Found this over at Relz Reviews
Ladies, I have found a book to add to our Book Club! I am so excited about this read. For one it is based off of Madame Jeanne Guyon. If you have never read her stuff it is so intimate and brings you right to the feet of Jesus!
Check out the Book Trailer at the end of this review.
Ladies, I have found a book to add to our Book Club! I am so excited about this read. For one it is based off of Madame Jeanne Guyon. If you have never read her stuff it is so intimate and brings you right to the feet of Jesus!
Check out the Book Trailer at the end of this review.
Ginny Yttrup’s second novel, Lost and Found, is garnering rave reviews
and is available now from B&H Publishing
Synopsis
It
appears Jenna Bouvier is losing everything: beauty, family, and wealth.
When her controlling and emotionally abusive mother-in-law accuses
Jenna of an affair with her spiritual director and threatens to expose
them, Jenna also risks losing her reputation as a woman of faith. Will
she capitulate to her mother-in-law’s wishes again or fight for what she
holds dear? As Jenna loses her life, will she find it?
Andee
Bell has found exactly what she wanted: fame, fortune, and respect.
There’s also a special man in her life—Jenna’s brother. Despite her
success, a secret quells Andee’s contentment. As memories torment, will
she find peace in a relationship with God, or will she sabotage herself
while also taking down the only person she cares about? As Andee finds
her life, will she lose it?
Moving
between San Francisco and the Napa Valley, Jenna and Andee form an
unlikely relationship that leads them to a crossroad. They can follow
familiar inclinations, or risk it all and walk in faith.
Enjoy meeting Jenna and Andee!
Brief physical description
Jenna
Bouvier is a petite, slender, brunette, with sapphire blue eyes. She is
beautiful, but suffers the shame of a jagged scar on her chin–something
she see’s as ugly and debilitating and claims as her own
responsibility.
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Andee is a tall, slender, blonde, with chocolate brown eyes. She is aware of her beauty and uses it to manipulate others.
Actor/famous person
I am
not one of those authors who looks for a picture and then assigns it to a
character. I usually have such a strong visual in my mind, that when I
look at a picture I think, that’s not my character. In fact, when my
fabulous cover designer from B&H, Diana Lawrence, put a picture of a
person on the cover for Lost and Found, I recoiled. I couldn’t
embrace that picture as being Jenna. However, I sat with the picture for
a day or two and finally concurred that she’d done a great job based on
my descriptions of Jenna in the book.
Strengths and weaknesses
When
the story begins, Jenna is just beginning to break out of her passive,
people pleasing ways. But she’s struggling. She’s sought the approval of
people and has put them in the place of God in her life. But her
strength is self-awareness and a burning desire for intimacy with her
Creator. Ultimately, she is willing to give up her life, all she’s
known, to follow Him.
Andee
is ferocious. Deeply wounded and in denial, she has sought the life she
thought she wanted and succeeded. She controls her own destiny–she’s
beautiful, successful, and wealthy. But when those things don’t satisfy,
she’s at a loss, and sabotages herself and those closest to her. She is
in danger of losing the life she’s fought so hard for.
Quirk (if any)
Andee is obsessive about her espresso.
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Your inspiration for the character
My
inspiration for Jenna, my main protagonist, was Madame Jeanne Guyon,
known as one of the most important women in Christian history. While I
was going through a painful time in my own life, a friend quoted Jeanne
Guyon. The quote sent me on a journey of discovery and after reading
Jeanne Guyon’s autobiography, I began wondering what a contemporary
Jeanne Guyon might look like–what would her life look like, what choices
would she make, how would she handle some of the struggles that Jeanne
Guyon encountered. Thus, Jenna Bouvier came to being.
For
the most part, I am a seat of the pants writer, so I developed Andee
Bell as I wrote. Her personality needed to be the opposite of Jenna
Bouvier’s for the story to work. While writing, I began thinking about
modern-day women who are familiar with the world of business and
finances. I actually took the model for the book Andee writes from one
of Suze Orman’s books. I created her based on high-power women I’ve seen
in the media and read about–women who base their security on themselves
rather than depending on God.
Background to the story
In my
personal life, I was learning what it meant to lose my life for
Christ’s sake (Matthew 10:39). When I read Jeanne Guyon’s autobiography,
much of her teaching was about picking up our cross and following
Christ, and dying to self. Her life experiences and lessons seemed to
mirror my own, although we lived hundreds of years apart. I wanted to
create a story that would show what it looks like today, to lose one’s
life for the sake of Christ. To perhaps even show what it would look
like to walk away from those who hinder a relationship with Christ.
In addition to reading Jeanne Guyon’s autobiography, I’d also read Leslie Vernick’s book, The Emotionally Destructive Relationship,
and was identifying a destructive/abusive relationship in my own life
and was seeking God on how to handle it. An emotionally abusive
relationship was also part of Jeanne Guyon’s life. I contacted Leslie
Vernick and asked if she’d be interested in consulting on the novel I
was writing. She agreed. With Leslie’s insight, and all I’d learned from
her book, I was able to create the destructive relationship between
Jenna and her mother-in-law, Brigitte.
My
hope is that any of my readers who might be bound by such a relationship
in their own lives will see themselves in this story and learn from
Jenna’s commitment to seek God and her willingness to make changes as
she follows Him.
Relz Reviewz Extras
View the book trailer (below)
Review of Words
Character spotlight on Kaylee & Sierra
Visit Ginny’s website and blog
Buy Ginny’s books at Amazon
