This week I finished two very different novels. One, by my friend, Lisa Wingate, was a delightful treasure box of quirky people, old mysteries, and new found hope–all bound by the lovely little community that lives in fictional, Moses Lake. Blue Moon Bay was yet another delicious read and one I can whole-heartedly recommend to friends who like faith mixed in with their fiction. If Blue Moon Bay was a glass of ginger ale on a warm afternoon, the other novel, When She Woke, was a shot of whisky. Straight. HIllary Jordan retold the classic Scarlet Letter in a futuristic setting that felt a lot less futuristic than you might think–it was spookily current except for the whole color chroming done to a human to identify their sin. Though faith factored heavily into this novel, it was the kind that questioned everything and came to its own conclusions based on surviving horrible circumstances. Ms. Jordan is as evocative a writer as I’ve read in a long time and I doubt I will soon forget Hannah and her journey.