Readers Favorite Bronze Medal Winner - If you like fiction and non-fiction like Tuesdays with Morrie, The Shack, The Notebook, Eat Pray Love, or Message in a Bottle, and if you like a novel that leads to a little soul searching or deep, book club-style discussions, then you will like Lessons in the Journey. Elizabeth Finch is a forty-two-year-old mother, wife, loyal friend, and successful pediatric surgeon living in a northern suburb of Chicago. She is not a person who expects life to throw her into tragedy. She is close to her sister, Rachel, and her best friend, Kate, and has a special bond with her parents’ housekeeper, Anna. She feels all is well with her husband, Kevin. Sheltered as a child and unprepared to handle life’s emotions, Elizabeth suddenly finds that her “perfect life” is not so. And when her daughter, Mary Beth, storms out in a teenage rage, Elizabeth waits for the usual, “I hate you, Mom!” Yet the words she hears her daughter speak are much worse: “I wish my real mom was here instead!” These words soon haunt Elizabeth, as does the unraveling of her perfect life that ensues. It leads her to reevaluate her faith and marriage through the wisdom of an unexpected source while faced with tackling preconceived concepts of race, gender, belief in God, and her purpose. Will Elizabeth survive what has transpired? Will she be able to rediscover hope and the meaning of her life? Will she learn anything from her lessons or her life’s journey?