Review: Your Best Happily Ever After

Your Best Happily Ever After
By Ginger Kolbaba
Shiloh Run, 2015


Summary

Cinderella. Snow White. Sleeping Beauty. Rapunzel. These beloved stories all conclude with, “. . .and they lived happily ever after.” We sigh, smile, and know there’s an amazing story of love, adventure, and redemption coming.

We all yearn for a fairy tale life, but too often our existence feels less like the pages of a storybook and more like a bad reality TV show. From poisoned apples (sin) and Ugly Stepsisters (joy-stealers) to magic mirrors (real beauty is more than skin-deep) and glass slippers (God’s perfect calling for us), the truth is that as daughters of God, we can live the perfect story the Author has written for our lives—we can experience the happily ever after that He has penned for us, now, regardless of our circumstances!

Writer, speaker, and surrogate fairy godmother Ginger Kolbaba offers encouragement, challenges, biblical insights, and a little humor on how God wants us to live and love our stories in the here and now.


My thoughts

I grew up loving fairy tales - and, while the characters can go through all kinds of trials and difficulties, I still want the fiction I read to have that "happily ever after" ending. However, it doesn't take long to realize that any similarity between real life and fairy tales comes to a screeching halt at The End. . . . But wait! There's a spiritual HEA that's available to every Christian, yet I suspect many aren't sure how to avail themselves of all that God freely gives for our daily walk. These spiritual blessings come during and in spite of life's dark times, and that's exactly what Ginger brings out in this book. Your Best Happily Ever After is not a book about marriage, but rather a book of life lessons, relationship lessons applicable to any situation.

First of all, the physical book is lovely in style, pages similar to popular devotional books with uneven edges, really appealing to hold in your hands.  Each chapter revolves around a particular fairy tale or character, draws from applicable Scripture, and ends with points upon which to reflect. I don't think I've ever seen such an ingenious concept for a practical Christian living book! Who knew such impactful spiritual lessons could be drawn from Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White? Ginger's style is to capture your attention with her engaging prose, relatable personal stories, hilarious sense of humor, and then drive home her point. After reading this, I believe I'd pick up anything Ginger writes.

One thought that stood out to me is how "God answers our prayers by giving us opportunities to grow into those answers." For example, we might pray for patience, only to have God give us opportunities to show patience. And drawn from the story of Ruth in the Old Testament, "Faith is choosing, when we can't see the outcome, to believe that God will not let us fall."

While this book is certainly applicable to anyone, no matter where they are in their faith journey, I almost think it should be required reading for older teens, college age and young adults in general. Actually, I even think men would enjoy and benefit from it. Your Best Happily Ever After would make a great graduation gift.

Highly recommended.

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Ginger Kolbaba is editor of discipleship and women’s resources, including Today’s Christian Woman magazine and Marriage Partnership.com, both award-winning publications of Christianity Today International. She has been a columnist for Let’s Worship and has published more than 250 articles. Also an accomplished book author, Ginger has written or contributed to fifteen books, including her most recent novel series, Secrets from Lulu’s Café, which includes Desperate Pastors’ Wives, A Matter of Wife and Death, and Katt’s in the Cradle.

Ginger also teaches and speaks across the country. She’s appeared on national venues such as CNN’s Nancy Grace and Court TV’s Catherine Crier Live, as well as Family Life Radio and Moody Radio’s Midday Connection. When she isn’t chained to her computer, Ginger enjoys spending time with her husband motorcycling through the countryside, visiting Yellowstone National Park, walking her Doberman, reading good books, and talking theory with her friends about the television series Lost. She believes one of her greatest accomplishments would be dusting off her piano and treadmill and using them both—at least once this year.

Find Ginger online at gingerkolbaba.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

Thank you to Barbour Publishing for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.