A Wedding Invitation by Alice Wisler

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing A Wedding Invitation Bethany House (October 1, 2011) by Alice Wisler

After returning home from teaching English at a refugee camp in the Philippines, Samantha Bravencourt enjoys her quiet life working at her mother's clothing boutique in Falls Church, Virginia. When she receives an invitation to a wedding in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she looks forward to reconnecting with her college friend. Instead her life collides with Carson, a fellow teacher and the man who broke her heart, and a young Amerasian refugee named Lien who needs Samantha and Carson's help to find her mother before Lien's own wedding. When the search for Lien's mother reveals surprising secrets from the past, Samantha must reevaluate her own memories and decide whether to continue to play it safe or take a risk that could change her life.

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Wedding Invitation, go HERE.

Watch the book trailer:

Alice was born in Osaka, Japan in the sixties. Her parents were Presbyterian career missionaries. As a young child, Alice loved to walk down to the local stationer's store to buy notebooks, pencils and scented erasers. In her room, she created stories. The desire to be a published famous author has never left her. Well, two out of three isn't bad. She's the author of Rain Song, How Sweet It Is, Hatteras Girl and A Wedding Invitation (all published by Bethany House).

Alice went to Eastern Mennonite University after graduating from Canadian Academy, an international high school in Kobe, Japan. She majored in social work and has worked across the U.S. in that field. She taught ESL (English as a Second Language) in Japan and at a refugee camp in the Philippines. She also studied Spanish at a language institute in San Jose, Costa Rica.

She has four children--Rachel, Daniel, Benjamin and Elizabeth. Daniel died on 2/2/97 from cancer treatments at the age of four. Since then, Alice founded Daniel's House Publications in her son's memory. This organization reaches out to others who have also lost a child to death. In 2000 and 2003, Alice compiled recipes and memories of children across the world to publish two memorial cookbooks, Slices of Sunlight and Down the Cereal Aisle.

 

Heidi Says . . . Since reading Alice’s first published novel – Rain Song – several years ago, I’ve been a proclaimed fan of her work.  I love Alice’s writing style and the fact that her books all have a very different flair to them.  To me, that shows a true talent – and one that I’m happy to read and share!

A Wedding Invitation was a great book!  I loved the main character, Samantha. She was so easy to relate to – I just felt like I was reading about a personal friend.  Her family and the other people in her life were all so unique and fun to get to know throughout the book. 

To me, the neatest part about this book was the talk about the Vietnamese people and culture. I hadn’t realized that Alice had spent time working in a refugee camp; but knowing that gave me a whole new respect for her!  Having two children adopted from Vietnam, I have spent time in the country and have grown very fond of the Vietnamese people.  It was so nice to see them presented so accurately in A Wedding Invitation.

I will be recommending this book.  In fact, I passed it along to Ashley already!  Thanks, Alice, for another great book!