Charity’s Diary trilogy
I’m not sure when I’ve read a series I’ve enjoyed so much. Probably not since my first encounter with Sabina in The Secret of The Rose series. Perhaps even when I met Anne or Laura, heroines of the all-time favorites series of my childhood.
In Charity Wentworth, I found a true kindred spirit, in every sense of the word. A sister whose diaries oft echoed the feelings of this big sister of yesteryear. A girl whose heart cries made the tears stream from my own eyes, as I re-lived those days of wondering, waiting, trusting. A student graduated, yet not always sure she knew what plans God had for her, as in my post-high-school years.
Perhaps the reason is because the author of Charity’s Diary has lived those things, has loved her family, has waited on her God—perhaps that is why Elisabeth Allen can write so poignantly of what I, too, have known. So poignantly that I could barely see through my tears to read the pages of Charity’s Diary!
Snippets and drawings from Charity’s fictional yet personal diary are interwoven with the dialogue and story of her day-to-day life as a University graduate who’s gone back home to live with her family until she goes to India as a missionary—or so she thinks. The Bible says God knows the plans He has for her, but Charity isn’t always so sure she understood His will correctly. Nor does life make sense when everything she’d hoped and dreamed of crumbles to pieces around her.
As an American, I especially enjoyed the peek into English life—and spelling! As a married woman, I found myself instantly back in my teen years, reliving every emotion, every fear. As a mom, I empathized with Charity’s mother and yet felt just as keenly Charity’s struggles for patience and forbearance with her siblings (not much changes from sisterhood to motherhood in that department!).
Yet, while I felt every hope and heartbreak along with Charity, and despite the fact that her story hit every emotional nerve, it was the lessons she learned, the truths she kept going back to, that made the series truly beautiful to me. It’s the furthest thing from your normal teen “chick lit”—in fact, the author has strong convictions against typical romance novels. Which is why I could hand the books over to my 15-year-old sister and 16-year-old cousin with the highest of recommendations. They aren’t a fiction series that will encourage them in boy craziness. Neither are they a set of books that will make them feel like they have failed if they’ve ever had a crush on a guy. They are real, honest, down-to-earth stories about a normal girl in a typical homeschooling family. They are as easy to read and page-turning as they are encouraging and inspiring.
I loved the three Charity books! The author, Elisabeth Allen, is a personal friend of mine and her genuine sweetness, humor and love for the Lord shine clearly in her writing. Her main character, Charity Wentworth, is a conservative young woman with every day struggles, joys and questions. In the quest for life after college, Charity has dreams of becoming a missionary in India. God takes her on a challenging path of faith and trust that reminded me a lot of my own life – one much different than ever imagined, yet full of adventure and lessons. I love the down-to-earth approach Elisabeth takes in her descriptions, and how real she makes her characters. The trilogy is one I think any young women would enjoy – laughing and crying along with Charity – and come away with the challenge to truly embrace His dream for their lives.
-Jana (Baldridge) Tingom
Put them on your Christmas wish list—or shopping list, if you have a sister, daughter, or granddaughter in her teens or twenties!
From the time that Elisabeth Allen, the authoress of the Charity trilogy, shared with me about the series and her hopes to publish the books someday, something about the story line, but mostly the sincerity of her heart and motives, caught my attention. I decided that if perhaps she ever published her books, this would be some fiction worth reading. I little guessed how beautiful and fitting the story would really be! Charity’s Diaries were such a beautiful testimony of our God who does all things well, and who works all things for good–even our disappointments and the apparent death of our dreams. Often I read the pages with tears in my eyes as I caught glimpses of my own heart’s struggles and victories through the life of Charity and her family.
–Chantel Brankshire
photos by Jessica Elisabeth
please enter me!
…and facebooked.
I tweeted. 🙂
“The roses and honeysuckle are blooming again. . . . Nature does not change. And O, Desire Burgoyne, God does not change. The roses are not so sweet as the breath of his love, which is always about you, and knows no winter of intermission; and the return of the roses is not more certain than the constancy of his kindness.” from My Desire by Susan Warner
Thanks for hosting the giveaway!
It’s amazing how many of the girls above have been touched by the same books as myself! Alcott, Austen, Stratton-Porter, Tolkein…they are all favorites, however it is the words of Aslan that have stayed with me and offered hope and healing.
