Awakening Avery

This is a soul searching read by Ms. Lewis. She isn't afraid to dig into deep emotions pertaing to what some regard as touchy subjects: grief, religion, betrayal, to name a few.

The characters are well developed as is the story. The pacing is steady. The emotions real and raw.

This book will have you pondering on the meaning of life, family, and love. About how taking risks can bring you new experiences, friendship, the spark of creativity, and a new found lease on life.

A fine read.

Amazon

"You're depressed," the doctor declared.

"Ya think?" is author Avery Elkins Thompson's sarcastic response. She can’t pull out from the malaise that set in following her husband's untimely death, and her adult children fear they are losing her too.

She can't write, and questions about their father's death leave the family mired in pain. "We need a healing place," her oldest son tells her, suggesting she find it on Anna Maria Island, Florida, a former family vacation spot.

When Avery returns to Baltimore to sell the family's waterfront condo, she meets rodeo-ers-turned-real-estate-brokers Teddie and Rider Davis, and Avery's quiet life will never be the same again. The Davises help arrange a short-term house swap with widower Gabriel Carson from Anna Maria, whose overprotective parenting has resulted in two self-centered, twenty-something daughters. Avery and Gabriel are in for the summer of their lives as they step into one another's messy, complicated worlds.

Still, venturing out on her own again is challenging for Avery, whose experiences at the Ringling's magnificent Ca d'Zan mansion, and with the quirky characters she meets there, eventually awaken her to truths she desperately needs to remember—that God has not forgotten her, and as crazy as life can be, it is possible to laugh and love again.