Book Review For The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate

This is a Christian fiction story that takes place on modern-day Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The story is mostly about Tandi Jo Reese but has a second storyline woven through it about her landlord Iola Anne Pool who grew up in the 1930’s.

The main character and narrator is Tandi, a thirty-three-year-old woman who has fled from her husband and his illegal activities in an attempt to start a new life for herself and her children. She has had a difficult life and needs a fresh start. She arrived on Hatteras Island with her two children—Zoey, age fourteen, and J. T. age nine. She arrived without money, and without a job, but finds a small cottage to live in with her children. She finds Iola, her ninety-one-year-old landlady, dead in her large Victorian home.

Tandi is given the opportunity to earn her rent by cleaning out Iola’s home. In the process of cleaning the home she discovers boxes of letters. She never got to know Iola while she was alive and begins to read her letters in an attempt to get to know her. Iola’s letters turn out to be prayers. Tandi notices strange things happening at Iola’s house and her son J. T. claims to see a ghost there.

Rumors start going around that the county is interested in turning Iola’s property into a storm-water-management site. Tandi knows that if this were to happen, she would no longer be permitted to live in Iola’s cottage. She has nowhere else to go and believes that Iola’s historic house should be preserved. She realizes that the best hope of saving Iola’s property is to let the community know all about Iola and her life.

Iola mostly kept to herself. Despite playing the pipe organ for the Fairhope Fellowship Church for years, most members of the community didn’t care for her. They falsely believed that she had obtained the large Victorian home and Girard Benoit’s fortune by stealing it from his family.

Ross, Tandi’s boyfriend, becomes jealous of the time she is spending at Iola’s house and at her new job at Sandy’s Seashell Shop. She gets to know her son J. T.’s teacher Paul and the two of them become friends. Paul and her children help Tandi document the life of Iola and begin a campaign to save the house. Tandi’s older sister, Gina, shows up and begins causing problems for her. She moves in, disappears with Zoey, starts hanging out with Ross, and fights against Tandi’s efforts to preserve Iona’s home.

Tandi makes new friends who become like family to her. She gets to know her landlord, herself, and her God while cleaning out her landlord’s home. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged, inspired, and touched my heart. It is a story about new beginnings, about the ability to change for the better, and it had a happy ending. It is also about withholding judgement—about taking the time to really get to know someone. I recommend this book to Christians and to anyone hoping to get to know themselves and God better. I give it a full five stars.