“Courage, dear heart” ~The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
“I tell no one any story but his own”. The Horse and his Boy
This new series sounds great!
“…No, he is not safe… but He is good” ~ From the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis.
I just posted about the giveaway on facebook as well.
I tweeted about the giveaway! =D
“Child”, said the voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own”.
-C.S. Lewis, The Horse and his Boy
I’d love to win!
I love L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Anne is so much more outgoing than I am, but it’s definitely encouraging to find someone actually speaking some of the things that go through my head.
One of my favorite Anne lines: “Oh, Marilla, `what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.’ That is poetry, but it is true.” How many times have I been in a situation and wanted to quote that poetry as well!!
I posted on Twitter as well. 🙂
~Pearl
Entry 2:
“Anne smiled and said, ‘My idea of good company, Mr. Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.’ ‘You are mistaken,’ said he gently, ‘that is not good company, that is the best…'”
Jane Austen, Persuasion
Entry 1: I posted about it on Facebook.
I facebooked about the giveaway – twice! 🙂
Please enter me! I definitely want to read these book whether or not I win one!
Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; … perhaps love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, …”
~ Anne of Avonlea
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Please enter me!
Quote from a book: “I want my daughters to be beautiful, accomplished, and good; to be admired, loved, and respected; to have a happy youth; to be well and wisely married and to lead useful, pleasant lives with as little care and sorrow to try them as God sees fit to send.”
~Mrs. March
Little Women
These books look amazing! Please count me in on the drawing!
I am away from home at missionary language school right now, and thus separated from my most favorite of fiction books. However, here is a soul-stirring quote from the most recent fictitious book I read while here at school:
“Indeed, none of us has anything we have not been given. Even if in service to God I lose my life and pour out all my blood, yet at my beginning He gave me every drop, and still I have given Him nothing and owe Him all. Existence itself, every loving word, every sunrise, every blossom, every star – and beyond and before all, the blood of Christ that sets me free from the fear of Hell to enjoy all – all these are from Him. I can only praise and thank Him, never repay Him.”
~ Maiden Veril, Ashes of Our Joy by Ari Henize
I would love to enter the drawing! Thanks for telling me about this awesome series. I can’t wait to purchase (and/or win) and read it!
My quote is: “We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ – not a “prayer meeting” Jesus Christ, or a “book” Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.”
Striving to know Him more and limit Him less,
Rachelle
Thanks for sharing these wonderful-sounding books with us! Personally, I absolutely *love* reading; so what’s not to love about getting a set of these wholesome books?! 🙂 I don’t have any outstanding quotes from fictional books that I’ve read lately, but one of my all time favorites (I’d quote the whole book if I could 😉 ) is ‘Girl of the Limberlost’ by Gene Stratton Porter.
I entered. xx
Hallo
I am a new subscriber…I want on the net to find more about Anne, and found you.
I so much enjoyed the book.
What can i say, God gave me back my imagination through Anne, something that I almost lost through life.
I would so much enjoy and love to read the trilogy -” Charity’s diary.
thank you for everything xxx
“And this is the marvel of marvels: that He called me Beloved.” -The Last Battle
“‘A woman is either a wall or a door, beloved.’
“She gave a bleak laugh and looked at him. ‘Then I guess I’m a door a thousand men have walked through.’
“‘No. You are a wall, a stone wall, four feet thick and a hundred feet high. I can’t get over you all by myself, but I keep trying.'”
-Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
This quote reminds me that if a man truly loves me, he will (with God’s help) try to win my heart no matter how high a wall I have built around it. It also reminds me that I shouldn’t ever build a wall around my heart so high that it is impossible for anyone to get over.
“The only thing you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, Return of the King
I’m not a reader of current fiction, but was given a copy of Almost Heaven by a new friend, author Chris Fabry. I was going through a trial at the time and this quote encouraged me that I was not forgotten by God, but that He was walking me through this for a purpose. Two angels are discussing their assignments: “I have yet to see a charge who finds smooth sailing through life. In fact, the ones He seems to use and love most must go through deep valleys. The Sovereign loves them infinitely but allows them to pass through trouble. This keeps them for complacency.”
May we all be so loved and kept from complacency!
I enjoyed the book so much that I went back and read the 2nd book in the series, June Bug. Loved that! It was a modern retelling of Les Miserables and very well done.
