When Gia comes face to face with a past she didn’t know she had, will she learn to trust in a future she can’t control?MEET GEORGIA GUSTAFSONGia Gustafson is officially coming of age… but now what? She feels like she’s standing still, while everything—and everyone—around her is moving at lightning speed. Her best friend, Ricky Zander, is acting like a stranger, her grandparents have grown old … Ricky Zander, is acting like a stranger, her grandparents have grown old almost overnight, and her sisters have all found their happily-ever-afters.
Once again, she’s the odd Gustafson Girl out.
Then there’s Angela Clinton, the girl who plowed her el Camino into the side of Paul and Simone Gustafson’s car when Gia was only four. After spending most of her adult life in jail, Angela is finally coming home, and she wants to make amends with the four sisters she made orphans so many years ago.
As if life wasn’t confusing enough, the gorgeous new guy at work is doing his best to sweep Gia off her feet, and Ricky is having none of it.
So when a stranger she’d recognize anywhere shows up unannounced on her doorstep, Gia isn’t so sure she’s ready to grow up after all.
Note: The Gustafson Girls series is Women’s Fiction/Christian Romance written from a Christian worldview.
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The Gustafson Girls series is about four sisters, each book centering on a specific sister and her struggles as well as her relationships with her sisters. Each sister’s book allows you into her inner workings, past the outside view of them you are given in the other sisters’ books. Ms. Doughty does a wonderful job of really giving each sister’s point of view, and while they are all written by the same author, each book has a little different feel to it that fits the personality and perspective of that sister. While each of the books is based on a different sister’s journey and could be read as a standalone, I don’t really recommend it. There is a part of the storyline that is introduced in the first book and continues throughout each of the books with a final culmination of that situation in Gia’s book. That aspect of the storyline will be much better understood if the stories are read in order.
Gia and the Blast from the Past gives us the inside scoop on Gia, the youngest sister. She’s quite a bit younger than the other sisters and this makes for a little perspective shift. Gia’s just entering the adult world and trying to figure some things out, including her own heart and mind. Feeling a bit rebellious against the idea of the good girl she’s been and like the secure atmosphere of her life also makes her feel “stuck,” she fights the beauty of “safe.” She’s hit with several surprises in this book that she has to figure out what they mean for her and how exactly to navigate the information and situations she’s faced with. Hurts, questions, doubts, uncertainties that have been building up in Gia come bursting forth—things she didn’t even know she struggled with, things that she’d tried to drown out—which have her feeling out of sorts and a bit out of control as she’s trying to figure out just what is going on with her usually compliant self. Ms. Doughty has an amazing way of letting you in on and making you feel the inner turmoil, chaos, and questioning going on inside of Gia.
In feeling all the different things she is and not understanding why she feels the way she does, Gia has some reactions to some of the people in her life that really aren’t fair to them, and I think that’s very relatable. How often do we react poorly to others in our own lives when we’re feeling conflicted on the inside and struggling to figure out what’s going on? Thankfully, Gia has some loving and wise people in her life to love on her, stand up for her, to support her, and to help her begin to sort through everything.
A few other things to love about this book: Even with the intensity of Gia’s journey in this book, it was fun to catch up a little with the other sisters and get glimpses of their continuing journeys. Grandpa and Granny Gustafson seem to make more of a prominent appearance in this book and I enjoyed getting to know them better. Angela Clinton’s story comes to a head and I love the way Ms. Doughty handles it. I want to say more, but I won’t because I don’t want to give any part of that away. I will let you discover it on your own. I will say that there is real life Christ likeness and Christianity in action demonstrated in and throughout the whole story.
Ms. Doughty’s books are packed with emotion, imperfect characters with real struggles, and truth as well as grace and redemption and they are well worth the read. With her writing, she acknowledges real life situations, choices, and pain and heartache and that they can be answered with hope, healing, and joy through the redemptive work of a Savior. When it feels like everything is falling apart around us in our world and we’re being hit on every side, we have no idea just what God might be orchestrating to bring His healing and His hope into our lives, how He might be intricately weaving together the details of our lives to make beauty from ashes.
**I received a copy of this book from the author and have chosen to review it. My opinions are my own.