“Reinventing Leona” (Book Review)

Available on amazon.com

I’d been wanting to read this e-novel for quite a while, but did not have a Kindle. Yeah, I know you can download the Kindle software on your computer. I did that, but my hand-me-up laptop would not allow me to register it, so I could not actually buy any books. It’s bossy like that.

Anyway, I got a Kindle for Christmas and have been mulching through book after book, including Lynne Gentry’s Reinventing Leona. Now that it is on my virtual shelf, I’ll share my thoughts about it with you.

Gentry, Lynne. Reinventing Leona. Tyndale House, 2011.

Okay, I’ve tried to tell my friends how hilarious this book about a pastor’s wife is… even though in the first few pages, the main character’s husband drops dead right in the pulpit one Sunday morning. That’s when I see their eyes narrow just a little, and they start edging toward the nearest exit.

No, really, Gentry has the most entertaining way of showing the quirky and humorous side of situations, even tragic ones. Leona, the protagonist, finds herself thrown on her own devices, right in the middle of her crushing grief. Her resume as a longtime pastor’s wife has little to offer the marketplace. As one aspect of her life after another crashes down around her, she scrambles to adapt. All the while she has to dodge the arrows of church members’, um, well-meant advice.

The characters are real enough to touch, especially Leona, her children and her spoiled, eccentric mother. You’ll cheer for Leona and her faithful old friends… plus the new ones she finds in the most unexpected places.

Linking up today with Jen and the Soli Deo Gloria sisters, as well as Rachel Anne and the Company Girls. Many of these friends love a good story as much as I do!

Thanks for reading!
Jan