Friday, May 10, 2024

THE RHYTHM OF FRACTURED GRACE by Amanda Wen, Reviewed by Rebecca Maney


SEDGWICK COUNTY CHRONICLES #3

"Broken instruments need to remember what they're capable of. . . lest they forget their purpose in life."


Sort of like people. Siobhan Walsh had been broken, in the most intimate and feckless of ways by a man who knew better and accepted no responsibility, eventually tossing her aside like trash while he maintained his flashy, moral veneer. She had survived . . . barely. When worship pastor Matt Buchanan arrives at the instrument repair shop where Siobhan works, toting his severely damaged heirloom violin, the guilt and shame that she thought was safely behind her . . . is clearly not. Will God be able to accomplish a new work in Siobhan's heart while she takes Matt's instrument apart piece by piece in order for it to play a new song?

Decades earlier, another young woman yearns for freedom from her past . . . surviving a brutal massacre that left her mother and younger siblings dead. Deborah Caldwell and her sister Elisabeth eventually recovered from their injuries, only to live with lingering headaches and horrific scars. Her father, a pastor who had been absent when the attack occurred, had nursed them back to health, his violin music a soothing balm from the pain of their long recovery. When tragedy strikes the family once again, Deborah faces one of the hardest decisions of her life . . . choosing forgiveness.
The implications of this story are massive . . . thankfully "redeeming the years that the locusts have eaten" is God's specialty and in spite of experiencing painful wounds; physically, emotionally, and spiritually, Deborah and Siobhan both learn the blessing of releasing it all into their Savior's capable hands . . . amazing grace indeed.

"She wasn't ashamed to be herself anymore . . . And part of being herself . . . was playing the violin." 
*I purchased a copy and was under no obligation to provide a positive review.
 

BackCover Blurb:
Is Siobhan too far gone to respond to the song of a God who's calling her back to him?
 

When a new customer brings a badly damaged violin into Siobhan Walsh's shop, it is exactly the sort of challenge she craves. The man who brought it in is not. He's too close to the painful past that left her heart and her faith in shambles.
 

Matt Buchanan has had a rough start as the new worship pastor. A car accident on his way into town left him with a nearly totaled truck, and an heirloom violin in pieces. When he takes it to a repair shop, he's fascinated with the restoration process--and with the edgy, closed-off woman doing the work.
As their friendship deepens and turns into more, they both discover secrets that force them to face past wounds. And the history of the violin reveals more about their current problems than they could have ever expected.
 

On the nineteenth-century frontier, a gruesome tomahawk attack wiped out most of Deborah Caldwell's family. Her greatest solace after the tragedy is the music from her father's prized violin. Given her horrendous scars, she'd resigned herself to a spinster's life. But Levi Martinson's gentle love starts to chip away at her hardened heart, until devastating details about the attack are revealed, putting their love--and Deborah's shaky faith--to the ultimate test.
 

Full of forgiveness and the message that no one is too damaged for God's healing touch, the final book in the split-time Sedgwick County Chronicles will thrill fans of Rachel Hauck, Lisa Wingate, and Kristy Cambron.

Kregel Publications, February 2024
Available in digital ebook, paperback, and library binding
 

 

 
 

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