Pieces of the Heart by Bonnie S Calhoun

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Pieces of the Heart
(Abingdon Press - June 1, 2013)

by
Bonnie S. Calhoun
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bonnie S. Calhoun is Owner/Director of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, owner/publisher of Christian Fiction Online Magazine, Northeast Zone Director for American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), the ACFW ‘2011 Mentor of the Year,” President of (CAN) Christian Authors Network, and Appointment Coordinator for both the Colorado Christian Writers Conference (CCWC) and the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference(GPCWC).

For the last six years she has taught workshops in Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, and creating Social Media promotions at both CCWC, and GPCWC, and in 2011 at the Montrose, Pa Christian Writers Conference. She also taught a Facebook workshop at the 2012 ACFW conference.

Bonnie and her husband live in a log cabin in upstate area of New York with a dog and cat who think she’s wait-staff.

Her sites are:

https://www.facebook.com/bonniescalhounsnarkandsuspense
https://www.facebook.com/bscalhoun

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Cordelia Grace watched Bernard Howard, the love of her young life, go off to fight for our country in WWII. And she has spent the last three years creating the Pine Cone quilt that will grace their marriage bed when he comes home. Each row of triangles signifies a layer in her life, sets of memories, hopes, dreams, and prayers for her future, enough spoken words to cover them forever. Her image of their “happy-ever-after” grows proportionally as the quilt expands.

But is the man that returns from the war, the same man that she remembered? Are the dark shades of color that she had to use for the outside edges of the beloved quilt prophetic of her life to come? Can love and faith overcome all?

My Thoughts:

I have thoroughly enjoyed the books in the Quilts of Love series and this one is no exception. The tagline for the series "Every Quilt has a Story" is quite apropos, especially for this title, as the story includes experiences shared from the author's father during his time of military service in World War II. I also applaud Bonnie for making the effort to construct her own Pinecone quilt that serves as the centerpiece for this book, as her family had a Pinecone quilt that was sadly destroyed by a hurricane in the 1970s.

I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of World War II history from the African-American perspective. The segregation and harrowing mistreatment of African-American members of the military is not something I was very familiar with. Reading about it in the pages of this book was not just eye-opening but heartbreaking as well.

My favorite character was Grammy. Having her share her time and wisdom with Cordelia even while living with a daughter-in-law she didn't always see eye-to-eye with was quite admirable. I liked that she was able to leave Cordelia with a legacy of prayer. A legacy that would see Cordelia through her darkest days as Bernard returns fighting a war unlike the one he left behind - with mental adversaries unwilling to let him go.

One of my favorite quotes from Grammy was "learn to look through their meanness to see their pain". This applied to more than just one character in this book and I'd say it is an essential part of prayer...not everyone by their actions is worthy of our prayers, but those are usually the ones who need them most.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story...a story of love, forgiveness, and sowing seeds of prayer even when the harvest doesn't come quickly or in the way that we expect.

My sincerest thanks to CFBA and Abingdon Press for generously providing a copy for my honest review.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Pieces of the Heart, go HERE.