The Art of Losing Yourself: A Novel by Katie Ganshert

Book Description:

Just like in my dream, I was drowning and nobody even noticed.

Every morning, Carmen Hart pastes on her made-for-TV smile and broadcasts the weather. She’s the Florida panhandle’s favorite meteorologist, married to everyone’s favorite high school football coach. They’re the perfect-looking couple, live in a nice house, and attend church on Sundays. From the outside, she’s a woman who has it all together.  But on the inside, Carmen Hart struggles with doubt. She wonders if she made a mistake when she married her husband. She wonders if God is as powerful as she once believed. Sometimes she wonders if He exists at all. After years of secret losses and empty arms, she’s not so sure anymore.

Until Carmen’s sister—seventeen year old runaway, Gracie Fisher—steps in and changes everything. Gracie is caught squatting at a boarded-up motel that belongs to Carmen’s aunt, and their mother is off on another one of her benders, which means Carmen has no other option but to take Gracie in. Is it possible for God to use a broken teenager and an abandoned motel to bring a woman’s faith and marriage back to life? Can two half-sisters make each other whole?    

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This is one of those stories that grabs hold and lingers with you. Ganshert engaged my heart and my mind right from the start and held them fast the whole way through. I loved how she wove the tapestry, that is this story together. Showing the hard, painful times; times filled with questions, doubts and fears. Peppered in was grace being woven through, the faithfulness of God orchestrating circumstances and bringing others into these characters lives to plant seeds, water them and point to Him along the way. Like I said, this is a tapestry so you really don't see the big picture till the end.

I loved this one. This is most definitely not a giddy story. The story is real and honest, and I am so glad I read it. I wish there would have been an epilogue at the end, but otherwise no complaints from me here. Highly recommend this one!