Emily's home life is less than ideal. Her mother drinks, her grandfather sits in an armchair smoking and watching TV, and the whole house is a mess. The only light part of Emily's life is her love of art, and a recurring dream she has had since she was small, about a beautiful place with a tree and and kind woman. One day Emily has a fight with her family and flees the house. As she sits on a bench in a park two young sister missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints approach her and offer to buy her hot chocolate. That is the start of her journey from darkness into light. She eventually goes to the local LDS church and meets the Baker family. They are kind to her and ignore her worn out clothes and the smell of smoke the hovers around her. In fits and starts, Emily comes to recognize the spiritual meaning of her dream and make her way toward a better life as a member of Christ's church.
This is a new novel, self-published through Amazon, by a LDS author who is the relative of one of my friends. It is very heartwarming and earnest. The story is sweet, if a little predictable, and the two protagonists are likeable and relatable. The transformation that occurs in Emily's life during the story reminded me of the changes in some of the people I saw who joined the church when I was an LDS missionary, though to my knowledge none of them had visionary dreams to help them along. It is a decent first novel and portends good things to come from this author in the future. (302 p. 2026)
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