A sudden loss left her feeling fragile. When unburied details from yesteryear leave her in more pain, can she find it in herself to offer grace?
Eleanor Petersen is struggling to come to terms with her new reality. Receiving an unexpected call from a stranger, the history professor and department chair is heartbroken to hear her mother has died. And with a tumultuous family past, she fears … with a tumultuous family past, she fears traveling to Wisconsin to attend the funeral and clear out her estate will reopen long-forgotten wounds.
Full of spiritual doubts, Eleanor is surprised when she forms a comforting bond with the small town’s widowed Lutheran pastor. But as she comes to understand the woman her mother was, the estranged scholar uncovers a secret that will change her forever.
Can this grief-stricken daughter learn to forgive her parents and reclaim her own faith?
Get Up, Eleanor is a moving standalone Christian women’s fiction novel. If you like inspiring female protagonists, sacred journeys, and heartfelt interactions, then you’ll love Jeffrey McClain Jones’s hopeful tale.
Buy Get Up, Eleanor to embrace the unknown past today!
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An interesting read that tackles a variety of subjects including relationships, art, academia, religion, and life choices. I was entertained and found the way the inspirational aspects were introduced and explained refreshing. Worth the read. I was provided with this book by the author to read and review.
Get Up, Eleanor is unlike any of Jeffrey McClain Jones previous books. I have read them all and cherish everything he writes. The style has slowed down and he takes more time to develop Eleanor, the main character. The slower pace allows you to enter in to the slow transformation that goes on in Eleanor’s heart as she mourns the death of her mother.
You really need to take your time reading and be patient as Jeffrey unpacks the secrets of Eleanor’s past. He subtly invites you, the reader, to take a moment and examine some of your own past. There are things in the story that the child Eleanor did not understand and they become clearer as she gets to know aspects of her parents now that they have passed. The clarity she gets aids her in healing some brokenness she did not even realize was there.
I love to read fiction that can transform. Jeffery never fails to do that in everything he writes. Thank you for another great work.
I recommend this book.
My rating for this book is a 3.5 (sometimes I wish there was that option!)
What I liked …
The main character in this story is 65 years old. I liked the perspective of someone who had lived most of her professional life and was now determining if she needed to change course.
The minor characters were also strong and added a lot to the story line. The community aspect was powerful. I also liked the fact that the main character began to see that certain actions she took were prompted by God’s internal leading and were for her good. Many cultural issues were a part of this book, and for the most part I feel like they were handled well.
In the middle …
A family secret was exposed. What I liked was the fact that the focus was on how the issue affected the main character. But, that issue also remained vague and there really was not any resolution. That was true for another secret – it remained out there without understanding what exactly happened.
What I didn’t like …
This book is about how the main character deals with the loss of her mother. (This is in the book description, so I do not feel it is a spoiler). While seeing someone walk through the grief process was a good thought, the loss happened so early that I was not really connected yet to either character. I struggled with caring or feeling the loss because I did not “know them yet.”
Second, this book deals with the spiritual struggles of an agnostic. Having doubts can be common. But there were enough twinges for me in some of the theology presented that I felt uneasy. Certain things did not ring true.