Captivating! ~ Into the Free by Julie Cantrell ~ Review

“Into the Free” had a very visceral pull on me as a reader. I was reeled into this story of a girl growing into a woman, a girl living in conditions I couldn’t imagine withstanding, and yet she gave me a dose of courage and beauty I didn’t realize I needed.

            It takes amazing talent to tell a story with strife and a desperate search for wholeness, in a way that doesn’t make it seem as though the book has no plot or direction. The writing voice yanked me into the pages of the story and watching Millie make her choices gripped my heart.

            There is such beauty in this book. Obviously the story won’t be for everyone, but it really encompasses so much of what I look for in the novels I love. A desperate yearning, a tension filled search for her right place, a longing from the hand of God to touch her.

            I loved the faith message so much in this novel. It’s not overt, not even something you would necessarily pick up, because it’s lived. It fills the pages and encompasses the end…I absolutely loved how the book ended.

            A literary novel, but it’s not written in a stuck-up or stodgy manner- it’s a novel that wrapped around my heart and left me just the right amount of changed.

            This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers through CFBA for my copy to review.

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More about the novel and author...

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Into the Free David C. Cook (February 1, 2012) by Julie Cantrell


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A speech-language pathologist and literacy advocate, Julie Cantrell was the editor-in-chief of the Southern Literary Review and currently teaches English as a second language to elementary students. She has been a freelance writer for ten years and has published two children’s books. Julie and her family live in Mississippi where they operate Valley House Farm.


Julie served as contributing editor to MOMSense magazine and wrote content for Mothers of Preschoolers, Intl. for nearly a decade. Additionally, she has contributed to more than a dozen books. Into Th Free is her first book.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Just a girl. The only one strong enough to break the cycle.


In Depression-era Mississippi, Millie Reynolds longs to escape the madness that marks her world. With an abusive father and a “nothing mama,” she struggles to find a place where she really belongs.


For answers, Millie turns to the Gypsies who caravan through town each spring. The travelers lead Millie to a key which unlocks generations of shocking family secrets. When tragedy strikes, the mysterious contents of the box give Millie the tools she needs to break her family’s longstanding cycle of madness and abuse.


Through it all, Millie experiences the thrill of first love while fighting to trust the God she believes has abandoned her. With the power of forgiveness, can Millie finally make her way into the free?


Watch the book video:





If you would like to read the first chapter of Into the Free, go HERE.