Fiction Friday | The Great Escape by Carolyn Miller

Have you ever felt crushed by circumstances, work or expectations?

Recently my husband and I returned from ten nights in Fiji. This was a very necessary mid-year escape ostensibly to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, but it also proved a majestic motivator to complete a huge range of tasks before limited internet and email capacity put an enforced pause on communication. I find taking time away is necessary for my head space (I have too many stories living there), and with the number of intense challenges we’ve faced in the past year, having something like this to look forward to helped buoyed hope.

We love travel, and my husband and I took time a number of years ago to visit North America, which included stops at Prince Edward Island and the lake-strewn Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada. During this trip we saw a number of museums and places connected to LM Montgomery (perfect for this Anne of Green Gables fan), including Bala’s Museum, two hours north of Toronto. This proved a fascinating place for fans of Montgomery’s works to see many first edition books, pieces connected to the films (including the boat Anne was sinking on when Gilbert rescued her!), and items connected to Montgomery’s life. I enjoyed incorporating some of my experiences and LM Montgomery love into Muskoka Blue, and hope readers enjoy Sarah Maguire’s visit to this museum, and the other places she sees (like the CN tower & Niagara Falls) that we visited, too.

For Sarah, visiting this beautiful part of the world is about escaping life when everything feels like a giant fail. I don’t know if you’ve ever wanted to escape your circumstances, but I have. When my husband and I stopped pastoring it led to major questions over our identity and purpose, and that, combined with other circumstances, led us both to dark, depressed places for many months. Writing Muskoka Blue became a form of therapy for me, a type of escape from life’s harsh realities when nothing seemed to be working, so for me this book is very close to my heart. The lessons Sarah and Dan learn are ones I learned (and I’m still learning), and I really hope that readers find a sense of hope and restoration when they read this book.

We can’t always escape our circumstances, but through fiction we can be reminded about our faithful God who never leaves us or forsakes us, whose love never fails, and who proves that even when we feel completely lost that in Him we are truly found. Sometimes we don’t really need to escape, we just need to run to the God who knows us, who loves us anyway, and is ultimately working all things out for our good.

So if you’re in need of an escape, or you enjoy stories that weave redemption with hope, heart and humour, then I hope you’ll check out Muskoka Blue, available for preorder now.

Here’s a bit more about Muskoka Blue:

Two hearts. Two secrets. One unforgettable summer.

An ice princess with a broken heart. A pro hockey player with a secret.
For Sarah Maguire, spending the summer at Lake Muskoka was supposed to be about finding the courage to put back the pieces of her shattered life—not falling in love with the charming yet unsophisticated hockey player from next door.
Daniel Walton may have been praying for Miss Right to appear, but Sarah’s ice princess act just cries Miss Wrong. Dan’s summer plans hadn’t included befriending a redhead with a sassy tongue and cute accent, but as Muskoka works its magic he soon discovers that underneath the frost and prickles is the funny, feisty, loving woman he’s waited all his life to meet.
As their friendship deepens, Sarah comes to appreciate Dan’s patience and kindness yet struggles to let go of the past and embrace the future, while Dan, only too conscious of the personal history he wants to forget, questions the wisdom of pursuing a girl whose heart may never be wholly his – who may soon return to live on the opposite side of the world.
Will past regrets lead to further heartbreak? Or can Sarah and Dan learn to leave the past in the past and embrace God’s promises for the future?
Muskoka Blue can be read as a standalone novel, and is the sixth book in the Original Six, a sweet and swoony, slightly sporty, Christian romance series from bestselling author Carolyn Miller.

Releasing July 28, available for preorder at Amazon, Apple, GooglePlay, Kobo, & Koorong.