The Writing Desk

Tenley Roth needs to meet a book deadline when she is called by her mother to come help her out.  Blanche has cancer and wants Tenley to be with her through the chemo and other treatments.  While Tenley goes to Florida, her fiance goes to Paris to work on a screenplay with an A-list starlet.  When Tenley gets to Blanche's house, she finds an antique desk that she thinks will be her muse.  Day after day Tenley sits at the desk and writes nothing.

Rachel Hauck has written one of those books that goes back and forth through history where she describes Tenley's life and then bounces back to one of Tenley's ancestors and she brings up an ethical dilemma that not only affects Tenley, but also affects her ancestor, Birdie.  Both love to write, but Birdie got her first novel stolen from her and Tenley finds a manuscript that she appropriates as her own.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the Writing Desk.  I read it in one day and stayed up until the wee hours of this morning to finish the book.  My husband often asks me how long it will be till I turn out my reading light.  Last night he asked several times, and I only said, "Soon." I couldn't put it down.  From the Gilded Age in New York City, to London, to Florida, the settings only add to the aura of the book and the characters are exactly that--real characters.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and that novel you've been saying you'll write.

My thanks to Zondervan for allowing me to read and review this book.