"For my story, Three Rings for Alice, in the upcoming historical romance anthology Brave New Century, I had to step back a hundred years to feel the climate of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1900. As many new things were happening then as a hundred years later—only a little more slowly. I read years of newspapers, magazine articles, and books (among other things) to get the feel for what was important, exciting, new, brave at the time. What phrases were common, what was the sentiment of the day? Women were struggling for equal rights in voting, industry, salary, and recognition. Men, even those who loved their girlfriends and wives, often felt compelled to follow the customs of needing to make decisions that would protect the naturally weaker sex. Even when those women felt perfectly capable to taking care of themselves. When push came to shove, I needed to step back and let Alice, the title character, say and act as she needed to, of course, as a young women at the dawn of the twentieth century. How would she, a very practical orphan who had never known the love of family, handle being treated like a decoration? I hope you’ll read and find out." author, Lisa Lickel http://www.lisalickel.com
HEALING GRACE AVAILABLE NOW
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Grace has a secret. Just like her aunt, and her grandmother before her, she could fix anyone with a touch, at a cost she never questioned -- until her husband developed cancer and died. Believing no one would forgive her for not being able to save him, Grace runs from the life she knew, hoping even God wouldn’t find her in a little out-of-the-way town in Michigan.
It takes a very sick man and his little boy to help her face her past, accept who she is and battle her way back to redemption. Just when she and Ted begin to hope for the future, he relapses. Grace faces the ultimate choice once again: Trust God to work through her precious gift, or let a terminally ill man die. What if the price is more than she can pay?
Healing Grace by Lisa J. Lickel
Lickel gives her readers another taste of her rich narrative and troubling life decisions in Healing Grace.
Grace has a special healing power above what she learned in medical college as a physician's assistant. When the power fails her to heal her husband, she runs, thinking she can outrun her troubled faith.
States away, she meets the endearing Ted who also needs medical assistance of a kind that isn't discovered yet.
Is this a test of Grace's healing powers, faith, or something bigger?
Ted wants the beautiful woman next door, yet with a failing prognosis, how can he subject her to temporary love? And will he dare to ask her to try her special healing just one more time-for him, for them?
Healing Grace dives into a slew of emotions brought on by the caring and faith of friends and family experiencing the ill health of a loved one. Lickel is artful at raising the unspoken questions of the mind and leaving the reader with a thoughtful interpretation.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
If you read and liked Francine River's Sin Eater you'll probably like Healing Grace. In these times of modern medicine it's hard to imagine someone has a healing touch like Grace Runyon does. The story works though, and soon you'll be sure she has the touch. God has given her the gift of healing through touch though she isn't called on to use it in her medical field all the time.
Life isn't fair and in fiction it isn't either. Grace is running from family and guilt but ends up in the same type situation she's left behind. Having been a widow this story touched bringing tears at times.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The heroine of Healing Grace, Grace Runyon, loses her parents and child in an automobile accident and her husband to cancer. She's so overwhelmed she can't enjoy living. Devastated because she couldn't use her gift of healing to cure her husband, she never wants to use it again. To numb the pain in her life, she moves to Michigan. There she meets Ted, whose been in a terrible automobile accident and needs her help to get well. She wonders why God wouldn't let her use her gift to heal her husband then put this man who needs it so badly in front of her. She resents that and is determined not to use her gift to help Ted.
However, she agrees to take care of Ted's son for him during the day when his nanny quits. As Ted and his son warm her heart, she decides to try using her gift and can't use it. She wonders if God has taken it from her. As she adjusts to her environment, she decides to return to work as a physician's assistant and use only her medical knowledge. There her heart goes out to a patient who's hurt badly. She attempts to heal him, does and consequently helps a few more people. Just when she's opening up, starting to feel accepted and using her gift, a child claims Grace hurt her. Even though it isn't true, the people in town gossip and turn on her.
She's tormented by guilt over not being able to save her husband, the strain of losing her parents and child, and now, the town's rejection of her. She withdraws into her own world. But there are people who love her and God loves her.
Lisa Lickel keeps the reader turning pages in Healing Grace as she explores why Grace wasn't able to use her gift. She draws us into the lives of all the characters and makes us pull for Grace to find the peace and love she needs so badly. I highly recommend Healing Grace.
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