Words: A Novel~ WOW! (Giveaway)

I don't usually include the publisher's summary when writing a review, but this summary hooked me, and I encourage you to read it, too!

"I collect words. I keep them in a box in my mind. I'd like to keep them in a real box, something pretty, maybe a shoe box covered with flowered wrapping paper. Whenever I wanted, I'd open the box and pick up the papers, reading and feeling the words all at once. Then I could hide the box. But the words are safer in my mind. There, he can't take them."

Ten-year old Kaylee Wren doesn't speak. Not since her drug-addled mother walked away, leaving her in a remote cabin nestled in the towering redwoods-in the care of a man who is as dangerous as he is evil. With silence her only refuge, Kaylee collects words she might never speak from the only memento her mother left behind: a dictionary.

Sierra Dawn is thirty-four, an artist, and alone. She has allowed the shame of her past to silence her present hopes and chooses to bury her pain by trying to control her circumstances. But on the twelfth anniversary of her daughter's death, Sierra's control begins to crumble as the God of her childhood woos her back to Himself.

Brought together by Divine design, Kaylee and Sierra will discover together the healing mercy of the Word-Jesus Christ.


Words: A Novel by Ginny L. Yttrup was an amazing book that riveted me from the beginning.  Kaylee can't talk because of horrible abuse from the man her drug addict mother has left her in the care of-at the tender age of ten.  She is truly cut off from the world, and only God could bring Sierra to the giant redwood where Kaylee finds refuge. 


Sierra is able to offer comfort to Kaylee, though it was oh-so-tentative of a relationship.  Sierra comes to an understanding that Kaylee is undernourished and uncared for at home.  As she intervenes, she is the one confronted with her past as she has hope for the future and for Kaylee.


Sierra has compassion for Kaylee's drug addict mother...because she was once there.  As she give's Kaylee's mother the benefit of the doubt, Sierra risks losing Kaylee and their fragile relationship, and all the progress that Kaylee has made to overcome her abuse.


From start to finish Words had my heart and mind.  I found myself thinking about the book when I  needed to be sleeping.  Author Ginny L.Yttrup has truly allowed the truth and the Truth to set her free.  Knowing her past, this book was even more disturbing and intriguing to me because though this is a work of fiction, she has lived too much of what the character Kaylee lived.  She has overcome her own past, and is now an author and speaker.  She encourages women to allow the Truth to set them free-never to let allow shame and guilt to silence a person.


I highly recommend this book, but do have a tissue box close by.  It may be tough for many to read, but it was a very good book.  Some of the subject matter is adult content.
Giveaway
I have decided to share my ARC copy with one Live, Learn, Love reader.  This book is meant to be shared, so I'm sharing! Leave a comment below telling what other book you found challenging (emotionally) to read, if any.  If you are a follower, please leave an extra comment.   Giveaway will be open through February 16.
Contest is over.  Callie is the winner and has been contacted.


I thank B&H Publishing Group for sending me this Advanced Reader Copy for review purposes.