The Lost Baker of Vienna: family history and a search for answers

The Lost Baker of Vienna by Sharon Kurtzman is a historical novel inspired by the author’s family in the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II. In Vienna, 1946, Chana Rosensweig survived the horrors of the war, only to find herself, her mother and her younger brother free and yet struggling to make a living and live in safety. Despite the danger, Chana sneaks into the hotel where she works and makes her late father’s recipes late at night. She soon finds herself caught in a dangerous love triangle, torn between the black market dealer who offered security and the apprentice baker who shares her passions. In North Carolina, 2018, Zoe Rosenzweig follows the clues left in her late grandfather’s writings to track down her great aunt in Europe and find out the truth to what happened to her. Soon, Zoe has the sense that someone is following her. Is there someone in the shadows looking for her aunt as well? 

In a story about survival, loss, love and the effects of war, The Lost Baker of Vienna speaks of the unbreakable bonds of family and bringing to light the courageous spirit of survival as the World War II refugees begin to rebuild their lives and overcome the overwhelming hardships left behind in a world torn apart by war. I enjoyed that the author focused on the events and experiences in the aftermath of World War II. Often World War II novels focus on the actual war experiences and ignore the aftermath. I felt more drawn to Zoe’s experiences as she is tracing the steps of her great aunt than Chana’s point of view. Overall, I enjoyed both points of view as the web of secrets unraveled. Some parts were interesting and kept me reading while others were predictable. However, I commend the author for giving a voice to those left behind in war and worked to rebuild. If you enjoy historical novels, I recommend The Lost Baker of Vienna. 

The Lost Baker of Vienna will be available in hardcover, paperback, eBook and audiobook 

on August 19, 2025. 

Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe: what if you could ask God anything? What would you ask?

Miracle at the Higher Grounds Café by Max Lucado asks the question: what if you could ask God anything? What would you ask and how would He answer? Chelsea Chambers is on her own. After a very public split from her NFL superstar husband, Sawyer Chambers, she takes a step out of the spotlight and reopens her late mother’s coffee shop. The Higher Grounds Café is an old-fashioned shop in a world of high tech, impersonal coffee shops. But it is in dire need of reinvention. When her courage, expert planning and determination fails to bring in the money she needs, she finds herself in desperate need of help, a miracle. One day, a strange man named Manny lands on her doorsteps and with him a string of curious and unexplainable events occur. Soon, customers are lining up at the café for cupcakes, coffee and a divine connection. The Higher Ground Café has become a place for people in search of answers for their life’s biggest problems. Chelsea resists the belief that God cares and is watching over her. When she makes a shocking discovery, it opens her eyes to the possibility that heaven will answer her own question. 

I have been a fan of Max Lucado’s work for many years. His non-fiction books have been inspirational and brought God and His Word a more relatable and tangible meaning in my life. I haven’t read any of his fiction works. When I came across Miracle at the Higher Grounds Café, I was curious. The story is a sweet story of faith, forgiveness and finding that God is never too far away. Just like in his non-fiction works, Mr. Lucado is a master at portraying deep messages in a simple story. Chelsea is a woman who carries many wounds from her past including her parents’ divorce and her own marriage. Her happiest memories are at the café. I related her to her pain and her reluctance to forgive those who have wounded her. A few of my favorite characters were Manny and Bo, the elderly neighbor who helps Chelsea see the healing power of God. I loved that throughout the story, the message of second chances and that through the power of God and his healing love anyone can change is present. If you love Max Lucado’s work, you will enjoy Miracle at the Higher Grounds Café. 

