‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ by Susan May Warren – Book Review

Susan May Warren’s latest release, ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside,’ continues, as far as I am concerned, her streak of consistently entertaining and well-written novels. 

Here is the synopsis of this novel:

Five Strangers with broken hearts. One raging blizzard. Baby, it’s cold outside!

Dottie Morgan has no desire to share her home – or her heart – this Christmas. After all, her holiday spirit froze over when she lost her son in World War II. But when the blizzard of the decade descends on Frost, Minnesota, trapping Dottie in her home with four near strangers, she discovers that opening her door might also open her heart to a miracle…and a new reason to celebrate Christmas.

Here is the biography of this author:

Susan May Warren is the RITA Award-winning, best-selling author of more than thirty novels, many of which have won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, the ACFW Book of the Year award, the Rita Award, and four books have been Christy finalists. Her novels have compelling plots and unforgettable characters that have won acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. Susan holds a BA in mass communications from the University of Minnesota. After serving as a missionary for eight years in Russia with her family, Susan returned home to a small town on Minnesota’s beautiful Lake Superior shore where she, her four children, and her husband are active in their local church. She now writes full-time and cheers on her two sons in football and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!) as her husband runs a lodge on Lake Superior in northern Minnesota, where many of her books are set. She and her family enjoy hiking and canoeing.

Susan's larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you! She is also the founder of the My Book Therapy website, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.

This book is set in December, 1949, four years after the end of World War II, in Frost, Minnesota. A huge snow storm strands five people in the home of Dottie Morgan. Each person in the story is going through struggles pertaining to the War to end all wars.

This book is named after a duet that was big that season, ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside,’ by Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark. In case you’re not familiar with this song, here’s a more contemporary version – Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone from the ‘Elf’ movie soundtrack. What a great song!

I’ve always loved Susan’s descriptive writing style. Here is war veteran Jake describing war veteran Violet:

Oh, she was beautiful. More than he’s guessed from Alex’s descriptions. Slim, but shapely enough in those brown pants and her dark green cardigan. He could imagine her in her WAAC uniform – no wonder Alex had chased her across Fort Meade. She had dark chocolate, slightly curly hair and green eyes that had the capacity to whisk his breath away, if it weren’t already lost. And those lips – heart shaped, red, and so expressive, even now as she caught her lower lip between her teeth. (p. 61)

Another highlight of Susan’s writing is how she glorifies God, and shows her readers that He is forgiving and loving, and that Jesus is our Savior – the Reason for the Season. Here is an exchange between Dottie and Violet:

         

Dottie held up a finger, her eyes sharp. “Don’t you talk to me of God and second chances. God took my son, and I deserved it. There are no chances left for me.”

Violet stilled. Dottie’s words landing in the back of throat, scraping it raw. She found her voice, kept it gentle. “Dottie, the point of Christmas is second chances for all mankind.”

“I don’t celebrate Christmas anymore.” She shook her head. “There’s nothing left in it for me.”

“Except, of course, Jesus.”

Dottie turned away. “You’ll find the thermometer in the bathroom cabinet.”

“We’re trapped here for a reason. What was it we prayed last night? ‘Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest’? Isn’t He here with us?”

Dottie stared out the window. “I hope not. He’s done enough already. He’s had His say in my life.”

“I don’t think God is ever done speaking into our lives. Even when we don’t want to hear it. Even when our hearts are cold.” (pp. 151-152)

Later on in the book, Violet shares one more truth with Dottie:

         

“I know it seems easier to say God doesn’t love you when terrible things happen. But the truth is, God’s love isn’t measured by the good – or bad – things that happen to us. God loves us, period. He already loved us completely when He sent His Son into our dark, painful, sinful world. We were His enemies, Dottie, and He loved us, even then. I guarantee you are not His enemy now. So, the fact is, He still loves you, even though He took away Nelson. And he’s been trying to comfort you---” (p. 199)

There are several twists and turns throughout this wonderful book, and the ending is very satisfying (you’ll have to read it to find out the ending!).

I have reviewed several of Ms. Warren’s novels on my blog: 'Double Trouble' (you can read my review here), 'Licensed forTrouble' (you can read my review here) 'Sons of Thunder' (you can read my review here), ‘Nightingale’ (you can read my review here), and ‘My Foolish Heart’ (you can read my review here). There has not been one book that has not left me wanting to read more – and ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ is no exception! It makes for a terrific holiday read. I would recommend it as a gift to those who follow Christ, and those who will after reading about His love and forgiveness in this book.

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Summerside Press. I am pleased to be part of the LitFuse book tour with these other bloggers.

‘Nightingale’ by Susan May Warren – Book Review

I am fascinated by reading novels that are set in another time period. It is a bonus when the book is wonderfully well written! I found those qualities in the latest book from Susan May Warren, ‘Nightingale.’

