About the Author
Mary E. DeMuth is an expert in Pioneer Parenting. She enables Christian parents to navigate our changing culture when their families left no good faith examples to follow.Her parenting books include Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture (Harvest House, 2007), Building the Christian Family You Never Had (WaterBrook, 2006), and Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God (Harvest House, 2005).
Mary also inspires people to face their trials through her real-to-life novels Watching the Tree Limbs (nominated for a Christy Award) and Wishing on Dandelions (NavPress, 2006).
Mary has spoken at Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, the ACFW Conference, the Colorado Christian Writers Conference, and at various churches and church planting ministries. Mary and her husband, Patrick, reside in Texas with their three children. They recently returned from breaking new spiritual ground in Southern France and planting a church.
About the Book
The abrupt disappearance of young Daisy Chance from a small Texas town in 1973 spins three lives out of control—Jed, whose guilt over not protecting his friend Daisy strangles him; Emory Chance, who blames her own choices for her daughter’s demise; and Ouisie Pepper, who is plagued by headaches while pierced by the shattered pieces of a family in crisis.In this first book in the Defiance, Texas Trilogy, fourteen-year-old Jed Pepper has a sickening secret: He’s convinced it’s his fault his best friend Daisy went missing. Jed’s pain sends him on a quest for answers to mysteries woven through the fabric of his own life and the lives of the families of Defiance, Texas. When he finally confronts the terrible truths he’s been denying all his life, Jed must choose between rebellion and love, anger and freedom.
Daisy Chain is an achingly beautiful southern coming-of-age story crafted by a bright new literary talent. It offers a haunting yet hopeful backdrop for human depravity and beauty, for terrible secrets and God’s surprising redemption.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Daisy Chain, go HERE.
My Review
Oh my! Mary DeMuth knows how to write. This is the first novel I've read by her, and I'm enthralled by her way with words. I'm only half way through the novel, though, so I'll have to finish this later with a full review. In a nutshell: Daisy has mysteriously vanished, and Jed wants to find her. Wonderful writing style. Interesting characters. Good presentation of setting and time period.
A few things about the novel make me uneasy. Sometimes DeMuth uses words normally reserved for profanity, and I'm left debating whether someone just swore. That's rather distracting for a reader who isn't used to seeing words used like that in a Christian novel. My other uneasiness comes from what seems to be a rather stereotypical treatment of Hap, Jed's dad. He's the preacher who is righteous in the pulpit but beats his kids when nobody's looking. A rather unsympathetic, dictator-type character who has no redeeming qualities. I'm having flashbacks to The Poisonwood Bible. I certainly hope that Hap gets a chance to change and show his good side by the end. I also hope that Jed finds a personal relationship with Christ because so far he isn't showing much depth of faith. And his bitterness toward his dad, while understandable, is disturbing. I'm assuming that he'll change by the end of the story. Other than these nitpicks, I'm enjoying this one. This is no easy, light-hearted read. DeMuth is clearly going after some serious, heavy issues. I'll write more later.
Author Colleen Coble's thirty novels and novellas have won or been finalists in awards ranging from the Romance Writers of America prestigious RITA award, the Holt Medallion, the ACFW Book of the Year, the Daphne du Maurier, the National Readers' Choice, and the Booksellers Best awards. She writes romantic mysteries because she loves to see justice prevail and love begin with a happy ending.
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