Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...Alice Grace Ripley is your typical librarian. She loves books and doesn't really live much outside of them until her boyfriend dumps her and she gets laid off due to budget cuts during the depression. “If my life were a book, no one would read it. People would say it was too boring, too predictable. A story told a million times. But I was perfectly content with my life – that is, until the pages of my story were ripped out before I had a chance to live happily ever after.”
I'm not sure why I decided to do my first book review on here about a book that I didn't like, buuuuuuuuuuuuut, moving on....WONDERLAND CREEK!!!! This is my absolute favorite book of fiction everrrrr!!! It's funny, adventurous, historical, it has several mysteries, it talks about prejudice, forgivness and even a little side of love! I think I can relate to Alice in the sense that I know what it's like to really start living after the pages of your happily ever after gets ripped out and God starts writing your story. (mY STORY here)
.
On an unusual whim, Alice decides to get out and goes with her Aunt and Uncle to deliver books to the poor people in the mountains of Kentucky, she never imagines that this one decision will take her on a fantastical, life-changing adventure.
.
As this sheltered city girl looks at the bloodied man, dying from a gunshot wound, in the middle of nowhere, this is the moment she starts really living..."If there's no doctor in town, what do people do when they're hurt or sick?" I asked. "You know how to pray girl?" "My father is a minister..." "Well, unless he's hiding out in the next room, he ain't gonna be any help to us is he? We best get praying!"
.
"She hates me!" Alice says of Bell, the horse Lily has forced her to learn how to ride. "Horses don't know how to hate Honey, only people are that stupid!" Says Lily.
.
The hero in this book is a 100-year-old black lady named Lily that has lived through slavery and hatred and overcome bitterness. She is the town's natural healer, mid-wife and known by all for her wisdom. Her only desire before going home to heaven, is knowing that her son, who her owner had sold and she has never found, knows Jesus. And while holding on to this one last dream, she pushes Alice into becoming the woman God wants her to be.
.
“Ain't I been trying to tell you that you can't be holding grudges against people? Didn't you hear me say that? What do you think Jesus is gonna say if we come walking up to those pearly gates carrying a whole sackful of grievances and grudges on our backs? Jesus is gonna ask, What's that you toting on your back? Do you want to be opening that sack and showing Him all those ugly thing? He's dressed all in white and shining like the sun, and you're coming in with a load a hate in your your arms? Umm hmm. I can't imagine doing that.”
.
This book covers some pretty hard, rough places. While entertaining you with humor and mystery, amidst a family feud, a fake death, attempted murder, hidden treasure, lonely hearts, families searching for work, justice for the underpaid and overworked miners, baby blues, you are intrigued to search your own heart and pushed to dig deeper, go further and to just be a friend. This fantastical book of adventure ends with Alice back at home simply saying...
"I think Miss Lily is the wisest woman I've ever met."
THE END
I highly recommend this adventure story!!!!
You can order it paperback or my favorite Audible HERE!!!
If you have any great book titles or authors that you recommend please let me know!!!
♥Mary Frances :)
