I Hope You Dance by Beth Moran

In England, there is a family. For me, the important ones are Ruth and Maggie and Fraser. Ruth falls in love with a rich boy. He lives in a house called the Big House. After the death of his mother, he shares his heart with Ruth. Ruth's love for him, David, grows.  The romance leads to the birth of Maggie, a love child. Unfortunately, Ruth will have to live through many ups and downs. Some of those ups and downs are familiar: the loss of jobs, the death of a husband, Fraser, teen-age growing pains, an absent father and plain old problems with relationships.

Maggie has to survive the trials that her mother is living through. It's very hard for Maggie. She acts out in the only way she knows. She has discipline problems at school. She talks back to her mother. Along the way, there are other family members to meet and other characters such as an elderly lady named Mrs. Beaumont. All of these women are facing a dragon in their life. It's difficult to understand themselves and to understand one another in the walk of life. It's Christian fiction that meets reality.

About Mrs. Beaumont for a moment or two, I thought this book had become a murder mystery. It happens when Mrs. Beaumont has a sick spell. She falls over. When they can't revive her, it's as though she's dead. I thought surely....but no, she began to breathe again. I felt the author was trying to decide whether to make Mrs. Beaumont a victim of crime. Perhaps, my imagination ran away with me.

Throughout the novel, seasons are very important. There is the fall, November. It's a hard, cold fall in England. I enjoyed reading about the season more than the dancing. Autumn seemed to fit the hardness in their lives and make their days a bit softer. Of course, there is the dancing. I am not a lover of dance. I wanted the novel to make me fall in love with dance.

Maybe I expected too much. Perhaps, the important matter here is love. Beth Moran writes much about that emotion. This line spoke to me. '"What's love got to do with it anyway?...Love is the custard on the crumble."'
bethmoran.org/book/i-hope-you-dance
lionhudson.com/pid/page/lion_fiction
kregel.com/fiction/i-hope-you-dance/ 
 

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