Review: Fill the Sky by Katherine A. Sherbrooke

Fill the Sky by Katherine A. Sherbrooke

Blurb from Goodreads:

Tess Whitford’s world is thrown into turmoil when Ellie, her dearest friend, runs out of medical options and grabs onto the hope that traditional healers in Ecuador might save her from a terminal diagnosis. Tess is skeptical, but cannot deny a request that might be Ellie’s last. Together with Joline, whose spiritual work inspired the trip, they travel to the mountain village of Otavalo, where they are immersed in nature and introduced to strange, ancient traditions. After an ayahuasca ceremony goes awry, and an unlikely betrayal threatens their friendship, each woman faces her own deep need for healing. FILL THE SKY is a story about the complexity of friendship, the power of the spirit, and the quest to not simply fight death, but to shape an authentic life.

My Review:
 

Wow, another amazing 2016 debut!  From the first page of this one, I was totally hooked. Not only with the story and the characters but the setting of Ecuador.  I have some serious wanderlust after all the amazing settings I've been reading lately and this book is right at the top of the list.  This book was filled with beautiful descriptions of the landscape, the people, the mood and the feeling of this awe-inspiring country and those descriptions were seamlessly juxtaposed with trying to heal Ellie; this entire book and experience felt so spiritual even with this dark but hopeful cloud hanging over them as the reason for the trip. This novel is about friendships and about accepting past choices while still and always moving forward.  It has a bit of forgiveness but something more powerful that I think transcends words -- it's a feeling and I definitely felt it when I was reading Fill the Sky and especially when I finished this book.  This book may cause you to think about alternative healing practices and question whether, sometimes, modernity is not always the answer.

I loved this book and can't wait for more from this author -- definitely recommend it if you like introspective novels that a re a bit spiritual and off the beaten path!  Fill the Sky comes out next week on October 20, 2016, and you can purchase HERE.

She drank in the explosion of color on the right side of the road--flowers in pink, purple, gold and orange dotting a huge field, nature resplendent and harmonious.  Each flower was a universe of its own, the stalk commanding water from the soil as petals flapped open to accept the sun.  She said a brief word of thanks to the universe for all of nature's glories, especially the ancient vine that they would be working with, so revered it was known simply as "the plant," a moniker Joline liked to think marked it as the originator of all other vegetation.  Powerful, indeed.