Anchored: A Lamp in the Storm

By Valerie Banfield

Description:

DECEMBER 1895, near the shoals of Nantucket. When an urgent need trumps a perilous passage, the fare is costlier than anyone imagined.

Crew member Thomas Burton, stationed aboard the lightship Nautican, is no stranger to risk and loss. In the aftermath of a shipwreck, he plucks survivors from the wintry Atlantic waters, only to have them turn his world upside down. When calamity and evil follow the victims ashore, what’s the man to do?

PRESENT DAY, departing Phoenix. When a relocation annihilates plans and promises, and jeopardizes the future, all that remains is his faith.

Dustin Turner braces himself for a miserable senior year at Heritage High, where the social misfit faces affluent teens who own heavy doses of attitude. When he realizes the student body is blind to the lies and deception loitering in the hallways, will Dustin shrink into the shadows or will he take a stand?

When the tempest roars, where lies the safest course?

Book Takeaway:

None of us knows the length of our earthly days. We need to be prepared. Always. Whether we find ourselves in dangerous waters or adrift in a sea of loss, if we place our lives in the hands of the One who is the only true anchor, He will be there with us.

Why the author wrote this book:

I've enjoyed basket weaving for many years, and among my collection are several Nantucket Lightship Baskets. But, what is a lightship and what does it have to do with baskets? My research turned up a fascinating history of men who spent months at sea, their situations dangerous, their tedium alleviated with basket weaving. A story emerged. The handsome basket, woven decades earlier by a hardy mariner, influences a present-day teenager. Both the crew member and the teenager face tenuous circumstances with high stakes. Where will they seek refuge during the storm?