The Gifting: A Supernatural Romance (The Gifting Series Book 1)

Product Information

October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in Shropshire as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders’. Unsettling, captivating and beautifully written, with vividly descriptive landscape from Orkney to London, The Gifts is an enthralling tale of ambition and the lines of knowledge for science sake and obsession being crossed, of women finding an inner strength, being resourceful and tenacious and not willing to conform. I loved it, and although my proof copy just had placeholder text, I’m sure that the finished copy with its chapter illustrations will be a thing of beauty indeed. Many of us choose to stay victims because it gives us license to do zero on our own behalf. Freedom comes with a price. We’re called to be accountable for our own behavior—and to take responsibility even in situations we didn’t cause or choose.” Hearing this strong little woman tell her story made me think my problems are tiny by comparison. If she could make it, so can all of us. Her close brushes with death and disaster have prompted her to get stronger and eventually help others. She as a lot in common with Victor Frankl and his book Man's Search For Meaning. With people today still doubting that the holocaust ever happened, and with fear, anxiety, and hatred raising their ugly heads as people look for others to blame for their problems, books like this are essential. I recommend both The Choice and The Gift very strongly.

I one hundred per cent ‘got’ the story that Liz set out to tell. It’s historical fiction, yes, with magical elements, but it’s also SO MUCH MORE. What a magnificent and beautifully inspiring book this was! I devoured it in only a couple of sittings it was THAT gripping. It is a mixture of historical fiction and magical realism with interesting and engaging characters and is highly compelling.You don’t have to figure it out in a hurry. In fact, it’s best to stop figuring and figuring and trying to understand. It’s an answer that will come only by playing more, by living your life as fully as possible, and being who you already are: a person of strength.” We can be wounded and accountable. Responsible and innocent. We can give up the secondary gains of victimhood for the primary gains of growing and healing and moving on.” I have life to live and work to do and love to share. I don’t have time to hold on to the fear or anger or shame anymore, to give anything else to two people who already stole something from me. I won’t give them another inch. I won’t hand my power away.”

De mentale gevangenissen die zij behandelt zijn de gevangenissen van de slachtofferrol, vermijding, verwaarlozing, geheimen, schuld en schaamte, onverwerkt verdriet, starheid, wrok, verlammende angst, veroordelen, hopeloosheid en het niet-vergeven. Deze thema’s legt zij uit, ondersteunt zij met voorbeelden uit haar eigen praktijk en met anekdotes uit haar eigen leven, en ze sluit elk hoofdstuk af met praktische sleutels, aanwijzingen om ergens op een andere manier tegenaan te kijken, kleine dingen die je voor jezelf kunt veranderen, inzichten. My thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Gifts”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. You could have died, too, somehow. Perhaps there’ve been times when you’ve wanted to. But you didn’t. Hope is the conviction that you survived all that you survived so that you can be a good role model. An ambassador for freedom. A person who focuses not on what you’ve lost, but on what’s still here for you, on the work you’re called to do.” The book is written by Dr. Edith Eva Ever, a holocaust survivor of Auschwitz. She is 92yrs young and holds a doctorate in Psychology. While I enjoyed the overall theme, some of the details in the story were just not my cup of tea. There was a magical realism element that I loved but it wasn’t ever explained, unless I missed it, so while it was cool, it just didn’t make any sense as to why or how.I’m writing this early in the morning whilst my brain is fresh as I’m suffering a book hangover of gargantuan proportions and don’t want my review to be all “I LOVED IT! I LOVED IT! JUST BUY IT EVERYONE!”

She leads Pete over to the small crowd lounging around a coffee table. There are five juniors. Two seniors. A bowl of candy, a bag of pretzels, and a half-empty bottle of Smirnoff. Pete squeezes in on the couch and Sydney sits on his knee like the two are a couple. Elliana—a girl with an eyebrow ring and fluorescent colored bracelets covering both of her wrists—shoots daggers at Sydney. This is a novel based on a slightly bizarre concept - in the mid-nineteenth century, a number of women grow wings. In an age of scientific discovery also still heavily influenced by religious beliefs, this piques the interest of doctors and captures the public imagination.

I used to ask, “Why me?” But now I ask, “Why not me?” Perhaps I survived so I can choose what to do with what happened, and how to be here now. So I can show others how to choose life, so my parents and all the innocents didn’t die in vain. So I can turn all the lessons I learned in hell into a gift I offer you now: the opportunity to decide what kind of life you want to have, to discover the untapped potential lying in the shadows, to reveal and reclaim who you really are. The story covers some excellent themes, especially highlighting how the craze for science and the obsession over religion can have common roots. Both are a wait for a ‘Eureka’ moment, a miracle. Usually, one is based in logic and the other in faith. But this book depicts how an overlap is possible. It becomes quite thought-provoking. Even a Nazi can be a messenger of God. This boy was my best teacher, guiding me to the choice I always have to replace judgement with compassion - to recognise our shared humanity and practice love" I enjoyed how well the author incorporated magical realism with historical fiction. I wanted a little more explanation relating to the magical aspects of the read, but the author did offer enough explanation to keep me from being dissatisfied. The author also did a good job at emphasizing how intertwined science and religion was in England during this time, which was a driving force behind the antagonist of this read.

No, listen, Tess. We found some really crazy stuff. Elliana thinks what you saw could’ve been real.” Edith Eger’s powerful first book The Choice told the story of her survival in the concentration camps, her escape, healing, and journey to freedom. Thousands of people around the world have written to Eger to tell her how The Choice moved them and inspired them to confront their own past and try to heal their pain; and to ask her to write another, more “how-to” book. Now, in The Gift, Eger expands on her message of healing and provides a hands-on guide that gently encourages us to change the thoughts and behaviors that may be keeping us imprisoned in the past. It’s very dangerous to put your whole life into someone else’s hands. You are the only one you’re going to have for a lifetime. All other relationships will end. So how can you be the best loving, unconditional, no-nonsense caregiver to yourself?”All in all, I enjoyed this unusual historical fantasy. If you like character-oriented novels, don’t mind (or can skip over) triggering scenes, and have no problem with multiple perspectives or magical realism, do give this a try. As the long list of ‘ifs’ indicates, this isn’t a book for everyone.