During Isabella Alcantara’s seventh month of pregnancy, her parents and siblings are murdered in gang- and drug-related violence, simply because their home was targeted by mistake. Isabella knows she was spared only because she now lives in a different location, but she knows too that the same thing could easily happen to her and her husband, Francisco. When her grandfather offers to hire a “coyote” to bring them across the border to America, she agrees. But Francisco and Isabella are abandoned by the coyote and left to die. Francisco then valiantly sacrifices himself to get Isabella to safety. Homeless, nearly penniless, pregnant, and alone, Isabella determines to find a way to honor her promise to her beloved husband.
Living on one of the smaller spreads along the Arizona border, Miriam Nelson becomes furious with God and turns from her faith when her border patrol agent husband, David, is killed in a skirmish with drug smugglers. Though her mother and young son do their best to woo her back from the anger and bitterness that have overtaken her, they make little headway.
Two widows—one driven by fear and a promise, the other by bitterness and revenge—must make their journeys along different pathways, but with the same destination: a barn fullof animals that stands waiting for them on Christmas Eve. Forced to face their personal demons, Isabella and Miriam soon discover a common yearning that will bind them together in a most miraculous way.
Kathi Macias is a multi-award winning writer who has authored more than 30 books and ghostwritten several others. A former newspaper columnist and string reporter, Kathi has taught creative and business writing in various venues and has been a guest on many radio and television programs. Kathi is a popular speaker at churches, women’s clubs and retreats, and writers’ conferences, and won the 2008 Member of the Year award from AWSA (Advanced Writers and Speakers Association). Kathi “Easy Writer” Macias lives in Homeland, CA, with her husband, Al, where the two of them spend their free time buzzing around in their new ride: Al’s 2005 sunburst orange Corvette. Here latest releases areDeliver Me From Evil and A Christmas Journey Home.
You can find out more about Kathi’s writing and speaking at www.kathimacias.com.
My Impressions:
A Christmas Journey Home is a Kathi Macias novel at its best. It combines a subject taken from today’s headlines, with the truth of God’s word and His praying people. The subject is controversial — illegal immigrants from Mexico seeking a new life in the United States and the violence on our country’s southern border that has taken the lives of too many innocent and courageous people.
Isabella is the victim of violence in her native Mexico. Her grandfather gives her and her husband his life savings to make a life to the north. Miriam is a victim as well. Her husband, David, a border guard, was murdered by drug runners coming across the Mexican-U.S. border. Both struggle with whether God really cares and if they can ever trust Him. At home in Mexico, Isabella’s grandfather continues to pray for Isabella, her husband and unborn child, even as he struggles with whether God will honor his prayers due to his urging his family to cross into the U.S. illegally.
No matter what you think about illegal immigration, I believe A Christmas Journey Home will touch any reader with the power of God’s love, purpose, and sovereignty that is evident in the novel. And as always, Kathi Macias demonstrates the need for prayer and God’s never failing response to it. This novel is heart-breaking and heart-warming all at once.
Recommended.
Check out others what others on the tour have to say about A Christmas Journey Home.
Monday, October 17th
Book reviewed at Broken Teepee
Tuesday, October 18th
Book reviewed and giveaway at Five Alarm Book Reviews
Book reviewed at Splashes of Joy
Book reviewed at Finding Hope through Fiction
Thursday, October 20th
Book reviewed at Reviews from the Heart
Friday, October 21st
Book reviewed at Life with Karen
Book reviewed at Pitching Pencils
Saturday, October 22nd
Interviewed at A Book and A Chat Blog Talk Radio Show with Storyheart
Monday, October 24th
Book reviewed at Hywela Lyn Blog
Tuesday, October 25th
Book reviewed at Reading Frenzy
Wednesday, October 26th
Book reviewed at By the Book
Book reviewed at The Phantom Paragrapher
Thursday, October 27th
Book reviewed and giveaway at The Book Connection
Book reviewed at MysteriesEtc
Friday, October 28th
Book reviewed at Debbie’s Book Bag
Book reviewed at One Day at a Time
(I received A Christmas Journey Home from Pump Up Your Book in exchange for a review. The opinions expressed are mine alone.)
Thank you for the touching review of Kathi’s first annual Christmas novel. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I hope your readers will check into it. I loved this story and feel it truly captures the spirit of the season.
Wishing you the best,
Cheryl
Thank you for the great review of A Christmas Journey Home, my first (but not last!) Christmas novel. Blessings to you and your readers/followers!