; and her contemporary novels, Mixed Signals, a Rita Award finalist, and Bookends, a Christy Award finalist. Visit the author’s extensive website at www.lizcurtishiggs.com.

My Review:

Set in Scotland, this book is rich in historic detail.  The characters are so real.  The main character, Elisabeth, lives with her husband, his mother, his brother, and sister-in-law.  As the story unfolds, we learn much about this family...the good and the bad.  It seems that they hide so much from one another, always with the walls up, not letting even the immediate family know what they are really like.  

When wartime comes, everything changes...including what is important in life.  This truly is a story of beauty...true beauty that comes with unconditional love and forgiveness.  

The inspiration for this book came from the biblical story of Ruth and Naomi, set it in a different place and time.  (Please note, that Liz did not try to tell the story of Ruth and Naomi, but it was the inspiration for this book.)

I will warn you that there is a lot of Scottish language in this book.  It truly took many chapters to understand what I was reading without thinking too much about the words.  Unfortunately, I did not find the Scottish Glossary in the back of the book until after I completed the last chapter!  Even without the glossary, this was a hugely enjoyable read.  I can't wait for the rest of the story to unfold in the sequel.  

Interested?  I hope you are!  You can purchase Here Burns My Candle here.


Even better?  You can win it right here!  I have one copy to give to a reader!   


To Enter:
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Giveaway ends Friday, March 26th, at 7pm (EST).  Winner will be chosen by random.org and will have 48 hours to contact me.


This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah.