Simply Book Shelf :: The Tea Chest :: Heidi Chiavaroli
There is a series I fell in love with when I was in college from the general fiction market that spanned a decade of happy reading for me. It was a time-split series set in modern England, while a woman researched about Napoleonic England. (I’m putting a link to them here, but I want to emphasize these are NOT Christian fiction novels. Incredible story-telling, and I still hold my love for them, but consider this your disclaimer lol.) The author has incredible talent, and the series as they came to me each Christmas from my sweet in-laws, kept a flame burning in my heart for fiction, and to my love for history as I grew further and further away from my dusty history degree. As I’ve made fiction more a part of my reading diet, and of course part of the podcast, I wondered if I would be able to find an author in the Christian Fiction genre that would be able to work within it from a faith filled worldview.
The Tea Chest by Heidi Chiavaroli floated around my social media feed the last several months, and it was a cover that captivated my attention. For better or for worse, because of the podcast, I have a lengthy reading list to get through most of the time. Then, I have a “I’ll to get to that after the podcast” list, followed by another “I’ll get to these second” list. (Lists upon lists, upon lists..). This one honestly fell on the last list, mostly because the others are so long!
A couple of weeks ago, I was putting books on hold for my daughter from the library and the title of Heidi’s book popped in my head out of the clear blue. I wondered if our library carried it. After a few quick clicks, not only did they have it, but suddenly I found myself bouncing past all my carefully cultivated time prioritizing lists and it was in my possession. I knew nothing about it, didn’t even read the back cover, and suddenly I’m staring at a modern-day story with a historic woman on the front.
Wait. What’s going on here? I flipped a few pages… no. Surely not. Oh my stars, it’s a time split novel! I literally gasped in excitement (ask Andrew, he thought I’d lost my mind for a minute.) Not only that, but it is a story that captivated me until the very end. The story follows two women, one who is training to become the first female Navy SEAL, and the other who is caught in the middle of the beginning of the Revolutionary War. I love Heidi’s gritty style, and visceral descriptions that put the reader in the thick of it. The interweaving of themes of forgiveness, processing liberty vs. loyalty, and even how those change and shift as broken humans evolve, in both timelines is beautifully done, and it she did not shine the characters up as they struggled. This is what makes us feel our humanity and a need for a Savior, knowing that the wrestling can either end with our hope, or lost without it.
But now I have a problem… a new list of books to read. It’s a problem, I’ll happily take.
Happy reading, y’all!
Em