Desert Gift

When you’re at the top . . . you’ve got a long way to fall. A nationally known marriage expert, Jillian Galloway is at the pinnacle of success. Her syndicated talk radio show is a hit and her first book is about to release. But just as she’s leaving for her West Coast publicity tour, Jill’s faithful husband of twenty-four years drops a bombshell: he wants a divorce.

As her world crashes down around her, Jill flees to her parents’ home in the California desert, wondering if everything she’s built her career on—and everything she’s built her life around—is a sham. She thought she’d done everything right. So how did her marriage slowly slip away? And will she ever get it back?

From best-selling author Sally John comes an insightful and inspiring story about the unexpected detours our lives can take, the lies we sometimes tell ourselves, and the hope that God is always at work, even in the desert.

Sally John's second book in the Side Roads series is just as compelling a read as the first book in the series.

This book brings out relationships other than just Jill and Jack's marriage. We meet Jill's sister Viv and her husband Marty - and get insight not only into Jill and Viv's relationship but also Viv and Marty's. Then there is Connor, Jill and Jack's son - who has a surprise of his own in store. And of course there Jill's loving relationship with her father Skip and her strained relationship with her mother Daisy.

But I think my favorite relationship in the book is the one that develops between Jill and Agnes, one of the ladies she meets through her sister Viv. Each and every one of us needs an "Agnes" in our lives.

Although the subject matter of a marriage expert going through a divorce is sad and serious, there are plenty of fun detours in the book.

Recommended.

Jody

Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.