Ever After

My friend Emily got me interested in the author Karen Kingsbury. She is a fiction author and I love her books. Unfortunately I don't know if I will ever be able to read another one of her books again.

I have yet to read one that did not make me cry. Not just a couple tears, but the ugly kind of tears that turn into red, splotchy face and give me a stuffy nose. I know not to read one of her books in public or when I plan on going in public anytime soon. It would not be pretty.

I recently got a library card and the first book I chose off the shelves was one entitled "Ever After" by Karen Kingsbury. I chose the book because of the title. I love the movie "Ever After" and though I knew they would be related in no way at all, I could not help myself.

I sat down to read the book on Sunday afternoon and finished it up on Monday night. Just as I expected I was crying throughout most of the book. It was such a sweet love story. She has such a way of making you feel as though the characters are old friends. To the point where I almost wanted to talk about them in normal conversation the next day.

There are a couple of quotes that I want to remember:

"He and Emily had talked that morning. 'Justin's life mattered in a lot of ways, too many to count,' she'd told him. 'But Daddy, you know what?' Her eyes were soft and full of emotion. 'I think his life counted for this too. God used Justin's life to change Mom's heart.' Her eyes glistened. 'And He used Justin's death to show her that love never has enough time.'"

"'Real love is this. Real love waits in the snow on your front porch so you can walk to school together in the fifth grade. It brings you a chocolate bar when you fall and finish last in the seventh grade Olympics. Real love whispers something in the middle of algebra about your pink fingernail polish so that you don't forget how to smile whne you're doing math, and it saves a seat for you in the lunchroom every Friday through high school. Even when the other baseball players think you're stupid. Real love stays up late on a Saturday making chocolate chip cookies together, flicking flour at you and getting eggshells in the batter and making sure you'll remember the night the rest of your life. And real love thinks you're pretty even when your hair is pulled back in a ponytail and you don't stand perfeclty straight.'"

"If there was a point, a message I pray you received from 'Ever After', it was this: Love is not possible without sacrifice, and sacrifice is not possible without love. Isn't that what Jesus taught? He died on the cross as the greatest sacrifice, the greatest gift of love, and it's through His grace and salvation that we can do anything good and lasting."

So true.