Walking the Labyrinth by Lois C. Hart

Publisher:       Ylva

Lois C. Hart does not issue books as frequently as some authors, but when she does have one come out the reader can be sure that it will be an interesting story that is well produced.  Walking the Labyrinth continues that pattern.

The death of her wife from cancer has caused Lee Glenn to descend into a private hell where she doesn’t eat, doesn’t leave her house and has cut herself off from everything.  Her life has come to a shocking halt until her friends finally stage an intervention and she is forced back into the world.  Lee and her partner in a successful private security company decide she will take on a protection detail for a spoiled ex-model who says she is afraid of her husband.  This should be an easy assignment to help Lee ease back into things because the client wants to return to a remote part of Canada where she was raised.  Lee doesn’t realize she is about to meet a unique group of people who are going to help restore her soul.

Lee Glenn, a woman in her sixties, is about to discover that there is life after disaster.  Her guide on that trip will be Gaelle Germaine, the spoiled model’s mystical, spiritual mother.  Gaelle is building a labyrinth to help with her meditation and she coaxes Lee into helping her with the job.  Lee thinks spiritualism is “hooey,” but Gaelle is fascinating.  Just as feelings develop between them, Lee discovers something about Gaelle that is horrifying and it causes her to flee from what can only be more pain.  Lee isn’t the same person however and she cannot forget what she has learned from Gaelle.  Now the question is, is she strong enough to follow a new sense of being?

Where to start with the wonderful things about this book?  First, the story is about older characters.  This is particularly enjoyable in a genre that seems to be dominated by younger people who are just beginning the lessons that older women have completed.  The book also has a very appealing spiritual quality to it.  It doesn’t advocate any particular system, but opens the reader to probing thoughts and questions that can be pondered outside of the book.  The characters are also interesting.  Many people have known someone who has been destroyed by the tragedies of life.  They also know that calm, reassuring person who seems to radiate wisdom from a place deep inside.  These are the people you want to be like when you meet them, if you can just figure out how they developed that state of being.  And all of this is wrapped up in a story that is completely understandable.  No convoluted vocabulary or esoteric ideas that confuse the reader and get in the way of the message.

Lois Hart isn’t finished writing yet, but Walking the Labyrinth may turn out to be her magnum opus.  If so, she couldn’t hope for any better.

This is a highly recommended book.  Read it and prepare to go on a journey of your own discovery.

Kicker's Journey by Lois Cloarec Hart

Publisher:             P. D. Publishing

Lois C. Hart doesn’t produce books as quickly as some authors, but when they come out, you can depend on a good story.  Kicker’s Journey continues in that tradition.

Kicker Stuart has always known she’s different.  Unlike her sisters and other girls in her village, she’s always preferred wearing her brother’s pants and working next to her father in his blacksmith shop.  Fourteen year old Kicker believes she has found the ideal position and is set for life when she is hired to work at the stables of the Grindleshire Academy for Young Ladies.  She knows she’s not the social equal of the young women who attend school there, but that has never bothered Kicker.  She’s much more at home with the servants and the horses anyway.  Six years later though she meets the new teacher Madelyn Bristow and everything changes.  What starts out as a friendship blossoms into romance, which will not be tolerated in England in the 1890s, so the women decide to cross the Atlantic Ocean and attempt a new life in the far reaches of Canada.  Madelyn and Kicker discover that, while Canada gives them more freedom than England would, there are still obstacles to overcome.  The land itself is harsh and demanding and, though most of the people are very accepting, there are still those who cling to social status and pride.  As they attempt to establish themselves in the community of Galbraith Crossing, they find themselves surrounded by friends and enemies.  Maddie and Kicker will find not only their endurance tested, but their love also.

Kicker’s Journey is almost epic in its proportions.  Hart is a master storyteller who knows how to develop characters and settings equally well.  As the book moves from boarding school to London to the trip across the ocean, the reader feels the atmosphere of each and is able to see the personalities of the characters unfold as they grow.  The concept of class differences in England is clearly explained and then carried over to Canada, where the trip across the continent captures not only the beauty of the land, but the harshness it could inflict on settlers.  When the women stop to visit an old friend of Madelyn’s, Hart has a chance to show the suffering that early settlers must have endured.  The story in Galbraith Crossing is reminiscent of stories from the American old West.  There is a frontier town dominated by two powerful ranching families, one noble, the other trouble, and plenty of colorful characters.  Hart also captures the feeling of how the very geography of the place could be its biggest challenge through drought, heat and blinding snow storms.  This is a story of women who are challenged by everything around them, including class and gender expectations.

There is a rich feel to the story in this book.  It will keep the reader turning pages as each new step in Kicker and Madelyn’s journey provides new obstacles to the women’s relationship.  This is excellent reading.