Review - Quaker Summer by Lisa Samson

Heather and Jace Curridge are living the American Dream complete with a house on the lake with a swimming pool and plans for tennis courts, a son who hasn’t gone through that rebellious stage but is chocked full of artistic talent, and everything else listed on the Jones’ to-be catalog. Heather even has an adoring husband (and a great name, I might add).
But something is missing. She loves her stuff, but she was not made for all of this, she knows.
So when she meets a hard-nosed yet loveable nun and a pair of quirky Quaker sisters, she’s doomed to scratch away the glittery materialism and get down to the core.
I love this book. Of course I do. How could I not with Lisa Samson at the pen (or, rather, computer)? Aside from the fact that I am Heather, I was Heather (if that makes any sense), and I want to summer with the two sisters. None of her characters are perfect, and none are complete villains (don’t you just hate when you can’t have some good old hatred for a villain, that you have to look at them with God’s John 3:16 compassion?). Aside from the characters, which is Samson’s strength, I love this book because of its heart. How many U.S. lives are empty? And how many try to fill that emptiness with the latest and greatest technology/Eurway couch/house addition/kitchen gadget/antique find (I could go on here)? Lisa addresses the issue behind that.
How many times (while we're on the question) can you say a book not only entertained you, but challenged you to look deeper, to change, to incarnate Christ’s love? I can say that about this book. Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to make a cake for the orphanage about five miles down the road from my house.