Catch Hold Of Saturday Morning Illustrated By Lauraine Snelling Delivered In Leaflet

is basically a book about four women from different backgrounds and parts of the country, who, for varying circumstances, meet at Casa de Jesus J House, a women's shelter in San Francisco.
The Lord works in each of their lives as they get to know each other through their work at J House and as they pray together weekly for J House and each other.
I won this book on librarything, Great book about friendship. The book starts a little slow but once the character development is there it is very good, Everyone needs friends like these, Prayer plays a significant part in the book and gets the characters through some tough challenges, For some strange reason, a big chunk of the books that I win due to Goodreads or LibraryThing, tend to be ChristianFiction, The weird thing about that is that I don't realize that they are actually ChristianFiction, Now, if I were religious, I would be inclined to say that something like that is divine intervention, But since I'm not, I'm just going to say that I need start reading the descriptions of the books I sign up for much more thoroughly, Just to avoid reading a genre that I don't necessarily love, That way I won't feel like an idiot when I say that I didn't love a ChristianFiction book because it was too preachy since being preachy is pretty much a staple in ChristianFiction books.


I've read about three, maybe four Inspirational books and I've only really liked sitelinkBeaded Hope because it wasn't too preachy, Obviously, prayer was a big part of the characters' lives, but I didn't feel like the author was going overboard, In Saturday Morning, every other page was about God, Again, there's nothing wrong with that, but as someone who isn't religious, it did end up being a bit much, So, those parts were sort of skimmed over,

The rest of Saturday Morning was pretty good, While I didn't truly connect with any of the characters, I did enjoy their storylines, I absolutely loved Andy's storyline with her husband, Every time he tried to get her to fit into his perfect mold, she would just dish out the "This is the way it's going to be" attitude and I just found the whole thing endlessly amusing before it turned all angsty.
I also really liked the J House storyline, I was in awe at what all the women were doing to help out the less fortunate,

All in all, I thought that Saturday Morning was an okay novel, I did think the resolution of everything was a bit out there, but that just might be because of my skepticism towards the notion that prayer solves everything.
Saturday Morning was a mildly enjoyable and extremely quick read, so I can't complain, I'll just have to look a little closer next time I'm signing up for giveaways, So this book was not terrible, . . but not as great as it could have been, I believe that women can't be pastors, so that sort of turned me off as one of the main characters in the book is a female "pastor'.
I also couldn't get over calling God "Big Dad", It seemed so farfetched to me and then after a while, everyone in the story was calling God that,

I did like that it was about Christian women friends who were not afraid to pray for one another and give Godly advice to each other.
This was a book that left me needing more depth, Theladies in this book each have struggles but the issues seem to be a tad glossed over or simplified, I needed more character background and details, inner thoughts, If the beginning of each chapter was titled with the character name it was focused on that also may have helped, I did enjoy the friendships that developed, This is a Christian book with much mention of God and His powers, The format reminded me a little of Francine Rivers, but Snelling does not utilize the use of Scriptures and religious history as Francine Rivers presents in her novels.
Saturday Morning is set in San Francisco, and presents glimmers of that magnificent city, Snelling does not delve into the psyche of the city, The story centers on the misfortunes of Clarice, Julia, Clarice, Hope, and Andy, and the stories are all interesting, but not fully developed or exposing the inner struggle that each woman faces.
Where is their anger and frustration, The hardships are like a little sandtrap or a pestering gnat, just aq minor disturbance in the course of a great life, Clarice loses her life savings and home to a new young husband, Julia must attempt to find a wayward granddaughter, Hope must struggle with J House and her unbelievable pregnancy, and Andy must work out problems with her husband.
The story is interesting, but the hardships are too calm for real life,
Broken by life's disappointments, four women forge a friendship that leads in unexpected directions,

Hope Benson is determined to do all she can for the broken souls who come to Casa de Jesus, a women's shelter in the heart of San Francisco.
When a difficult pregnancy forces her to relinquish control, she draws support and strength from an unlikely group of women, each struggling with her own heartbreak,

Andy Taylor, a reluctant transplant to California, was compelled to leave behind her lavendergrowing business and her home of twentysome years to support her workaholic husband's pursuit of career success.
Attorney Julia Collins is searching for her teenage granddaughter, believed to be living on the streets, And Clarice Van Dam's life has been shattered by the disappearance of her husband, who appears to have relieved her of all earthly possessions except a fur coat and her overnight bag.


Drawn together at the weekend market held in the shelter's parking lot, the women pool their resources to fend off an unscrupulous conglomerate that threatens to replace the facility with a commercial development.
As they fight to retain this haven for women in need,

they find their own longings for home answered by the solace of faith and friendship, This made me think of the Yada Yada Prayer Group books although I think this might actually have been written first, Four women from different parts of the country, all hurting and as unlikely to be friends as you could imagine, come together to be more than friends.
They become the Girl Squadsupporting and encouraging each other, helping each other in any way they can, and most especially sending up powerful prayers when needed,

Andy Taylor has taken her hobby of making lavender sachets and turning it into a profitable lavender farm, The teas, sachets, soaps,and lotions are taking off and adding to her parents' retirement fund just as she had hoped, Oregon has been her home for overyears and now her husband expects her to drop her "little hobby" and move to San Francisco so that he can accept a high paid promotion with his company and continue to be a workaholic.
She needs him to rethink that,

Hope Benson and her husband Roger run a women's shelter known as Casa de Jesus in San Francisco, Women of all ages and of all lifestyles go there to heal and to find a better path in life, But Hope is battling to hold on to her property as forceful buyers come knocking on her door,

Julia Collins is a successful attorney in Kansas City, She is frantic once she learns that her rebelliousyear old granddaughter, Cyndy, has run awayback to her mother in Minneapolis which is not a good thing.
Her mother has a history of drug use and is not the mothering type, In fact, Julia learns that Cyndy hit the road again to make her way to California to make it big in the movie industry,

Clarice Van Dam found happiness once again, Widowed, she thought love couldn't happen past the age ofbut she hit the jackpot when the handsome and younger byyears Gregor Lucius Van Dam married her and then convinced her to pack up all her precious belongings to move to San Francisco.
The plan is for her to leave Florida to visit her sister in New Jersey and he will meet her in San Francisco when she arrives,

The story was slow to start, but as each character was introduced, it began to all come together, Each of the ladies had distinct personalities and as they all managed to come together their distinct and unique talents and traits helped them to form a bond that went far beyond a casual friendship.
These ladies are a force not to be tangled with, When they need something done, they get it doneby pure physical labor or by the power of prayer or by both,

This book reminded me of the Yada Yada Prayer Group series by Neta Jackson, The diverse cast of characters are flawed but they are real and their faith is real, I would so love to see a sequel a series would be even betterthat would follow up with these amazing ladies and their next adventure, Maybe these ladies could even meet up with the fabulous Yada Yada Prayer Group, I can only imagine what awesome things they could accomplish together!,