Guide Me Home Book one of the Grace Alone series
Connie J Cortright
$4.99
$13.99
ISBN 978-0996844109
Milk Door Publications
November 5, 2015
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About the Book
What comes to mind when you hear
the 1920s? Flappers? Jazz? Speakeasies? Bobbed haircuts? Cloche hats? Roaring
Twenties?
In 1926, this answer wasn’t so
simple for a Christian school teacher. A young, naïve Emma Ehlke left her
family’s Wisconsin farm and took up a new teaching post at a parochial school
in Racine. Excited by the prospect of leaving her dodgy rural life, she looked
forward to experiencing life in the Jazz Age. Emma soon fell under the charms
of her dashing neighbor Freddie, who offered to be Emma’s guide to the exciting
adventures ahead. Under his guidance, she experienced a life she’d only dreamed
about.
However, she didn’t take into
consideration her actions in light of her new career. Newly ordained and single
minister, Pastor Neil Hannemann was left to deal with Emma’s impetuous actions
as she attempted to join the Jazz Age. He longed to take her under his wing,
but not like Freddie! He was forced to confront Emma about her naïve decisions
and pointed out to her that a Christian’s life in the Roaring Twenties should
be totally different than how she was acting. Under his shepherding, Neil
attempted to guide her home by the godly course.
Emma found herself torn. Should
she choose the novelties and excitement offered by Freddie, or the faithful
path on which Pastor Neil wanted to lead her?
My Review
Cortright’s fiction explores a
side of the excitement of the Roaring Twenties that is often neglected. How does
the community of faith respond to the exuberance and overindulgence of an era
of good times?
Newly adult Emma Ehlke, fresh
from college with her teaching degree under her arm, leaves home for her first
job in a new community. She soon learns how classroom preparation and the real
world meet only through experience. She also realizes how much she has to learn
about the real world and how to handle the opinionated members of her Lutheran
congregation. When her neighbor begins a carefully crafted seduction, Emma
takes much of the story to learn the truth of the necessity of relying on God
first, her gut and conscience always, and the people who have her best interest
and her true heart in mind, forever.
Emma’s neighbor, Freddie, might
be the admirer her self-esteem preens for, but the man whose admiration grows
in her soul proves that true love might just lie nearer than next door.
Told in multiple viewpoints with
delightful historicity in a familiar community in Racine, Kenosha, and
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Cortright’s multi-layered historical romantic fiction explores
the reliability of true faith and friendship, the heart and spirit of an
exciting period of time, and the nature of unconditional love.
About the Author
Connie Cortright has been a history buff all her life,
reading biographies and history since grade school. Naturally, when she
considered writing a story, her first thoughts turned toward historical
fiction. Her novels are set in America's Midwest and reflect her own Wisconsin
farming roots. Snippets of her childhood experiences pop up in her stories. Her
life has been the fulfillment of her girlhood dreams: becoming a Lutheran
school teacher, marrying a pastor, and having lots of children. Her life has
taken her to both coasts (California and New Jersey) as she followed her pastor-husband
in his service to various churches with their four sons.
