Ruby’s Slippers By Leanna Ellis Dottie Meyers, 35, is a real-life Dorothy Gale living with her little black dog on a small farm in Kansas that’s about to be hit by a tornado. Knocked unconscious by the storm, she awakes three months later at a recovery facility in California where her father, last seen when she was four, has left her a mysterious pair of ruby slippers. But unlike The Wizard of Oz, this isn’t a dream, and the yellow brick road journey that Dottie and three friends are about to take from Los Angeles to Seattle in search of her dad will show the realities of a broken childhood. More importantly, everything connected to those sparkling red shoes will prove to Dottie that there’s only one true wonder worker behind the so-called curtain who can heal her wounds and prepare the heart for love.

Dottie Meyers has been content with life on the small family farm in Kansas — but then it’s all swept away by — you guessed it — a tornado. In this twist on the Wizard of Oz, Dottie is given a pair of ruby slippers as she recovers and must decide whether to track down the giver and who she can trust on her journey.

She begins her journey a woman isolated from all she knows and loves. But as the journey progresses she must choose whether to remain aloof, or open her heart to the people around her as well as fully embrace her heavenly Father. While the spiritual thread is woven throughout the story, it is a natural part of the story’s tapestry. Without it, the book would fall flat. With it, I felt a connection with Dottie and her journey of discovery. Ultimately, she’ll discover that life is so much more than a pair of ruby slippers.