Miracle at the Higher Grounds Café is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook, and audiobook

When We Believed in Mermaids: a story of finding answers and healing

When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal is the story of Kit Bianci who is sent on a mission to discover if a woman in New Zealand is her dead sister. Josie Bianci was killed 15 years ago in a terrorist attack on a Paris train. At least that's what Kit believed. Until she sees her on the news. While taking a break, Kit, an ER doctor in Santa Cruz, California, sees live coverage of a club fire in Auckland, New Zealand. There she sees a woman, known locally as Mari Edwards, stumbling in the background that looks like her sister. In fact, the resemblance is almost too unbelievable. At the urging of her mother, Kit travels to Auckland to discover if Mari is her sister and discover why she has hidden herself for so many years. Her journey begins with memories of the past: their childhood days on the beach, the adopted teenage boy who becomes their older protective brother, and the series of tragedies that upend their lives and haunt them today. What secrets will be uncovered? Will the truth haunt her further? One thing is certain, their lives will never be the same again. 

The opening lines of the first chapter hooked me, but by the fourth chapter, I wondered if I would finish it at all. I pushed through, hoping it would get better. The identity of the woman known as Mari is revealed fairly quickly. The real mystery is a bit more murkier that details the series of tragedies that tore them apart. And a side story about a murdered 1930s actress. I did not care for Kit at all. She was cold, unfeeling and just bland. Right off the bat, Kit laments that “it’s hard to be the children of parents who are obsessed with each other.” Ok…..? She describes her father’s passion for her mother as “intense, sexual and possessive” but wasn’t sure she would call it love and her mother’s love for him was “to excess more than she loved her children.” Ummm, ok? I enjoyed Mari’s perspective a bit more but even her story was resolved too neatly and too easily. For the majority of the book, it read like two very different stories, Kit’s and Mari’s, that would eventually merge and very quickly get resolved. Overall, the story was bogged down with too many side stories, flashbacks and a resolution that felt rushed and unrealistic. I do not recommend When We Believed in Mermaids.

When We Believed in Mermaids is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook. 

The Bend in Redwood Road: a search for answers and confronting the pain of the past

The Bend in Redwood Road by Danielle Stewart is the first book in the Missing Pieces series. Gwen Fox was adopted by two loving people and had the idyllic childhood that most people only dream of and yet there’s a deep ache and soul longing she tried to ignore. Some days were manageable but the wondering of what became of the baby she left behind hangs on the edges of her mind. Smiling through her pain and suffered in silence, Leslie Laudon marched forward, living the life so skillfully designed by her husband, Paul. She was the life as a dutiful wife and mother, she did everything for her husband and her children. But as her youngest daughter gets ready to head off to college and Leslie faces an empty nest, thoughts of her other child become more and more prominent. Riddled with doubt and waves of unanswered questions, Gwen and Leslie start a complex journey for answers, redemption and an identity. Gwen seeks the truth about the day she was born and Leslie seeks an identity, the woman she was before she was a wife and mother. As they begin down the road of no return, can they navigate the blame, the guilt? Are they prepared for the answers to their questions? 

The Bend in Redwood Road is a story about family: the one of genetics and the one of memories and love. Gwen is a great character caught between two worlds: the family she has grown up with and loved and the family she doesn’t know. She feels guilty seeking answers about her birth family. She feels she’s betraying the parents who lovingly raised her and possibly regretting the answers she finds when she seeks answers through her genetics. Leslie is a woman who made an impossible choice, one she questioned every day since she left her baby behind at the hospital. These two women are surrounded by great supporting characters and one not-so-great husband. My only complaint is that it seemed to drag out the climax and then rush to a resolution. The resolution is emotional and the answers to Gwen’s questions are gasp worthy revelations. I teared up at the end as these women realize they need to confront the past in order to move forward. There were moments of humor and heartfelt words of wisdom. A couple quotes I liked that I highlighted to write down when I finished. I highly recommend The Bend in Redwood Road. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. 

The Bend in Redwood Road is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook and audiobook. 

Job: story of suffering, faith and trust in God

This month’s study is on the book of Job. It is an illustration of God’s sovereignty and the meaning of true faith. It addresses the question, “why do the righteous suffer?” A question that is still debated today. The book of Job is believed to have been written during the time of the patriarchs (approximately 2000-1800 BC) and the first book of the Bible to be written. It is the first poetic book of the Bible. The book of Job opens in the land of Uz where Job is living with his family among vast wealth. Job was “the greatest man among all the people of the East” (Job 1:3).

