They were sisters once.
Almost forty years ago, in a more innocent time, two girls enter the convent. Angelina and Joanna come from vastly different backgrounds, but they have one thing in common - a desire to serve, to join in the community of sisters.
Despite the relative seclusion of the convent house in Minneapolis, they're not immune to what's happening in the world around them. In 1972, Angie's involvement with a pregnant teenager triggers a crisis of faith. At the same time, Joanna's relationship with a Vietnam veteran brings her face-to-face with the choices she made - and didn't make - in her own life.
Then, Angie and Joanna leave the sisterhood, abandoning the convent for the exciting and confusing world outside. The world of choices to be made, of risks to be taken. Of men and romantic love. The world of ordinary women...
Debbie Macomber illuminates women's lives with compassion, with love and with grace. In Changing Habits she proves once again why she's one of the world's most popular writers of fiction for - and about - women.
Trini Alvarado's pleasant, unpretentious voice and carefully measured reading style perfectly match the characters of Kathleen, Joanna, and Angelina, three young women who become novitiates in the early '60s. Their reasons for entering the convent vary: Kathleen enters at her parents' urging, Joanna runs from betrayal and a broken engagement, and Angelina feels drawn to serve God. When each of the women experiences a crisis of faith, Alvarado's narration is delivered with appropriate anguish coupled with heartfelt emotion. Her portrayal of culture shock when the women leave the convent depicts astonishment and incredulity. Alvarado's soft, adaptable voice is appropriate for convent life and carries the story to a satisfying conclusion. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
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