Grab Instantly Drenched In Light (Tending Roses #4) Depicted By Lisa Wingate Presented As Ebook

A GOOD BOOK oh my gosh, it perfectly touched on the reality of mental disorders, eating disorders and the struggles kids go though without both parents.
it had me crying by the end! highly recommend!! Audiobook listen,.but I bumped it up tobecause it was an overall nice book despite some flaws,

I read the first book in this series Grandma Rose was a gem I enjoyed some of the references to her inspirational quips.
I liked that this book dealt with some heavier topics : eating disorders, drug problem in young teens, foster care, mental health struggles.
I found the plot and characters a tad saccharine despite these heavier themes, I didnt mind the talk of faith and Godit was woven in nicely,

Characters: Juliaballerina turned guidance counsellor, helps tutor
Dell: foster child of Karen and James, musician at the fancy private performing arts school
Bethany, sister to Julia, getting married
Keeler: handsome guy on a motorbike, substitute teacher
Dress maker and no paint Mimseamstress and flower
Mom, Dad, all the supporting cast members from Julia school staff and kids to the cute I little dog at home

Overall good read.
Julia is at a crossroad in her life, Having collapsed during a professional ballet rehearsal due to an eating disorder, she has just left the hospital and returned home to her overbearing parents worried she will relapse.
As part of her recovery, she was forced to leave the world of dance and starts a job as a guidance counselor at the same private high school where she was educated as a girl.
One day a student is sent to her office with an essay, and thus starts a series of events which leads her to confidence in the new life she is building for herself.


Okay, the premise sounds a little dull, but the book is anything but, What I liked was that the characters were flawed, but very real, The journey we take with Julia is filled with details that all fit together just so, it is plausible and beliveable.
The conclusions Julia ultimately draws about her own life are expressed in the book as to really hit home with the reader.
The characters are so vivid I was a little sad that the book was ending, Luckily, it appears this is part of a series, so there are two prequels and a sequel, albeit those are more about the student who wrote the essay than our main protagonist here.
Lisa Wingates Drenched in Light is a sweet novel about a young woman trying to accept the loss of her dream of being a ballerina after an eating disorder has derailed her and she finds herself in a guidance counselor job at her old middle school, a training ground for arts students.
In her new job she becomes a mentor toyearold Dell, a music prodigy and foster child from the backwoods out of her depth at the toney school.
This is the fourth novel in a series, which I didnt realize when it caught my attention, but you dont need to have read the others to understand the characters and their world, although it may entice you to seek out the next volume, which revisits Dell as a young woman.
I got caught up in the story with its nuanced characters with their real problems and family relationships.
Having been a teacher and an administrator, I found myself drawn to the setting of the novel in a school and identifying with Julia, the newly minted counselor who genuinely wants to help the students she works with.
Theres a lot of heart in this novel, A street seller gives Julia a rose, which she puts in a drawer and then forgets,

Julia Costello has landed a job as Guidance Counselor at Huntington, an upscale performing arts school in Kansas City.
Julia was once a ballerina who was caught in a cycle of binge and purge, hopelessly convinced that "the real me wasn't good enough, that I needed to be a little thinner, a little more talented, a little more successful".
She now lives at home with her parents,

Dell Jordan is adopted, and is trying desperately to "fill the role of the ideal daughter: talented, smart, helpful, loving, not conflicted in any way, not failing in anything.
Especially her classes at school, "

Circumstances bring these two together, and the results are heartwarming, As they find each other and begin to see others, they face challenges in a school that is only a facade hiding myriad problems.


Ladybugs seem to be everywhere in the school, They wind their way down the ceilings, bunch up in the corner, inhabit the offices, A touching and wonderful metaphor for the school, the teachers, the students,

In the end, a lady at the cleaners gives Julia a rose,

Library book published


Another good one

This one is about a once ago professional dancer who is now recovering from an eating disorder.
Shes living with her parents so they can monitor her eating and behavior and life is just hard.
Shes severed relationships to cover up her disorder and now here she is, She lands a job as a school counselor at a performing arts school and begins to find her purpose again helping these kids and the problems they face.


Favorite Quotes:

“Yet being extraordinary didnt stop them from having ordinary problems, ”

“When life provides mountains, God provides the strength to climb, ”

“When we understand all cultures, we understand all things, and all people, and the world becomes a smaller place.
When we think of the world as a small place, we see that there is not so much difference between ourselves and other people.
Not so much distance between here and there, ”

“Grandma Rose says we cause most of our own misery by thinking in shouldbes, Theres no use in shouldbes, she says, We have to find happiness in what is, ”

“What youre going to find, sooner or later, is that no matter how many ways you try to avoid it, you keep coming back to the same place.
And until you deal with the problem, whatever it is, you always will, ”


“The light comes from the inside out, and so does the darkness, We choose the things that fill us, ” Once a gifted ballet dancer, Julia Costell buckled under the demands of a professional dance career, and has landed with a thud in an unglamorous job as a guidance counselor at a performing arts high school.
Living back home with her parents and feeling lost, she is afraid she'll never soar again, . . until the day young Dell Jordan is sent to her office, carrying an essay,

In Dell's writing, Julia sees luminous sparks of hope, But as she fights to forge

a brighter future for one disadvantaged student, she is drawn into startling undercurrents of conflict and denial within the academy.
Only when she is tested in ways she never could have imagined does she begin to discover where real meaning and fulfillment lieand realize that even though her life has seemed off course, she's been on the right path all along.

I don't know what it is exactly about Lisa Wingate's writing, but she always manages to bring me to tears.
Drenched in Light did start slowly but I was soon drawn into Julia's life as she battled with her eating disorders, the drug culture of the highly acclaimed school she was working at and her interactions with Dell, a gifted young girl who had issues of her own and didn't feel welcomed at Harrington Performing Arts School.


I loved how Julia and Dell found the inner strength to stand up for what they believed in.
They were so relatable and many readers will be able to identify with them, They were flawed, suffered from selfdoubt and were struggling with both their past and present, but their friendship helped heal them.
In fact, all the characters in this book were wellwritten and I enjoyed the family dynamics, Overall, Drenched in Light was a heartwarming, emotional story with some important lifelessons weaved in along the way.
A great read!.