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Reviewed by Phee Paradise

Here Burns My Candle
By Liz Curtis Higgs

The second half of Here Burns My Candle is full of suspense and unexpected heartbreak. Through it, two women, Elisabeth and her mother-in-law, Marjorie, learn to trust God and love each other. God speaks to them through His word, then patiently waits for them to respond in the midst of trials.

Unfortunately the reader has to be patient too, because the first half of the book moves very slowly. Higgs creates a real picture of 16th century Edinburgh in the midst of the Jacobite rebellion. We meet Marjorie, who loves only her sons and her gold, and Elisabeth, who is having a crisis of faith. We also meet Marjorie’s sons and her other daughter-in-law, all of whom have their own issues. But they are very interesting people leading very boring lives. Even when the sons join the Jacobite campaign, we are left behind, watching Marjorie still hoarding her gold and Elisabeth still questioning her faith. The only suspense I felt, was wondering what would happen when Bonnie Prince Charlie lost his attempt to win the British throne for his exiled father.

In fact, the real story starts when the Prince’s campaign heats up. From that point, the two protagonists face one trial after another. Many of them are personal, but the climax of the story hinges on Prince Charlie’s defeat. The growth of the two women through the unexpected plot twists produces a heart wrenching story.

My favorite part of the book was when I realized that it is the retelling of a well loved Bible story. I’m a little dense and didn’t get it until almost the end. I’m sure you will recognize it much sooner than I did. Here Burns My Candle, is in fact, just the beginning of the story, so look for the next book which will tell the more familiar part of it.

Pros: Very well written story of God’s patience and provision. The historical world of Edinburgh and the Jacobite rebellion are absorbing and you’ll identify with the characters’ flaws and strengths.

Cons: The book has a very slow start.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Here Burns My Candle

WaterBrook Press (March 16, 2010)

by

Liz Curtis Higgs





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

In her best-selling series of Bad Girls of the Bible books, workbooks, and videos, Liz Curtis Higgs breathes new life into ancient tales about the most infamous—and intriguing—women in scriptural history, from Jezebel to Mary Magdalene. Biblically sound and cutting-edge fresh, these popular titles have helped more than one million women around the world experience God's grace anew. Her best-selling historical novels, which transport the stories of Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, and Dinah to eighteenth-century Scotland, have also helped her readers view these familiar characters in a new light. And her nonfiction book, Embrace Grace, winner of a 2007 Retailers Choice Award, presents her message of hope in an engaging and personal way, speaking directly to the hearts of her readers.

A veteran speaker, Liz has presented more than 1,600 encouraging programs for audiences in all 50 states and 10 foreign countries: South Africa, Indonesia, Germany, France, England, Canada, Ecuador, Scotland, Portugal, and New Zealand. In 1995, she received the Council of Peers Award for Excellence from the National Speakers Association, becoming one of only 32 women in the world named to their CPAE-Speaker Hall of Fame.

Feature articles about Liz have appeared in more than 250 major newspapers and magazines across the country, as well as online with Salon.com, Beliefnet.com and Spirituality.com. She has also been interviewed on more than 600 radio and television stations, including guest appearances on PBS, A&E, MSNBC, NPR, TBN with Kirk Cameron, CBC Canada, BBC Radio Scotland, Rhema Broadcasting New Zealand, Radio Pulpit South Africa, LifeToday with James Robison, Focus on the Family, Janet Parshall's America, 100 Huntley Street and Midday Connection.

Liz is the author of twenty-six books, with more than three million copies in print.

Her fiction includes two contemporary novels, one novella, and four historical novels. And she has written five books for young children.



ABOUT THE BOOK

A mother who cannot face her future.

A daughter who cannot escape her past.



Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her.



Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips.

His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.

One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown.

A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illumines the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.

Watch the book video:







To read the first chapter of Here Burns My Candle, click HERE.