A Sweethaven Summer by Courtney Walsh

When I close a book with a sigh and immediately start searching the volume for some hint of things to come,  I know that the story is still resonating. The characters are still settling into my heart and I long for more.

Courtney Walsh's A Sweethaven Summer had that effect on me.  It is the story of a group of girlfriends who join forces in Sweethaven, Michigan in the summer of 1983, full of hope and dreams that are bigger than life.  Suzanne is the leader, and creative mastermind behind the Scrapbook that they use to document their summers on the lake together.  The group disbands in 1987 when Suzanne becomes pregnant with baby Campbell and is abandoned by her parents.

Twenty-four years later Suzanne loses her battle with cancer and Campbell begins searching for her father.  The journey leads her back to Sweethaven, the lakeside town which may hold the missing pieces of her mother's life.  If she could get some answers, then maybe she might be able to believe that she wasn't just some cosmic accident whose appearing simply ruined lives.

What she discovers is far more than basic biology.  She finds a place that feels like home and friends who are willing to go the distance.  That hopes and dreams never die and there is no statute of limitations on forgiveness.

A Sweethaven Summer is a lovely, warm hug of a book that you'll want to share with your own special friends; who knows- you may find yourself reconnecting with someone from your own life...
It's possible.

This week, the  Christian Fiction Blog Alliance  is introducing  A Sweethaven Summer  Guidepost Books (February 7, 2012)  by  Courtney Walsh  


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Courtney Walsh is a published author, scrapbooker, theater director, and playwright. Her debut novel, A Sweethaven Summer, will be followed by two additional novels in the series. She’s also written two papercrafting books, Scrapbooking Your Faith and The Busy Scrapper. Courtney has been a contributing editor for Memory Makers Magazine and Children’s Ministry Magazine and is a frequent contributor to Group Publishing curriculum. She works as the PR Manager for Webster’s Pages from her home in Colorado, where she lives with her husband and three kids, who range in age from 4 to 10. Courtney drinks entirely too much coffee.  



ABOUT THE BOOK

Suzanne's daughter, Campbell, journeys there in search of answers to her questions about her mother's history.Suzanne's three friends-Lila, Jane, and Meghan-were torn apart by long-buried secrets and heartbreak. Though they haven't spoken in years, each has pieces of a scrapbook they made together in Sweethaven. Suzanne's letters have lured them all back to the idyllic lakeside town, where they meet Campbell and begin to remember what was so special about their long Sweethaven summers. As the scrapbook reveals secrets one by one, old wounds are mended, lives are changed,

and friendships are restored-just as Suzanne intended.

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Sweethaven Summer, go HERE.