Teresa Mathews Reviews At Every Turn by Anne Mateer

At Every Turn

At Every Turn by Anne Mateer
Bethany House, 2012

Reviewed by Teresa Mathews
5 stars~*****


In this exciting story Anne Mateer takes us for the spin of our lives when she introduces us to Alyce Benson. Alyce is a spunky young woman who loves nothing better than to race around in her Packard Runabout, and very few people know just how fast she likes to go.

Alyce tries so hard to be the conventional young girl her mother desires her to be but even as child Alyce just could not be like that. She has too much energy and enthusiasm for life and that has gotten her in trouble more than one time. Like the Sunday when John and Ava McConnell missionaries to the Gold Coast in Africa speak at her church. After seeing the pictures and hearing the stories of some of the children the McConnell’s have been helping Alyce just knows there has to be some way she can help the McConnell’s bless these children. So without any forethought of the consequences, Alyce jumps up and pledges $3000.00 to their cause and to make matters worse she challenges the church to match her donation. Even though Alyce means well and her heart is in the right place there is a small hitch in her plans, she has no money but she is sure she can get it from her dad.

When Alyce finally gets up the nerve to ask her dad for the money she is shocked beyond belief when he emphatically says NO! Even though his mother is a Christian and has tried through the years to be a good witness to him, he has never seen the need to come to Christ. What will Alyce do now? How can she possibly come up with that kind of money on her own?

Trying to forget her money problems for a while Alyce makes her way to the garage to go for a spin. When Alyce gets there and sees her father’s mechanic, Webster Little working on a racecar, she gets excited and she persuades Webster to let her take it out on the dirt track. Webster has been Alyce’s confidante for quite a while, and he knows how much she enjoys driving and how fast she likes to go. If only there was a way Alyce could actually drive in a race, she just might win and the prize money would go a long ways to paying off that pledge. Can Alyce and Webster pull it off? Can Alyce finally fulfill her lifelong dream of driving as fast as she pleases and fulfill her pledge too?

When Anne first sent me her book I thought WOW this sounds like a great story, a female racecar driver in the early nineteen hundreds. I was not disappointed at all, there was excitement from the get-go, and I adored Alyce and her love for the Lord. All-in-all this story was wonderfully exciting and it had me sitting in the car revving up right along with Alyce, cheering her on! 

I was given an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

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