A Top Winner
2012 Transformational Author Writing Contest
Mary Sullivan Esseff
Transformational Author
Mary Sullivan Esseff<meta property="fb:pages" content="131410006996888" />
Peter J Esseff just published his first poetry book. Earthly to Ethereal is a short volume containing a delightful selection of poems by Peter. At the time he composed them, he was in Costa Rica with his wife, Mary Sullivan Esseff, who was visiting a dental clinic. Each title in this volume presents a heart-felt emotion.
You will find yourself reading each poem over and over again, finding something new and different each time. The author’s poems are truly timeless. Mary gathered the photos to surround the poems and give them a new life. Each page speaks to the viewer in a way that no print-only work–no matter how inspiring–can.
"This book should be available in every doctor's office or any place where people have time on their hands while they are waiting. The poems are terrific and the photos compelling!" Daniel Shaheen
These poems and the accompanying graphics bring a smile to your face or plant an inspirational seed in your heart.
Loved it! Want More!
After their snowstorm-covered wedding in Washington, DC, (told in Wedding Tales Part One:
Love's Journey, which I enjoyed, too), Rebecca Butler and Khalil Khoury fly to their honeymoon in warm, sunny Nassau. By accident, they discover the hidden loot of a diamond smuggling ring. They also find out that the smugglers are corrupt civic leaders and prominent businessmen on the island. Despite the plots of these powerful men, Rebecca and Khalil use their wits to foil the crooks trying to take their lives and still have a fun-filled honeymoon on the island's sunny beaches and fancy nightclubs.
Suspenseful histories of Rebecca's family from Germany and Khalil's from Lebanon are neatly woven into the novel. These stories alone are worth the price of the book for their insights into the cultural and religious unrest of late 19th century Europe and the Mideast as well as the difficult daily lives of immigrant families from these areas coming to America in the early 20th century.
After reading many other novels with their tiny print, I was grateful for the easily readable print in Honeymoon Caper. Its 502 pages literally flew by. As I closed the book I wanted to learn more about this clever young couple so deeply in love. I hope Mary Sullivan Esseff reveals more of their adventures in future novels.
Esseff's writing is reminiscent of Agatha Christie's murder mysteries. Like them, both volumes of Love's Journey are full of excitement, intrigue and intelligence without the gratuitous violence and sexuality found in many contemporary novels. Hat's off to her for this.
Louis M. Savary, October 29, 2015
Inspirational!
Beautiful Love Story!
KUDOS for
WEDDING TALES,
Book One, Love's Journey
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author kept me in suspense until the very end of the book. She did an
excellent job of showing how hard it can be to make a major, life-changing decision.
The reader follows Khalil as he agonizes over the decision that will affect the rest of his life. We follow Rebecca as she matures into a women who grows in confidence and can love unselfishly. I look forward to reading future books by this author.
Betty Wible Molloy, Amazon.com
I got this book as a Goodreads giveaway and when I read the cover I was a little hesitant about it at first. The tagline "an
inspirational
story about the transformational power of love" sounded cheesy to me. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
I couldn't put the book down and ended up reading it in a day. I loved the characters and the story-line. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good love story. Mary Sullivan Esseff is an inspired writer, whose work is more like poetry.
Becca Twitchell, GoodReads
Goodreads.com
Personally intimate and beautifully written, The Butterfly & The Snail, inspires the human soul to love in the way God intended humans to. Although the story is not set in a modern perspective, it encourages
values, which seem to have been dismissed and forgotten in all our contemporary turmoil and haste.
Form the outset, Mrs. Esseff points out the human struggle of overcoming personal baggage. Imperfection makes us unique, but it can also prevent us from finding our path. Within this vein, she carefully develops her characters; each with his or her own challenges moving at his or her own pace. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is sacrifice and requires prayer, faith and courage.
Although I was less pampered than Rebecca during my college years, I struggled with similar issues. I aspired to please my family, only to later discover God had completely different plans for me. Essef offers a mature coming of age story that many adults would be able to identify with. At what age can we really consider ourselves adults?
This is not a tale for the impatient, instant-gratification types. If you want stale candy and hydrogenated deserts, stick to the standard formula. If you want a taste of sincerity and what it means to love, follow Rebecca and Khalil as they embark on a journey of love, faith and courage."
Yvonne von Innes,
GoodReads
Loree Lough
What do you get when you combine inspiration, dynamic characters, and a feels-like-you're-there storyline?
You get a Mary Sullivan Esseff novel, and in Wedding Tales, Book One: Love's Journey she delivers all that and more.
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My advice to readers: Make room for this one on your "keepers shelf."
My advice to Mary: save space on your "awards wall," because this tale is sure to earn a bunch!
Loree Lough, best-selling author of more than 105 award-winning books, including the recent reader favorite "Those Marshall Boys" series from Harlequin Heartwarming.
I especially enjoyed the stories about Assaf and Marya, the Baron and his son Viktor, the challenges Rebecca and Khalil faced in finding work, and the passion they shared leading up to the wedding.
I also enjoyed reading about the Kringle family and how this family rallied together in the toughest of times. I enjoyed the story that the priest told about Rebecca meeting Khalil as a child and wondered if this truly happened.
I found it difficult to put the book down once I got into it. I liked how you leave the reader looking forward to what is coming in your next book. Thanks so very much for sharing your story with me. It was fascinating and left me wanting more!!
Doreen Fulton
CEO & Founder, Believe In A Ray Of Hope
