Another Dynamic Read from Cushman | Waiting for Daybreak

Don't wait any longer to read Waiting For Daybreak! | Waiting for Daybreak | Kathryn Cushman

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	• Waiting for Daybreak Kathryn Cushman Bethany House, 2008 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Three-dimensional characters complement an intriguing plot, all nicely packaged with good imagery and a well-wrapped conclusion

WAITING FOR DAYBREAK is the captivating story of a young woman learning to stay faithful and trust God, even when He appears to have abandoned her. The novel's two main characters, Paige Woodward and Clarissa Richardson, are trying to succeed as pharmacists, but possess very different perspectives on what that means. As both face trials in their lives, one turns to God while the other turns to whatever it takes.

Paige is a devout Christ follower who does everything by the book and loves helping people. She hopes no one at her new job finds out she was fingered as the person responsible in a prescription mix-up that resulted in a man's death. Her main concern, however, is making enough money to cover her mother's costly, experimental cancer treatment. As she begins work at the new pharmacy and feels instant tension with her boss, Clarissa, she prays for a friend to lean on as her world is falling apart. Her prayer is answered in the form of Ora Vaerge, an outspoken elderly woman who is not exactly what Paige had in mind.

Unlike Paige, Clarissa grew up with everything money could buy, but lacked a faith-based upbringing or stable family life. Her alcoholic father is currently on wife number four. Clarissa's rich grandfather insists she prove herself by successfully running a small-town pharmacy. If she can turn a good profit in one year, her reward will be a pharmacy in an upper-class Nashville neighborhood --- a long-time dream of hers that has become an obsession. She will do anything to make that dream come true, even if it means destroying Paige in the process.

When Paige and Clarissa's worlds collide, it looks as though Paige will lose everything she has worked so hard to achieve, as well as the financial means to help support her mother. They are brought together by Clarissa's grandfather, a wealthy entrepreneur who observed Paige working at a free clinic. He believed that Paige's work ethic and excellent people skills would prove an asset at the Richardson Apothecary in rural Shoal Creek, managed by his granddaughter, Clarissa. But Clarissa immediately resents this intruder who has already managed to impress her grandfather, and soon does the same with her favorite uncle and a certain construction worker she wanted for herself. When Paige confronts her about breaking some of the laws that govern pharmacies, she has no idea this "last straw" will lead Clarissa down a path of revenge.

The story moves along at a comfortable pace, with enough action to hold the reader's attention. Many interesting aspects of the pharmacy business are brought to light by Kathryn Cushman, herself a former pharmacist. Three-dimensional characters complement an intriguing plot, all nicely packaged with good imagery and a well-wrapped conclusion.

--- Reviewed by Susan Miura

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Another Dynamic Read from Cushman

Kathryn Cushman delivers another dynamic story of relational conflict, bringing the reader inside the heads of her protagonist and antagonist and developing sympathy for both. Paige Woodward is a great heroine who is hard pressed on every side and whose faith is stressed to its limits. Cushman weaves into her fiction the very real and encouraging truths of Christ's personal deliverance for anyone who finds themself surrounded by darkness and waiting for daybreak.

Don't wait any longer to read Waiting For Daybreak!

Paige Woodward gets a second chance. An ugly event from her past and concern for her cancer striken mother prompt her to take a job close to home. She hopes this transition will enable her to financially assist her parents but also has high hopes that she can settle into the small town pharmacy and be the best she can be.

Clarissa wants her own apothecary and will go to any extreme to get it. When Paige appears on the scene, her attention to detail and favor with the customers rubs Clarissa the wrong way. Instead of feeling gratitude that Paige can help her reach that goal, she becomes threatened, and a woman scorned is a handful to deal with.

Although I do not agree with the "3% of blame" Paige assumes, it's not a black and white issue. In fact, this is a story line that could provoke thought and discussion among the most moral of people. My introduction to Kathryn Cushman through Daybreak was a good one. So good that there is another novel by her already waiting for me to crack the cover and go for it. I honestly like her style, her depth in dealing with issues, and the underlying tone that there isn't always a clear cut right or wrong answer-and sometimes, what motivates someone to make a bad decision, isn't always for self promotion.

Not a new release, but a great one if you want an easy read, attention grabbing charactors, a flawless and believable story line, and many referances to who God is without being preachy. Waiting For Daybreak can be summed up as "At the time that seems darkest, when the city is surrounded and all apparently lost, the only thing to do is stand your ground and have faith for the break of day."

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Great Reminder of Faith

Cushman once again creates such real characters with whom the reader can identify with one or the other...or aspects of both. Patience is hard - we want things in our own time, we question God's plan, we ask "why," in reading this book, I realized that I too have been "waiting for daybreak" and know that when the time is right, the sun will rise! The subtle tones of faith and prayer captivate the reader into wanting to see God's work in these characters.

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Paige and Clarissa are two women who work in a small town pharmacy. Both have different goals and pasts they are trying to hide. Paige wants to erase her past that cost her previous job while trying to help out her mother who is very sick. Clarissa wants to move away to the big city and open her own pharmacy but is stuck in the small town. When Clarissa's grandfather hires Paige, Clarissa deems her to be too good to be true and tries to find out Paige's secret. Determined to get away from the family business and into the big city, Clarissa tries to set up Paige and bring her down.

After working in a doctor's office, I have the greatest respect now for pharmacists, and this book cemented my respect. I have no clue how they are able to interpret doctors' handwriting. It looks like illegible scrawl done by a chicken sometimes and for the pharmacist to translate it into something that goes into a human body is just amazing. The story in this book involving the misinterpretation of medical drugs and dosage is a timely and important issue. It brings up the question about who is the one at fault? Is it the doctor who wrote down the wrong RX or is it the pharmacist who was merely following what the doctor wrote?

The conflict and competition between the two women was very well done. I kept finding myself disliking Clarissa throughout the entire books. Her entrance in the story garnered some sympathy but throughout the book her character just kept irritating me. Her lack of customer service was appalling, especially since she seemed not to care about what she was doing. On the other hand I liked Paige very much. I felt sorry for her and I wanted her to rise above what she was doing. Her customer service was what people need when they go to a small town pharmacy. She had incredible patience for the rude customers and handled them better than I ever could!

The only real problem I had with this book was I felt that if everyone had been upfront from the beginning, all the drama and problems in the story could have been avoided. Of course that means much of the story would have been eliminated then. It's just sometimes I feel that the characters make things harder for themselves when they don't divulge necessary information. With this story, if the two women had just told each other even just a little bit about their ambitions, they probably would have been good friends from the beginning and would try to help each other to succeed in what they really wanted. Overall, I liked the story very much. It was my first book by Kathryn Cushman and I would say her books are comparable to that of Karen Kingsbury. I'm looking forward to what she has to offer in the future.

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Paige Woodward is a woman without choices. Her destitute mother's only hope for a cure isn't covered by insurance. When a dream opportunity arises at a brand-new pharmacy, Paige is willing to keep quiet about her past to make sure she lands the job.

For Clarissa Richardson, the dream of running her own pharmacy comes to a screeching halt when her grandfather hires a too-perfect new girl who seems to be hiding something. How far will they go to protect their dreams for tomorrow? What will happen when one woman's last hope means ruining another woman's greatest dream?

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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