BOOK NOOK REVIEWS...Rachel Hauck

   

 

 

 

Title: The Writing Desk

Author: Rachel Hauck
Publisher: Zondervan

Ages: Young Adult, Adult

Synopsis: 

 

Tenley Roth's first book was a runaway bestseller. Now that her second book is due, she's locked in fear. Can she repeat her earlier success or is she a fraud who has run out of inspiration?

With pressure mounting from her publisher, Tenley is weighted with writer's block. But when her estranged mother calls asking Tenley to help her through chemotherapy, she packs up for Florida where she meets handsome furniture designer Jonas Sullivan and discovers the story her heart's been missing.

A century earlier, another woman wrote at the same desk with hopes and fears of her own. Born during the Gilded Age, Birdie Shehorn is the daughter of the old money Knickerbockers. Under the strict control of her mother, her every move is decided ahead of time, even whom she'll marry. But Birdie has dreams she doesn't know how to realize. She wants to tell stories, write novels, make an impact on the world. When she discovers her mother has taken extreme measures to manipulate her future, she must choose between submission and security or forging a brand new way all on her own.

Tenley and Birdie are from two very different worlds, but fate has bound them together in a way time cannot erase.

 

Why You Should Consider It:

When is an old writing desk not a desk anymore?

When it becomes a bridge, helping to connect the lives of two women living in vastly different worlds set in a time one hundred years apart from each other.

Birdie Shehorn is born during the Gilded Age in New York, where young ladies are expected to bow to their mother’s wishes and marry some titled aristocracy from across the ocean in order to secure their place in high society. Too bad if Birdie has other dreams of how her life should be…like writing romance novels.

Tenley Knickerbocker, on the other hand, is very much a modern woman, riding high on the success of her first blockbuster novel. But Tenley’s life isn’t all smooth sailing either. Pressure from her publisher to produce her next best seller is causing writer’s block. Pressure from her boyfriend to go away with him to Paris at a time when her life feels like it is unraveling. Pressure from her estranged mother to go to Florida to help her through chemotherapy.

But maybe the very essence of life isn’t very different no matter whether you live in 1900 New York or modern day Florida. We all want to be able to choose who we will one day fall in love with, determine the paths our own lives will take, and  feel in control of our own destinies.

Author Rachel Hauck does a superb job of taking us deep into the lives to two seemingly different women and weaving a tale of how one desk helps connect them to their deepest desires no matter their individual circumstances or even the ocean of time standing between them.

A nice addition to any home library!

Like-O-Meter Rating:  5 out of 5...grab it!

**Rating scale**

 
 5 out of 5...grab it!
 4 out of 5...think about it.
 3 out of 5...take it or leave it.
 2 out of 5...maybe not for you.
 1 out of 5...forget about it!

(Disclaimer:

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)