Ruby's Slippers

Dottie (Dorothy) Meyers lives on a small Kansas farm, alone but for her little dog Toto - oops ... Otto. When a tornado rips through her property, it not only demolishes the home she's lived in all her life, but knocks the middle-aged maiden out cold. She awakens three months later at Rainbow's End, an assisted living facility in California. Near her bed are a pair of ruby slippers - a gift from the father she hasn't seen since she was four. Haunted by childhood memories and a longing to meet the Daddy she barely remembers, Dottie sets out on a journey to Seattle (the Emerald City). Traveling with her are three friends: Sophia, whose mastectomy left her constantly rearranging the "stuffing" in strategic places on her body. A free thinker, she jokes that her son sometimes thinks she's lost her brain; Tim, Dottie's elderly uncle by marriage. He gave his whole heart to Elizabeth, who's younger brother is Dottie's father. When Elizabeth died, Tim thought his heart died with her; Leo, Sophia's wild and woolly son, who lives by himself in a cabin in the woods. He looks fearsome, and he makes a lot of noise, but Dottie soon discovers that a part of Leo is nothing more than a scared little boy who mourns the absence of a father in his life, just as she does. And then there's Duncan Meyers, who lives in Seattle in a house that's nothing short of a mansion. Why did he abandon his family all those years ago? And why did he leave those unusual slippers for his daughter while she lay in a coma? Dottie's actress sister, Abby, is busy playing the part of the wicked witch in a traveling production of The Wizard of Oz. For some reason, she desperately wants Dottie's ruby slippers ... and she's not alone. More than one person is out to get those shoes. The little group of friends learn a lot of important lessons about themselves and each other on their way to Seattle. Focused on guarding the shoes and mentally clinging to the past, will Dottie fail to see the promise of a brighter future? Hurt and disillusioned by her father's abandonment, will she ever again trust another man with her heart? In search of her Daddy's affection, will she fail to see the flawless love her heavenly Father has offered all along? It's a modern-day Wizard of Oz with Cinderella undertones. But this is no fairy tale or fantasy, with magical resolutions and guaranteed happy endings. It's a deeply moving story of hurt and healing, of love and loss, of hope and redemption. Immensely entertaining, it is chock full of wit, grit, humor and heartache. Truly unforgettable, Ruby's Slippers has the potential to be a classic. Don't miss this one!

When I got this book, I thought we were going to be reading the Wizard of Oz in up-to-date version. In a way it paralleled the beginning of the Wizard of Oz but from there has a story all it's own. It is more about the ruby slippers and how Dottie came to receive them. The picture on the front of the book will draw you to the book. What I found most interesting was Dottie's recovery in a retirement home. Her awakening out of a coma after a tornado took her home down and making friends with the people in the home was amazing. Seeing her adjust to difficult circumstances. She found out it was her Dad who left her the ruby slippers and she had not seen her Dad in 30 years. He had walked out of their lives when she was little. Because of the slippers she begins a journey to find her father. What she discovers instead in family is more than relatives. Her friend from the retirement home who takes her in search of her Dad, this friend's son, and her Uncle who she discovers because a family to her. Also there is a healing between sisters when she finally finds her Dad and he insists on seeing them both together. The Ruby slippers lead her to discover God's love like she has never known. Also she learns about her Mother and Grandmother from her father when she gets to see him. Also God begins to restore a relationship with her and her father. The ending surprised me. I was waiting for the perfect couple to wed and a couple did wed - family gained. There is more than one romance in this book; also healing of relationships within family and more. It will uplift, encourage and bring you closer to God. Sometimes like Dottie I feel I have a hard time experiencing love because I always felt so unloved by my Mother growing up. Relationships in real life can make it hard to find that special place with our Heavenly Father sometime. All of us may not have the same story but all of experience situations in our family that create a path to finding our dream.

If you love the Wizard of Oz with all the crazy characters and the adventures they go on, you will love this story. Even if you weren't crazy about the movie that starred Judy Garland you will love this book. I have to say I wasn't really a fan of the movie, it scared me tremendously as a kid, yet my parent's insisted we watch it every year. The Wizard of Oz has been redeemed for me. Hooray! Leanna took me inside the pages of this clever, witty, fun and surprising story. I found treasure where I least expected it. God's healing truth jumped off the page and into my heart. "Every day is a gift," the author mentions. It's our choice to see it and open up the gift daily. Here's a sneak peak into this book. .."were two frightened people, side by side, who are afraid to risk, afraid to love, afraid of being wounded, can't reach out to one another. "Maybe," I venture a hypothesis, "that's why we can't explore...experience God. We're afraid of him." I have found these statements and many others to be so true in my life. Not only was I afraid of God but afraid to do what he had asked me to do- questioning if he picked the right person for the task at hand. I let the enemy win in my life by just being afraid to do anything. I didn't grow, love or live life. I think that's why I really related to this story. I've experienced this truth, and God's healing power mentioned throughout this tale. I totally enjoyed every minute I spent reading Leanne's book. Through these very unique set of characters I can see how far I've let God heal my heart. I also see how much he wants to love me, if I let him. We all are a work in progress. This was the first book I've read by Leanna Ellis, I'm most definitely going to check out her other two books. I can't wait to read this book again. Finding Hope Through Fiction [...]

Okay, so I knew I was going to like "Ruby's Slippers" because Leanna Ellis wrote it. Having read "Lookin' Back, Texas", I'll be buying everything she gets into print. Besides the humor and remarkable characterizations, she invents metaphors and similes that yield the same brain burst as an "a-HA!" moment. Take this one in the early pages, for example: "His words pull the truth out like a dandelion weed, the root dangling, dripping bits of truth." The reader should not be put off by parallels with The Wizard of Oz. I'm not particularly a fan of Oz. Ruby's Slippers is its own plot, characters, and resolution. Read "Ruby's Slippers" for the immediacy of the author's voice, the characters and their stories, the drama of their passions. Weeks later, the novel's take-away values still ring in your mind. Leanna Ellis does it right.

Ruby's Slippers by Leanna Ellis is a haunting story of a woman's quest to know her earthly father and in doing so discovers her Heavenly Father. Dottie Meyers has lived her entire life on the same small Kansas farm where her mother and grandmother were born. Her sister Abigail fled their small town for the bright lights of Hollywood and only returns to the farm when she wants something. So Dottie isn't completely surprised to find Abby searching through their mother's things during one of her visits and then leave without a word the following morning. She doesn't have time to consider the mystery, because a tornado whips through the farm destroying everything and leaving Dottie in a three month long coma. When she wakes up, she sees things in surprisingly bright colors, starts humming songs she can't remember the names to, and finds a pair of ruby slippers by her bed that were left by her long-lost father. Dottie takes the slippers and goes on a quest to find him and to discover why he abandoned their family over thirty years ago. On the way, she picks up three friends with journeys of their own. Ellis very cleverly plays on the conceit of the title. The slippers are supposedly from The Wizard of Oz, and several themes from the movie are used throughout the book, including Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. I found myself looking for specific plot elements from the movie and was completely delighted with how Ellis used some of them and twisted others making them all her own. The book never becomes a parody or silly; Ellis handles the similarities carefully to please fans of the movie without annoying anyone who isn't. While Dottie doesn't exactly discover there's no place like home, she learns what the word really means. I loved how Ellis writing reflects whatever Dottie is going through, from the no-nonsense style in Kansas to almost dreamlike when she first wakes up to clarity as Dottie makes personal discoveries. This powerful novel brought a smile to my face.