Amanda Deed

Title: The Greenfield Legacy (A Novel)
Authors: Meredith Resce, Amanda Deed, Paula Vince, Rose Dee
Pages: 258
Year: 2012
Publisher: Even Before Publishing
My rating is 4 stars out of 5.
What a roller coaster of emotions as the plot thickens around a family torn apart at one time by bitterness and fear. By the end of the novel the brilliance of weaving such a captivating and heart rending novel was just amazing. It starts with a father denying his daughter, Mattie, marriage to a man she loves as he envisioned her marrying someone he considered a more equal partner.
When Mattie learns her boyfriend is going to Vietnam, their time together results in a child being born. While that alone was tough, it was even tougher being forced to let the baby be adopted without Mattie having held her. Then, as readers continue on, they will learn both the history of the family and how Mattie now lives her life guarding her heart from any type of love for fear of being hurt again.
Legacy is the major theme of the novel and being able to decide what type of legacy to leave. Will it be an unforgiving one or one redeemed by faith in Jesus? The way the characters are related is slowly revealed as well as the untangling of the mystery of why some of them have acted so distant. There are budding romances, tears of good-bye, but more so of the hope and peace Jesus can bring to any heart that is open to Him.
The authors did a superb job of crafting the characters very lifelike with both positive and negative aspects of human nature. Time wasn’t rushed in the novel, but used to show how God’s timing is perfect along with how forgiving or breaking down the walls around the heart can take a chunk of time. Even when forgiveness is given or received it takes our human hearts, minds and souls time to heal. Only the healing and moving forward as a changed person can happen because of Christ, which is shown as truth in the book.
I loved how married couples were shown to sometimes lose their first love and need work to be reminded why they got married in the first place. There are some answers still left open in the book, so don’t expect all loose ends to be tied up. I think it allows for thought and imagination on the part of the readers. So take time to read the novel and think about what type of legacy you would like to live out before others so that it is passed down from one generation to another. Also consider purposely passing down your faith in Jesus Christ and reading His Word as well as praying daily for those who are to come after us. Great story!
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