Blog Tour - Where Do I Go?

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Where Do I Go?
Thomas Nelson (December 9, 2008)
by
Neta Jackson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
As a husband/wife writing team, Dave and Neta Jackson are enthusiastic about books, kids, walking with God, gospel music, and each other! Together they are the authors or coauthors of over 100 books. In addition to writing several books about Christian community, the Jacksons have coauthored numerous books with expert resource people on a variety of topics from racial reconciliation to medical ethics to ministry to kids in gangs.

Dave and Neta live in Evanston, Illinois, where for twenty-seven years they were part of Reba Place Church, a Christian church community. They are now members of a multi-racial congregation in the Chicago area.

They're trying something new! Not just new for them, but something completely new in Christian fiction: “Parallel novels,” two stories taking place in the same time frame, same neighborhood, involving some of the same characters living through their own dramas and crises but interacting with and affecting one another … just the way it happens in real life.

It’s something that only a husband and wife writing team could pull off. While Neta has Where Do I Go?, her husband Dave has written Harry Bentley's Second Chance.

ABOUT THE BOOK
A story of seeking-and finding-God's will in unlikely places.

Gabrielle Fairbanks has nearly lost touch with the carefree, spirited young woman she was when she married her husband fifteen years ago. But when the couple moves to Chicago to accommodate Philip's business ambitions, Gabby finds the chance to make herself useful. It's there she meets the women of Manna House Women's Shelter; they need a Program Director-and she has a degree in social work. She's in her element, feeling God's call on her life at last, even though Philip doesn't like the changes he sees in her. But things get rough when Philip gives Gabby an ultimatum: quit her job at the shelter or risk divorce and losing custody of their sons. Gabby must take refuge, as in the song they sing at Sunday night worship: "Where do I go when there's no one else to turn to? . . . I go to the Rock I know that's able, I go to the Rock."

Romantic Times Book Reviews says, “Exquisite characters coupled with God's mercy and love emanate from each page.”

Publisher's Weekly adds, “Jackson's Yada Yada series has sold half a million copies, and this new offshoot series ... promises the same.... The book's dramatic ending ... leav[es] readers eager for the next installment in the series.”

To read the Prologue and first Chapter of Where Do I Go?, go HERE

MY COMMENTS:
I had not read any of the Yada Yada series - they just never appealed to me for some reason. But this one grabbed me right from the beginning. I was caught up in Gabby's situation, and my heart ached for what she went through. It was easy to be completely annoyed with her husband, as he acted like a jerk most of the time. . . . and yet when I saw how his dad treated him, I realized his acorn didn't fall very far from the tree. What a vivid picture of generational sin. Then when her mother's health issues arose - well, I just wanted to climb in the book and give her a comforting shoulder and a helping hand! Her experiences with the women of Manna House were thought-provoking, and I ached as she wondered why some of them had so much more joy - in spite of their difficult circumstnaces - than she did. I eagerly anticipate Neta Jackson's next book in this series, and I'm intrigued by the parallel novel that her husband is writing.

Happy Reading!