Here is the synopsis of this novel:

Esther Lange doesn’t love her fiancé – she feels trapped in the engagement after a mistaken night of passion. Still, she grieves Linus when he’s lost in battle, and the letters sent by medic Peter Hess, who stayed by Linus’s side as he lay dying, give her a strange comfort. So much so that she strikes up a correspondence with Peter, a wholesome Iowa farm boy. But is he? Peter is hiding a secret, something that could cost them both dearly, especially when the past comes back to life. In this bittersweet home-front battle between duty and the heart, only one will prevail.

Here is the biography for this fabulous author:

Susan May Warren is an award-winning, best-selling author of over twenty-five novels, many of which have won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, the ACFW Book of the Year award, the Rita Award, and have been Christy finalists. After serving as a missionary for eight years in Russia, Susan returned home to a small town on Minnesota’s beautiful Lake Superior shore where she, her four children, and her husband are active in their local church.

Susan has wonderful attention to detail. Here is an example; it gives us an idea what life was like during World War II, and the book is chock-full of this type of passages:

Esther treaded down the hallway in the kitchen. Yes, there on the stove, in the aluminum pot, a batch of milky porridge and covered in a towel, fresh bread.

She lit a match, turned on the heat to the stove, poured herself a glass of milk from the icebox, and then cut herself a piece of bread, standing at the counter to tear it into pieces, watching a squirrel contemplate its way up the cottonwood outside. (p. 33)

One of my favorite things about this book is the letter exchange between Esther and Peter. Here is an excerpt from a letter from Peter to Esther, with Peter creating a wonderful word picture:

Yes, I do remember, by the way, the Ferris wheel at the Iowa State Fair. Perhaps you were the girl in blond braids with pretty red bows at the end, waving to her parents as she took flight over the midway? I remember standing in the middle of the grounds, the cotton candy dissolving in her mouth, watching her raise her hands above her as the wheel reached its zenith, as if she might fly. (p. 90)

There are some powerful spiritual elements in this book. Here is Peter’s forgiving observation to Esther:

“Listen to me. Don’t despise the grace given to you by staring at your sin. You must turn around and keep your eyes on the face of love. The face of grace. This is where you’ll find forgiveness.”

….” Esther, you’re not lost. God knows exactly where you are. You just have to stop and let Him find you.” (p. 182)

I was fascinated by the fact that German prisoners of war were transported here to the United States during World War II; I was not aware of that aspect of the war. Susan, in her ‘Author’s Note,’ provides more detail:

Did you know that, in 1945, Wisconsin and Minnesota hosted German POWs in over 140 POW camps throughout the state? In fact, America held over 200,000 German POWs from 1942-1946. What’s most interesting is that these POWs worked on farms and in canneries throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other states, right next to first-generation German immigrants who, ten years earlier, might have been their neighbors. Indeed, some of the German immigrants had family fighting for Germany, and relatives in the very POW camps nearby. I read a newspaper account about a woman who was moved because she heard hymn, sung in German (her native language) coming from inside the camp, which was housed just across the street from her home. It made me realize that beneath the stamp of enemy just might be a fellow Christian, pressed into serving their country. (p. 317)

Susan goes on to point out another main theme in her book:

An even bigger theme in Nightingale was, just because someone made a mistake once, did he or she deserve to be imprisoned inside that mistake forever? I applied this theme broadly to both Peter and Esther. Esther might be a healer, but she’s trapped inside her sins, unable to see God’s grace setting her free. And I wanted Peter to see that his service in the war might be to fight the demos that held her captive. His story is a Daniel story, of sorts – a prisoner sent into a forgiven land to do good and hold onto faith. Esther’s story is that of the woman caught in sin – and set free to sin no more. Both of them have to surrender themselves into God’s hands, to let Him set them free and mold them into who He wants them to be.

If you have made a mistake, don’t let it mold your life. Let God set you free with His grace, His forgiveness, and discover who you are when you let God take over. Be found in Him. (pp. 317-318)

This is the fourth Susan May Warren book that I have read. Two that I have read are ‘Double Trouble’ (you can read my review here) and ‘Licensed for Trouble’ (you can read my review here). Susan is a versatile author. These two books have as their main character P.J. Sugar, a private investigator. They are set in the current day and have a humorous bent. This book is set in 1945, during the last days of World War II and its aftermath. The styles could not be more different. That, to me, is the definition of a talented and terrific novelist – and Mrs. Warren is the personification of that! The third book of hers I have read is ‘Sons of Thunder,’ the first book in this ‘Brothers in Arms’ series (you can read my review here). This book is second in that series; ‘Part the Waters’ will be releasing in 2011. I look forward to joining the adventure that Susan takes us on next!

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Summerside Press. I am happy to be participating in the LitFuse Publicity Group’s blog tour with these other bloggers.