Satan approaches God in heaven and the discussion turns to Job. Satan believed that Job was a righteous man because he had everything and if it were taken from him, he would turn from God (Job 1:9-11). God gives Satan permission to take everything Job has but he could not physically harm him (Job 1:12). Soon, Job loses his children, his herds and still does nothing wrong. Job is given a second test in which God allows Satan to physical harm Job but he could not take his life (Job 2:6). There Job sits with every sign of his wealth taken and illness has claimed his body but Job still refused to turn from God (Job 2:10). Job discusses his sufferings with his friends who all give their view as to why he is suffering.

First, Job’s view about his suffering is “the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1:21) and “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10). His attitude is that we should not give up on God simply because he allows bad experiences. Faith in God does not guarantee prosperity and a lack of faith does not guarantee troubles. Job was a man of faith, patience and endurance. As his friends claim that he is suffering for something he has done, he is willing to confess it if he knew what it was. He demands to be shown what sins he could have committed to deserve such punishment (Job 13: 23-24). Job wanted to know why and claimed he could bear the suffering if he could only know why (Job 23. It is a very human demand to know why we are suffering. Does understanding the reasons help the pain and suffering? If God were to answer why would it be easier to accept and bear the pain? The question why is the hardest to answer because you may get the reason but you may not like or accept such an answer.

Second, his friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, come to comfort him and offer advice. They soon turn to accuse Job of an unresolved sin in his life. Eliphaz’s view is simply that man is responsible for his own troubles for “those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it” (Job 4:8). Bildad claims that Job’s suffering is because he is unjust as God would not reject a blameless man (Job 8:20). When Zophar joins the discussion he adds that only does Job have sin in his life but his sin deserves more punishment that he already is suffering (Job 11). It is a sentiment the friends will repeat several times. It is also a sentiment repeated in churches today: “Oh you are dealing with financial issues because there’s sin in your life.” Or “You are in pain because you haven’t confessed a sin.” While God does allow the consequences of our sin and bad decisions to play out despite our confession, it does not mean that the bad circumstances are the result of your personal sin. Good and innocent people will suffer bad circumstances because people don’t always do what is right and innocent parties will suffer. Does this mean that you shall lose faith? No, because faith in the bad times shows a stronger character than faith in the good times.

Lastly, the Lord speaks to the group. He first addresses Job and demands to know why he speaks with knowledge (Job 38:1). The Lord rebukes Job for daring to demand an answer, to question God and the workings of the universe he couldn’t possibly understand. God uses His questions to Job to demonstrate how little he really knows (Job 38-39). Job acknowledges that he cannot understand what God understands (Job 40:4). In Job 42:2, Job says “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.” This is a concept that many believers must face and learn. There’s a Yiddish proverb which states, “Man plans and God laughs.” We can carefully plan but if it is against the will of God, it will not come to fruition. As believers, we must submit to the will of God in our lives. As it says in the Lord’s Prayer, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The Lord then addresses the three friends because they “have not spoken of me what is right” as Job has (Job 42:7). The Lord blesses Job’s life with far more than he had originally because he passed the test of faith.

In conclusion, the lessons learned from Job is bad circumstances are not always the result of sin and knowing the reason why isn’t the point. The point is our faith in God in times of prosperity and in times of troubles, especially in times of troubles. It may sound easier said than done and it is something I still struggle with from time to time. There has been other times when my faith was tested and it will continued to be tested for the rest of my life. There are times where I worry and I think “how am I going to do this?” And I forget to lean on my faith in Christ. However, there is always something that reminds me to trust in Him. It would be a whisper in my dreams, a voice of a friend, or a verse I read during my studies. Even in his anguish, Job never turned from God. And in mine, I won't either.