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Wild in the Hollow by Amber C. Haines

Do you long for a place to call home? Ever feel homesickness but don't understand where that feeling comes from?


Amber Haines is a woman haunted by God. Like Eve in the Garden, she craved the fruit that she thought would lead her to freedom. But the whispers of temptation led her instead down a path of isolation, dissatisfaction, and life-altering choices. In her most broken moment, Amber met God waiting for her in the fallout, freely offering her grace and life.



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© Kelly Sauer
About the Author:
Amber C. Haines is a soulful writer and a blogger at TheRunaMuck.com. She is curator, with her husband, Seth, of Mother Letters and is a contributor with many acclaimed writers and bloggers at DaySpring's (in)courage. She has been involved as a coordinator with both BlissDom and !dea Camp Orphan Care and continues to build meaningful relationships with church leaders, lifestyle bloggers, authors, advocates, and poets. she lives in Arkansas, has four wild sons, and finds community among the broken.

I received this book from Revell in exchange for my honest review.

My Thoughts:
The message Amber is conveying is all about reality, brokenness and pain, a soul searching for God, trying to fill the void with everything - but God, rebellion masked as freedom, a struggle with the rules and the natural bent towards breaking those rules, the feeling of never being good enough. I think this book is relative to many of us. 

Amber tells her story, a story of brokenness, but not a story of hopelessness. In that brokenness she met God, the Savior. From there she began a new life, which, although, it looked beautiful on the outside, was still masking the internal pain she felt. Not until she came to the place of complete surrender did God then take the away the shame and guilt and make beauty from ashes. She had been let down by people, the church, and a list of look good rules she couldn't follow, when what she longed for was acceptance, unconditional love, and a place to call home. Amber is such a great example of the importance of community, of loving people to Jesus, not to a list of rules they can't follow and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work. Of remembering we are all broken and in need of a Savior and Jesus came to seek and to save the Lost.

As I read this book, I struggled with the writing style a little. It wasn't so much that I didn't like it as much as it is written in a style I am not really used to reading, so I really had to concentrate to read it. But Amber's story resonated with me.  I could have been reading about myself. Amber is a very gifted artist and has taken some poetic classes. She has the gift of expression. Me being a country girl and all, who sometimes doesn't even get plain ole' English,  just kind of struggled through some of it. I can't say I agree with all of her theology since, at times I am not sure I understood correctly what she was trying to express. But it's a story many can relate to, and Amber offers hope that comes through Jesus, and that I know to be true from my own personal brokenness. 

Comments

  1. The book sounds good, but I may not be able to understand it either lol.

    ReplyDelete

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