Blue Ruin

**Lynette had waited all her life for one man. But now that they are together, something is terribly wrong.**

**Lynette Brooke is heading to Europe amid uncertainty. How could her long-time beau have become a stranger?** Who is that child-like flirt staying in his family’s house? Dana Whipple is quick to blame all his recent troubles on Lynette. Who else could be to blame when he had his life so neatly mapped out? But with Lynette away, Dana soon begins to veer from the straight and narrow under the influence of city girl Jessie Belle. Will the life and love Lynette and Dana always envisioned together remain strong or fall to ruin?

**goodread member 4 Stars** I forgot how good Grace Livingston Hill's books can be. The faith element is unashamedly strong, and the characters are very relatable - even nearly a century after being written.

**goodread member 4 Stars** Great lessons from this old style book. Always loved Grace Livingston Hill stories.

**goodread member 3 Stars** I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I read this, but I found some Grace Livingston Hill at the library and picked them up for nostalgia's sake. I used to read her books when I was young finding them in my parents' used bookstore. Hill's books should be read in small doses. The sweetness becomes cloying after awhile. Having said that however, I must admit there are lessons to be found in them. **As a Christian, it is good to be reminded of how a true Christian life looks** and that my life continues to need some tweaking to be in alignment with that kind of life

**goodread member 5 Stars** Blue Ruin is one of my absolute favorite books. No matter how many times I read it, it never fails to speak to my heart. This sweet historical romance may have been written before my grandmother was born, but it shows that things just don't change. People don't change. God doesn't change. Christians still have the same battles today as they did when Adam walked the earth. The scenery has changed, the context has not. If you're going through a valley, or have been through one, you'll see your life, and the lives, and choices, of those around you reflected in the pages of this wonderful story!

**goodread member 3 Stars I actually really enjoyed this story.** The other books I've read by this author have just been okay, but I really felt like she did a good job with the characterization in this one. The characters were a bit one-dimensional, but that really did make it easier to commiserate with certain aspects of the story. I sympathized with Lynette and experienced a genuine pain and shock right along with her when Dana Whipple, the young man she had always planned her future with, changed so drastically.

**Grace Livingston Hill wrote under the pseudonym Marcia MacDonald but also published under the name Grace Livingston Hill Lutz.** A popular author of her day, she wrote over 100 novels and numerous short stories of religious and Christian fiction. Her characters were most often young female ingénues, **frequently strong Christian women** or those who become so within the confines of the story. She also was niece to Isabella MacDonald Alden.