About the Book

Book Title: The Mending of Lillian Cathleen
Author: Linda Brooks Davis

Genre: Historical
Release date: October, 2018

It’s 1914. American women are demanding the vote.

And the first flames of the Great War are igniting Europe.

But a battle of a different sort rages in Oklahoma.

The thermometer registers one hundred six degrees, an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence even for the twenty-eighth day of July.

But this is no ordinary day. The jury has reached a verdict. Lily fidgets in the old church pew. Her name has clotted into a by-word.

Her blood is tainted. Can she right the wrongs? Or will her past forever define her? She eyes the judge.

And the courtroom holds its breath.

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My Review

What a beautiful & yet heartbreaking story our author has written for us! Can I just take a minute to appreciate the cover, and how beautiful that is? The treasure found within the pages is one that is truly emotional, eye-opening, and heartfelt. The weaving of the Lord within the circumstances our characters face reminds us of the hope we have in the Lord at all times and in all places. The author so clearly depicts the good vs. evil, and really makes us cringe at the villains found within. The conflicts the characters find themselves in are truly heart-pounding, emotional, and sometimes just simply heartbreaking. While I found the plot to be a little too wordy at points which was a bit confusing, the plot certainly was one that kept me glued to the page until I finished the story in one sitting. Our heroine is truly that in every way, and yet a totally relatable and down to earth character. The history contained within was also artfully portrayed. I feel that any fiction reader should give this masterful story a read!

I received a complimentary copy of this book, and all opinions given are my own.

About the Author

Linda Brooks Davis was born and reared on a farm in Raymondville, a small Rio Grande Valley community in the southernmost tip of Texas. Linda earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Speech Pathology from Abilene Christian University and a Master’s Degree from Houston Baptist University. She retired in 2008 after forty years as a special educator and administrator. Linda and her beloved husband Al worship and minister at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio and dote on six grandchildren, three of whom are triplets.

Readers may contact Linda through her website, www.lindabrooksdavis.com. Linda’s debut novel, The Calling of Ella McFarland, is set in 1905 Indian Territory prior to Oklahoma statehood. It won the 2014 Jerry Jenkins Operation First Novel Award. It was released in 2015 and won the 2016 American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award. The sequel novella, A Christmas to Remember, is set in 1908 Oklahoma and released in December, 2016. A second novella, A Christmas Measure of Love, released in 2017. It is set in 1910 and is a prequel to Linda’s second full-length novel, this one set in 1914, The Mending of Lily Cathleen, which releases in 2018.

Guest Post from Linda

Certain ancestors and their experiences appear in my stories. There’s bit of my grandmother and a strong dash of my mother in one character. My father’s sterling qualities appear in another. And there’s a low-down family reprobate in another. Don’t forget cotton planting, hoeing, and harvest time. The glorious aroma of fresh-picked cotton and the nothing-in-the-world-like-it odor from the pig pen. A sewing machine whirring. The clink of a milk pail. A cow hollering to be milked. Summer’s sun on my face, the hearty South Texas wind in my hair, and the comfort of backing up to a wall heater on a cold winter morning. All find their way into the plot lines.

In my family’s history, my own life, and the kaleidoscope of lives in my stories, Jesus appears as the golden thread linking the past to the present and beyond. He turns an ordinary morning into a hint of the “Sweet By & By.” He adds the delicate aroma of the Rose of Sharon to the sultry stillness before a summer storm. And He wraps the bitterness of grief and failure in the richness of His incomparable grace.

The Mending of Lillian Cathleen is one of those tales that reach beyond the ordinary to the extraordinary because of Jesus. Lily’s story captures some of the heartache of domestic abuse, but it packs a powerfully joyous punch at the end. I thought I’d add a strong dash of sweet to this post with a recipe that appears in The Calling of Ella McFarland (which is re-releasing in October 2018). Mama’s (or Papa’s) Nectar of Heaven was a treat my mother enjoyed as a child. She set the same yummy delicacy before her kids, and I, of course, have done the same. Here ’tis, ya’ll, from Texas with sweet, sweet love.