The Art of Losing Yourself

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Art of Losing Yourself WaterBrook Press (April 21, 2015) by Katie Ganshert

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Award-winning author, Katie Ganshert, graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a degree in education, and worked as a fifth grade teacher for several years before staying home to write full-time. She was born and raised in the Midwest, where she lives with her family. When she’s not busy penning novels or spending time with her people, she enjoys drinking coffee with friends, reading great literature, and eating copious amounts of dark chocolate.

Katie can be reached through the Contact link on her Website.



ABOUT THE BOOK

Just like in my dream, I was drowning and nobody even noticed.

Every morning, Carmen Hart pastes on her made-for-TV smile and broadcasts the weather. She’s the Florida panhandle’s favorite meteorologist, married to everyone’s favorite high school football coach. They’re the perfect-looking couple, live in a nice house, and attend church on Sundays. From the outside, she’s a woman who has it all together.  But on the inside, Carmen Hart struggles with doubt. She wonders if she made a mistake when she married her husband. She wonders if God is as powerful as she once believed. Sometimes she wonders if He exists at all. After years of secret losses and empty arms, she’s not so sure anymore.

Until Carmen’s sister—seventeen year old runaway, Gracie Fisher—steps in and changes everything. Gracie is caught squatting at a boarded-up motel that belongs to Carmen’s aunt, and their mother is off on another one of her benders, which means Carmen has no other option but to take Gracie in. Is it possible for God to use a broken teenager and an abandoned motel to bring a woman’s faith and marriage back to life? Can two half-sisters make each other whole?

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Art of Losing Yourself, go HERE.

My Thoughts:
The Art of Losing Yourself is the first book by Katie Ganshert that I have read.  Her story is full of raw emotion and characters with a sincerity and depth that causes the reader to feel the emotions along with them.  I am now a Ganshert fan!
I so appreciated that Ganshert's characters weren't all neat and tidy with the predictable "happily ever after" stories.  Because of this, Ganshert's characters are believable and easy with which to identify. My favorite character may have been Ingrid (Carmen and Gracie's aunt).  While teetering between lucidity and living in the past, Aunt Ingrid gives readers sound bites like the following that will be rolling around in minds long after the book is finished:

"Not all things are worth saving, you know.  But some are worth every ounce of fight you can throw at them." With all the dignity in the world, she took a few small bites of her dessert.  "You just have to know the difference."

"So what did you and Gerald do?"  "All we could do - we helped him get through it, not over it."  She flipped over an ace.  "Because there are some things in life we aren't meant to get over."

 Simply said, The Art of Losing Yourself, is a blessing to read.

Happy Reading Ya'll,
Jennifer