The Healing Ruby Series by Jennifer Westall

This series was recommended to me by one of my Bible study friends. As an added bonus, the whole collection was on sale through Kindle for just a few dollars at the time.

The series spans the years 1929 to 1945 (or 1964 if you include the Epilogue). It tells the story of Ruby and Matthew. Ruby is a young girl with a temper as the story begins. She lives in a home with a very faithful father and mother. They read the Bible regularly, and do their best to put into practice what it says. They are dirt poor and work very hard for everything they have.

Matthew is a neighbor and comes from a wealthy family. When we first really meet Matthew, his is very sick. Ruby gets a job with his family to help clean up after him to earn some extra money.

Jennifer Westall does a fantastic job of weaving real faith and real doubts into life issues of health, wealth and even war. She seamlessly places scripture into the story just where it should be in the lives of believers. It was a great reminder to me of just how intertwined my faith should be with my life.

I would say that the last book in the series felt a bit long to me. Part of that was the structure of going back and forth in time for each chapter, and I understand that. But I do wish it had moved along a bit faster.

I would read another story by Jennifer in a heartbeat and I'm very thankful to my friend Christie for recommending this book! I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars.