ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laura Jensen Walker is an award-winning writer, popular speaker, and breast-cancer survivor who loves to touch readers and audiences with the healing power of laughter.
Born in Racine, Wisconsin (home of Western Printing and Johnson’s Wax—maker of your favorite floor care products) Laura moved to Phoenix, Arizona when she was in high school. But not being a fan of blazing heat and knowing that Uncle Sam was looking for a few good women, she enlisted in the United States Air Force shortly after graduation and spent the next five years flying a typewriter through Europe.
By the time she was 23, Laura had climbed the Eiffel Tower, trod the steps of the Parthenon, skied (okay, snowplowed) in the Alps, rode in a gondola in Venice, and wept at the ovens of Dachau. She’d also learned how to fold her underwear into equal thirds, make a proper cup of English tea, and repel the amorous advances of a blind date by donning combat gear and a gas mask.
Laura is a former newspaper reporter and columnist with a degree in journalism who has written hundreds of articles on many subjects ranging from emu ranching and pigeon racing to goat-roping and cemetery board meetings. However, realizing that livestock and local government weren’t her passion, she switched to writing humor, which she calls a “total God-thing.”
Her lifelong dream of writing fiction came true in Spring 2005 with the release of her first chick lit novel, Dreaming in Black & White which won the Contemporary Fiction Book of the Year from American Christian Fiction Writers. Her sophomore novel, Dreaming in Technicolor was published in Fall 2005.
Laura’s third novel, Reconstructing Natalie, chosen as the Women of Faith Novel of the Year for 2006, is the funny and poignant story of a young, single woman who gets breast cancer and how her life is reconstructed as a result. This book was born out of Laura’s cancer speaking engagements where she started meeting younger and younger women stricken with this disease—some whose husbands had left them, and others who wondered what breast cancer would do to their dating life. She wanted to write a novel that would give voice to those women. Something real. And honest. And funny.
Because although cancer isn’t funny, humor is healing.
A popular speaker and teacher at writing conferences, Laura has also been a guest on hundreds of radio and TV shows around the country including the ABC Weekend News, The 700 Club, and The Jay Thomas Morning Show.
Another book in this series is Daring Chloe
She lives in Northern California with her Renaissance-man husband Michael, and Gracie, their piano playing dog
ABOUT THE BOOK
At 35, Paige Kelley is feeling very "in between." She's still working her temp job after two years, still not dating three years after her divorce, and still melting at every chubby-cheeked toddler she sees while her biological clock ticks ever louder. Paige even moves back home to help her ailing, high-maintenance mother.It's not exactly the life she'd dreamed of!
When her Getaway Girls book club members urge Paige to break free and get on with her life, she's afraid. How will her mother react? How can Paige honor her widowed mother and still pursue her own life? The answers come from a surprising source.
A trip to Scotland and a potential new love interest help launch an exciting new chapter in her life, and lead Paige to discover that God's plan for her promises to be more than she ever imagined.
This latest release in the Getaway Girls collection delivers a smart, funny, and warm account of one woman's challenge to reconcile who she is - a dutiful Christian daughter - with the woman she longs to be.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Turning The Paige, go HERE
My review:
This novel was the perfect combination of fun, wit, romance, and emotion. I don't normally like "girl group" type books, but this one felt so natural that I was drawn in. Turning the Paige addresses some universally relatable issues such as responsibility toward family versus living your own life. I loved the inner dialog and the cute self-deprecating humor that was right on target but totally tongue-in-cheek at the same time. The book club idea was also pretty intriguing. And I adored Marc the florist. (Yay for sensitive guys who know the names of flowers.) I appreciated the subtle theme of being friends "first" as necessary for building a foundation for romantic relationships.
Turning the Paige even made me cry a few times. But I laughed a whole lot more than I sniffled. After experiencing this author's engaging style and writing voice, I know I'd pick up anything she's written and enjoy it. She's great at drawing you in to the characters' lives. I wanted to taste some of Paige's cooking after reading about how amazing it was! I rejoiced when broken or strained relationships healed, and especially enjoyed when Paige was able to move on with her life. I felt her pain when she held on to it and I sensed her relief when she finally let it go. This book wasn't overly spiritual, but the faith element was present and a natural part of the story, which is not always the case.
2 comments:
Hi Michelle! I just got this book at the library and started reading it yesterday. I love Laura's Getaway Girls series!
I'm in the middle of 'Paige' right now and thoroughly enjoying it. Laura has a knack for seeing the humor in life and applying its healing quality liberally to wounded situations. Another winner!
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