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River's End (2012)

by Melody Carlson(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

142671274X (ISBN13: 9781426712746)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

publisher

Abingdon Press

series

The Inn at Shining Waters

review 1: River's EndThe Inn at Shining Waters #3by Melody CarlsonThe peaceful waters of the Siuslaw River provide rest and healing to those who come to stay at The Inn of Shining Waters. But all is not peaceful as Anna's granddaughter Sarah struggles in the turbulent 70s to find her own peace and place.River's End is end of the journey for generations of Siuslaw women as Anna, her daughter Lauren, and Sarah learn to adjust to the changes that life brings. But throughout the river remains a constant. When Sarah returns after a two year absence she is embittered against her parents for the neglect she suffered during her childhood. Living in a communal setting while seeking a spiritual fix has left Sarah a confused, angry, and damaged young woman. Anna warns Sarah about the poison... more of unforgiveness. At a time of family crisis Sarah has a fight with her mother that causes Sarah to feel that she no longer fits in at Shining Waters. Sarah again disappears from the lives of those who love her. As Anna, Clark and Lauren search for Sarah they learn that they must let each other travel their own Trail of Tears until they find their way home.As the women of Shining River learn to let go of their insecurities, fears, and bitterness they all grow as people and in their relationships with each other. River's End is a story of faith and family.I received a copy of this title in conjunction with this PUMP Up Your Book coordinated tour. All opinions expressed are my own.
review 2: We all know at some point in our lives, chapters in our life stories must reach an end before new one's begin and that is just what happens in the conclusion to the Inn at the Shining Water Series of books by Melody Carlson, River's End. It's a book of some sadness, anxiety, hope and of course new waters to chart, but it is also filled with the most heartbreaking and sweetest goodbyes as well.If you have followed the series from the beginning with River's Song, you learn about Anna's story and her Indian heritage and why the river holds a place for her people and offers any who come to live here a chance for healing and restoration. In River's Call, we learn about Anna's daughter Lauren and the healing of a broken relationship between Anna and Lauren, and finally now a grandmother in River's End, and the prodigal returning home of her missing granddaughter, Sarah who has gone without a trace for two years. She has answered the call of the river and came home.Now as history repeats itself, mother and daughter are at odds and bitterness between the two continues to escalate as one tries to heal and the other tries find a path towards forgiveness. Each is trying too hard to make the other one see the path towards new beginnings as Sarah returns home from living in a commune in Oregon that seems to have inspired a bit of sadness and harbors grudges towards her mother for not being good enough while she was growing up. Lauren on the other hand wants nothing more than to apologize and move forward without recognizing the pain and hurt that Sarah is carrying within her heart, she wants the quick band aid fix but the pain goes much deeper than Lauren realizes.As Anna tries to help them work together to find healing along the water by working at the Inn during the summer season, it only seems to do nothing more but cause each of them to avoid the other for the sake of not getting into heated confrontations, and drive them further apart. Anna's mother-in-law, Hazel, returns home from a long trip in China only to return home ill. Anna hopes some old-fashioned home made remedies might do her some good but soon we find out that Hazel's heart has grown much older than she feels and Anna and Clark along with some of the readers must find a way to say good-bye to a loveable character that has been so prominent from the very beginning. Will Lauren and Sarah find healing in the passing legacy Hazel has to leave behind, or will the river's call go unanswered between the two?I received River's End compliments of Abingdon Press, and Pump Up Your Book Tours for my honest review. In this series it shows the lasting consequences that can happen when we let bitterness poison our hearts and keep us from the opportunity to say our final good-byes to those we love the most. It shows how forgiveness isn't about letting someone off the hook for the pain they have caused, but more about the healing that happens within our own hearts when we can let the burden go and finally move forward in freedom spiritually. While the river I believe is a metaphor for the spiritual river all of us have running through our lives, we must all heed to its call and return home to God, for without it we will be left in a faithless drought and always be searching in thirst for something to fill it unless it's God. Only He can fill the emptiness in anyone's life and that's why I rate this series a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. Trust me, you'll want to read this series from the first book to gain all the insight you can from Melody Carlson's words! less

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