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Susan Meissner Books In Order

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Publication Order of Rachael Flynn Books

Widows & Orphans (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
Sticks & Stones (2007)Description / Buy at Amazon
Days & Hours (2007)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Children's Books

Pumpkin Day at the Zoo (2023)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Why the Sky Is Blue (2004)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Window to the World (2005)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Remedy for Regret (2005)Description / Buy at Amazon
In All Deep Places (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Seahorse in the Thames (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Shape of Mercy (2008)Description / Buy at Amazon
Blue Heart Blessed (2008)Description / Buy at Amazon
White Picket Fences (2009)Description / Buy at Amazon
Lady in Waiting (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Sound Among the Trees (2011)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Girl in the Glass (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Fall of Marigolds (2014)Description / Buy at Amazon
Secrets of a Charmed Life (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
Stars Over Sunset Boulevard (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Bridge Across the Ocean (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
As Bright as Heaven (2018)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Last Year of the War (2019)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Nature of Fragile Things (2021)Description / Buy at Amazon
When We Had Wings (With: Ariel Lawhon,Kristina McMorris) (2022)Description / Buy at Amazon
Only the Beautiful (2023)Description / Buy at Amazon

Susan Meissner is an American author from San Diego, California that is best known for writing historical fiction and fiction with a Christian slant. Meisssner was born the second child of three siblings, and always had a penchant for writing from a very young age. Her first collection of literary works was predictable stories and oddly worded poems that she wrote aged eight, encouraged by her second grade teacher. As such, she credits her teacher for her success, as she saw the potential in her and encouraged her to pursue a career in writing. She found an equally supportive teacher in high school, who developed her writing skills and offered much encouragement to the budding author. To this day, she has never forgotten how it felt when he read her first composition to the whole class as an example of a great essay. After she graduated from high school, she went to Point Loma College where she met and married Bob. Her husband Bob is an Air Forces Reserves chaplain and pastors a San Diego church. When she is not working on her novels, Meissner loves to go to Rancho Bernado, where she directs small group ministries at her church. She also enjoys traveling, reading great books, listening to great music, spending time with family, dream following, and teaching and speaking in conferences and workshops.

She has always loved putting her thoughts down and this she attributes to parents, particularly her father who was an English major with a passion for writing and reading, who instilled in her a love for books. She would start writing in 1993 when the family moved to Minnesota after seven years of her husband working for the Air Force. She had always felt a strong desire to pursue a writing career, but she could never get herself to start given the age of her children. However, while the family was based In Europe, she tried to write for magazines and was constantly rejected, resulting in much frustration. In 1995, she got a job reporting for a local newspaper where she had her own column. She won several awards at the newspaper and rose to the position of editor for the paper that had by then become the best weekly in Minnesota. 2002 became a pivotal year for her, as her grandfather passed on reigniting the passion to do something about her dream of becoming a published author before it was too late. She quit her editor job at the newspaper, which at the time was a hard decision to make given the great pay and benefits that she had. Getting down to work, she drafted her first novel “Why the Sky is Blue” in four months. It took her four months before she found someone who wanted to publish it, and she never looked back since. She loves to write contemporary fiction that has historical elements running through them that appeal to both the contemporary and historical fiction buff.

Susan Meissner writes novels that asks some questions that people have been asking since time immemorial – what is the secret to living a happy life. She always writes to suggest that everything you have always wanted is attainable just that you have never uncovered the hidden truths that would enable you get them. However, even as she writes about finding hidden secrets to success, she also asserts that happiness is not a function of what you have achieved or chased. The novels assert that life is all about the difference one makes in others’ lives, what value they have poured into yours, and what you have poured into theirs. The most important thing in life is the people and not necessarily, the dreams that people pursue that may not always have intrinsic value. In the novels such as “The Shape of Mercy” and “Stars Over Sunset Boulevard”, she asserts that one can only play the cards they are dealt, even if they are not perfect, just like the world they live in. It is by using the cards dealt to play the best hand one can that they may find contentment in their life circumstances. In many of the novel, the lead characters or someone close to them has their story intertwine with historical events such as the World Wars or with someone from a previous era.

“White Picket Fences”, the first novel in the series is about Amanda Janvier who takes in her niece Tally a sixteen year old girl when her errant brother goes missing. Tally is practically an orphan since she has no mother and lives with a father who raises her from anywhere he thinks is fit from a horse farm to a pizza joint to a Buick. Amanda believes that her family could offer the child a chance at normal life and stability by taking her in. Chase Janvier Tally’s seventeen year old cousin has never seen her in years, even though he does not have much interest in her, preferring to indulge in his obsession with a house fire that has been plaguing his dreams. However, it does not take long before Chase and Tally are the best of friends as they undertake a school sociology project on Holocaust survivors. They soon learn that the family is hiding dark secrets that refuse to go away, threatening to tear the family apart. Tally’s presence in their household could just be the trigger that reveals the hidden past and brings down the white picket fence.

“Lady in Waiting” is another excellent novel by Meissner on the same themes of love and family relationships. It is story of two women whose destinies become connected even though they live centuries apart. The lead character Jane finds a ring in her antiques shop, at a time when her husband has walked out on her unexpectedly, leaving her an emotional wreck. However, her husband’s act in walking out on her opens her eyes to truth that she had never opened her eyes to. She has allowed other people to make her life decisions, and has lived another person’s life for the better part of two decades. Meanwhile, Lucy Day is an English dressmaker from the sixteenth century who takes up the job of attendant to Lady Jane Grey. Lucy and Jane form a friendship through their common shared experience that affects both their lives by allowing them to take charge. In essence, the novel and its stories are all about the decisions that ordinary people make in their lives and how they affect their futures.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Susan Meissner

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