The Red Door Inn

Pain throbbed at her temples, and she closed her eyes against the building pressure. Which was better? Used in Boston? Or unwanted on Prince Edward Island, the home of L. M. Montgomery, the place where her childhood dreams had always begun? At least here she was free to leave, to find another place to hide until that ache in her heart began to ease. She began to take a tiny step away, but stopped with her foot still six inches off the ground.

Book: The Red Door Inn by Liz Johnson, Revell Publishers, 2016

Genre: Realistic Fiction/Romance

Target Audience: Adult Women

Subjects: Abuse, Relationship with Parents, Hope, Fear

Summary: She may be twenty-eight years old but she’s still a runaway. At least that’s how her father will see it. Things were never great between her and her father but overhearing one conversation sealed the deal: she had to get away. Her father wasn’t looking to help her recover from her traumatic experience. He was looking to capitalize on it. After all, a good old fashioned blackmail can go a long ways in making a fortune. The trouble is that if Marie wants to truly get away, she needs to leave behind any hints of where she is and that means not accessing her bank account or revealing who she is. And she’s still experiencing panic attacks regularly.

That’s where Jack finds her. Hunched up in fear with not enough money to even take the ferry over to the island. No plans for her survival, just a faint dream that maybe going to the one place she’s always wanted to go will somehow provide the answer she needs.

But God has a hand in this and Jack asks just the right question and soon Marie has a job, a place to live and a handsome man who is as hurt and fearful as she is. Neither Seth nor Marie are looking for a romance, just a way to survive one day at a time. But neither Jack nor God are done with Marie and Seth.

Notes: The Red Door Inn is the first in the Prince Edward Island Dreams series. This book shows two characters who have experienced terrible situations in a relationship thrown together, working for the same goal: to help an old man who has treated them like a father and took them in when they had nowhere else to go. The spiritual element is very themed around trust. Marie rejects God because He is compared to a father and her father was far from loving. Seth is not willing to trust a woman again since the last one betrayed him. Both have to come to a point of trusting God before they can consider trusting each other.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 4/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Psalm 6:2 – Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint; heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a free review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.