Hoping to win Just Like You and then purchase the rest of the series 🙂
“You have so many extraordinary gifts, how could you expect to lead an ordinary life?” -Little Women, Louisa May Alcott.
🙂 Everly
p.s. I just wanted to participate (haha) but I believe I am ineligible due to winning a book a few months ago (“Tortured For Christ.”)
I posted about this on facebook! Can’t wait to read the books! : )
“I have found that when I quit looking behind me, I stop stumbling over that which lies before me.”
Sir Quinlan and the Swords of Valor
Chuck Black
“Be valiant for valiant you are!”
Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue
Chuck Black
Wow, thanks for posting this. I will have to look into gettting all three of these books to share with my younger sisters!
“One of these days,” he answered, “some of the feelings we have for one another will probably fade and change. That doesn’t mean our love will fade or grow less,” he added hastily, “only that it will change and mature. In many ways when that happens, love is actually deepening and broadening. It’s very natural and probably inevitable. But when young people are unprepared for it, they often think the love that drew them together in the first place is going away.” ~Michael Phillips A Home for the Heart
I happened to pick this book up at my Grandmother’s one day, and found this paragraph. Since then it has been a favorite quote of mine, because it is so true.
God bless
please enter me
I can’t “tweet” or “facebook” about it, but I would love to enter!!
Here is my quotation: A boy dreams with a sword in his hand. A girl gives him reason to draw it from it’s scabbard, and she infuses him with the power to charge into battle….This book is for every boy, even those who are now wrinkled and gray, who feels his heart race and his spine tingle every time a sword is drawn to conquer an enemy. Although, many of us often feel weak, when our women and children are in danger, we transform into mighty warriors….This book is for every girl, even those who have given birth to boys and girls of their own, who feels her heart swell when she mends up her wounded man and sends him back out, fully charged and ready for battle for the sake of righteousness. Without you our swords would rust in their scabbards…
From the Dedication of the book Tears of a Dragon by Bryan Davis
Thank you so much for this giveaway!!! I hope I win… those books sound like so much fun and I am always looking for new words to read!!
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” ~ A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Thank you, ladies, for this blog. YLCF is so encouraging to me! And thank you for this chance to win.
“Live not for time, but for eternity! remembering that this life is but a preparation for another and endless existence.” ~ Martha FInley (Elsie’s Widowhood)
I tweeted 🙂
I would love to win a book! 🙂
Choosing a fictional quote is much harder than one from a non-fictional book (I have so many favorites from non-fiction!)
But this one came to mind; “It is not easy to see that sometimes the fragrance of love must come from the thorns. Our Masters crown was not made from fragrant blossoms, my child.”
I have loved The Secret of The Rose series too!
I thought that would make people really think before they entered a favorite quote! 😉 But congrats for thinking hard–you won a copy!
Entry 1. Whatever comes, cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.
— Sara Crewe, “A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Some people care too much, I think it’s called love.
– Pooh in Winnie-the-Pooh
Entry 3. Tweeted @fairyangel_
🙂 Thank you for this lovely giveaway –these books sound like they would be the kind I would absolutely love!
I hope you do love them–you get to read the first book! 🙂
Entry 2: I also posted about the giveaway on Facebook.
Entry 1: I posted about the giveaway on twitter.
I personally haven’t read any fictitious books, therefore I don’t have any quotes to share. But I will say that this set of books (Charity’s Diary) sounds very encouraging and worth-reading. I would love to win the first book free, and if not, I will be putting them on my “wish list.” 🙂
Guess what, Kandace, you won’t have to put the first book on your wish list–you get to find out for yourself how worthwhile this series of fiction is! 🙂
I posted about the giveaway on facebook.
Entry 2. I posted about the giveaway on Facebook!
~Melanie
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
— Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)
“I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”
— C.S. Lewis (The Silver Chair)
“Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault.”
— Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)
These sound so wonderful…thanks for your blog and thanks for a chance to win!
Entry 1. One quote that has impacted me in fiction writing is “Courage, dear heart.” (Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C. S. Lewis). It has given me courage many times when I’ve felt myself to be on my own “Dark Island” and felt afraid and alone.
These books sound wonderful and if I don’t win the giveaway, I am definitely going to put them on my Christmas wishlist. 😉
~Melanie