Firefly Island

This is a strange little book; strange in a good way. I enjoyed the journey of a congressional staffer changing her life from Washington DC to living by a lake in Texas.  I worked professionally for many years before having kids, and remember some of her journey as my own.  She gets married soon in the book, so there isn’t the book long love romantic story. But it does talk through how two people combine their lives and live out in love, bringing in the love of a child.

One thing that I liked – was the beginning of each chapter. A quote to start them out. We are memorizing a children’s poem by Ogden Nash, so it caught my attention when I saw “To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; Whenever you’re right, shut up.” Ogden Nash.

“This was my first highlight out of 11 for this book in my Kindle Fire. I love the way she writes, “It wasn’t’ in the tides that the breath of God could be found, I decided, but in the water itself, in the endless rhythm of it, ever present, ever constant, louder amidst the storms of life, softer in the peaceful times. Not a god only moving twice a day like the mythical Tangaroa, but a God moving countless times. Always. Continually A God present in the deepest parts of our lives, sometimes crowded out by all the surface clutter as we stroll along the shore, our minds preoccupied with things that seem important. Then a wave rises higher than the rest, strokes soft and cool over sun warmed skin, and we hear it again, the constant breath of God. We think, How could I not have heard that all along?”

As you can see from above, I just loved it when Mallory ‘thought’ in the book. My other connection with Mallory – was that she turned to blogging to log her adventures. Which, when we moved to Devils Lake – is what we did. Mallory shares, “An amazing thing had happened to me in my first weeks of blogging. Because I was writing about adventures, I started not only  seek them out, but to see them all around me. In seeing the adventure of this place, I’d begun to truly live my life, rather than hiding from it and complaining about it.”  I did find it a bit cheesy that she was the ‘Frontier Woman’ and one of my favorite bloggers is the Pioneer Woman. She’s not really in the Frontier, and it was just a little too close for me, but I quickly got over it.

Bottom line – I really enjoyed this story. The story has many paths. There is never a time reading it where you think you know where it is going and decide to read it out to make sure. I recommend this book for sure.

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2013
At thirty-four, congressional staffer Mallory Hale is about to embark on an adventure completely off the map. After a whirlwind romance, she is hopelessly in love with two men--fortunately, they're related. Daniel Everson and his little boy, Nick, are a package deal, and Mallory suddenly can't imagine her future without them.
Mallory couldn't be more shocked when Daniel asks her to marry him, move to Texas, and form a family with him and motherless Nick. The idea is both thrilling and terrifying.
Mallory takes a leap of faith and begins a sweet, mishap-filled journey into ranch living, Moses Lake society, and a marriage that at times reminds her of the mail-order-bride stories. But despite the wild adventure of her new life, she discovers secrets and questions beneath her rosy new life. Can she find answers on Firefly Island, a little chunk of property just off the lakeshore, where mysterious lights glisten at night?

 

Dislaimer: I received a Kindle Fire Download for free in exchange for an honest review on my blog.