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Almost everyone has had the experience of someone or something saving them from impending disaster, whether it’s a gut feeling that we shouldn’t engage in a certain activity, a little voice telling us not to get on that plane/train/bus, or something less definable. When we avoid certain death or injury, we say that our guardian angel was watching over us, or that an angel was on our shoulder.

In Then Along Came an Angel, Julie Bonn Heath has compiled nearly fifty such stories, from contributors around the world. Some of the tales are overtly Christian in tone, others are less specific about the writer’s faith, but all share a common element: the belief that a higher power was somehow instrumental in their survival, whether physically or emotionally, or both.

I have to admit that I came to this book as someone who isn’t particularly religious, but has a strong spiritual side. As such, I expected the strongly Christian overtones to be off-putting, but the stories shared in Then Along Came an Angel are so heartfelt, so honest, that I couldn’t object. It helped, of course, that these are not tales meant to convert; they are not preachy, though some are extremely powerful.

Because these are collected stories, from people with all levels of writing experience, some of the accounts read better than others, but nothing was so rough that it was jarring or uncomfortable to read, and Julie Bonn Heath did an excellent job of choosing the stories to share - there is a balance of sweet and sad, of bitter and beautiful, and it seems an uplifting choice of book for a holiday season when so many of us need a bit of a boost financially, socially, or spiritually.

To learn more about the editor, and interact with her, there is a chat at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time tonight, at www.julierheath.com/chat.html.

This review is part of a virtual book tour - a blog tour of the book - to read other people’s reactions to this compilation, visit the tour schedule, and follow the links listed there.

Posted by Melissa in Book Talk |

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Book Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.