A Window to the World

Susan Meissner brings sense into a senseless world in this beautiful book. After Megan, the main character, witnesses her best friend being kidnapped, she becomes strongly attached to her best friend's brother, even though his values are very different from her own. There are many twists and turns and little surprises that make it almost impossible to set the book down. I look forward to sharing it with my daughter.

Women's fiction isn't my usual read but this book kept me just as riveted as the suspense novels I love so well. I would say Ms. Meissner's strong suit is story and characters. So many books are well written but the story is ho-hum. Not this book--I HAD to know what happened to these characters. Through her pen, Susan made them live and breathe. Read this with a warning: Tears will be shed, (yes, that means yours.) A Window to the World is an emotional story of love, loss and hope. An ideal book for best-friends or sisters to read together.

A Window to the World by Susan Meissner tells the story of a young girl, Megan Diamond, who begins as a shy, insecure, friendless youngster until she discovers a friend, Jen Lovett, who possesses her exact opposite characteristics. However, tragedy strikes, and Megan finds herself wondering how she should cope. Although she is a Christian, her faith is challenged and then strengthened as she learns to release the pain of the tragic event and to focus her life, not on the past, but on God. The novel is written in a simple style, making it easy to read. Yet, although the book can be read in a short time, the characters are effectively described so that they appear to be real, not merely flat and two-dimensional. They act, and react, in very realistic ways. The main character Megan only comes out of her shell after she meets Jen Lovett. Megan is timid, quiet, and attends Sunday school regularly, whereas Jen is vocal, confident and often questions God and how He works. Nevertheless, when Jen is kidnapped, Megan becomes lost in a swirl of fear, confusion, and a faint hope that Jen will return. She once again withdraws into her shell, opening up only to Jen's brother and an elderly woman, Adele. As she grows older, Megan finally stops behaving as if the kidnapping occurred only moments ago, as opposed to years ago, and moves on, allowing God to lead her life instead of being dominated by the memories of Jen. As time passes, she finally recognizes all of the blessings that she received because of the tragedy; blessings she would never have experienced without Jen's disappearance. I enjoyed A Window to the World, not only for its plot, but also because it was easy for me to identify with the characters. At times, one can be as uncertain as Megan and begin to doubt the actions of God. All people can understand the trials of being an indirect victim of a tragedy and feeling at a loss as to how to cope. But this novel also gives a sense of hope, a sense that God is in complete control of every situation, but that He requires our trust and faith. I would recommend this novel to Christian readers, especially those who may struggle with allowing God to take control of troubles in life. -- Naomi Sloan, Christian Book Previews.com

POWERFUL. I can sum this book in a single word. Megan Diamond was a shy little girl, who was working on becoming invisible. No one really noticed her until the day a new girl transferred into Megan's grade one classroom and smiled at her. That smile changed her life. Jen Lovett was everything Megan wasn't. Outgoing, reckless and confident, but when the two girls met, there was an instant connection. When Jen is abducted off her bike right in front of her, Megan's whole life changes. This story is about the aftermath of tragedy and how people cope with pain in their lives. Oddly enough, this book isn't at all depressing, and I should know. I `m incredibly affected by what I read, and I try to avoid depressing books(or what I call Oprah books). I absorb mood and tension through the pages and I just don't have time to spend three days in bed, depressed, after reading a book. So, after reading the back cover of `A Window to the World', I wondered if I'd spend three or five days locked in my room with kleenex. When I finished the last page, all I could think was, WOW. The book was beautiful. I think the reason it worked so well for me, was that it dealt with pain as a part of life, just like happiness is only one part. It wasn't a mellow-dramatic recounting of a tragedy, designed to manipulate emotions, it was a clear, overhead view of how pain and tragedy fit into life. It's seamless. The threads of happiness and joy blend with the threads of sorrow to make something that is stronger than either could be alone. I was talking to a friend of mine a few days ago. She just finished her last round of chemo and radiation for breast cancer. We sat there and we talked about how her life has changed in the year since discovering she had cancer. It did change her life, no doubt about that. I hesitated before asking her what I really wanted to know, but finally I just blurted it out. `If you could change this past year, and make it so that none of this had ever happened, would you do it?' That sounds like a silly question to some, the obvious answer being yes, of course, who wants cancer, but she thought about it carefully for a moment before she answered. `We spend our entire lives trying to avoid pain, but pain, and how we deal with it, is what makes us who we are. If nothing bad ever happened, there would be no reason to thank God for our blessings, or cling to him in our weakness. So no, I wouldn't change a thing.' That's the same thing I took away from this book. Pain is a part of the world we live in and of who we are, as much as happiness and love are. I highly recommend this book, and applaud Susan Meissner for writing so eloquently what is almost impossible to put into words.

Susan Meissner's newest book has followed suit with the first-Excellent. She makes it so easy to connect with the characters. Even if you haven't had the exact experience as Megan had when she was little, we all have things in our past that changed our lives forever and affect who we are today. Written with such compassion, emotion, and down to earth reality, it's an easy read that you won't want to put down. I've lost a lot of sleep staying up to read yet another great book by Susan Meissner.