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.
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 REVIEW:
The Art of Losing Yourself is the poignant story of complex relationships and the difficult circumstances that complicate them. It is the story of Carmen, a successful meteorologist whose grief over multiple miscarriages has created a wide chasm between her and her husband…and has caused some unfortunate behavior that threatens her career. Carmen’s young sister Gracie has had all she can take of life with her alcoholic mother and refuses to live with her father’s new family. Running to the only place she has felt loved, Gracie finds her beloved family hotel abandoned and boarded up. Together, Carmen and Gracie work to refurbish the old hotel and in doing so may just find what they have been looking for.
Like every other book I have read by Katie Ganshert, The Art of Losing Yourself was real and at times heart-wrenching. With such true-to-life problems as alcoholism, teen runaways, troubled marriage, dementia, and infertility, many readers will easily identify with this novel. Characters are well-rounded and the plot moves along at a good pace.
Once again, Ganshert has produced a strong story that is authentic, thought-provoking, and faith-challenging yet ultimately offers hope. I recommend it.
