Life Entwined with Lily's: The Third in a Trilogy
A thoroughly natural, and so thoroughly believable, look at life, aspirations and family ... Perceptiveness and wit are present on every page ... you will be entranced, you will experience the joys and sorrows of the characters, you will cry, and you will not be able to  put Lily down. -- Dr. Jeff Mirus, CatholicCulture.orgNovels can be dangerous; if they are compelling, they threaten to suck  up all of a busy mother's time away from her children. For half a week, I  have been capitalizing on the distraction of my family or stealing  needed sleep from myself, in order to plunge headlong into the world of  Lily in Sherry Boas' books, The Lily Trilogy. Some novels tempt you to  want to live in a fantasy world, to keep the characters you have come to  know and love alive. The characters in the Lily Trilogy are as real as  your own family, and as flawed. Yet, there is a theme in these novels, a  theme of redemption which starts faintly at first, as a  thirty-something Lily walks her frail aunt down the nursing home  corridors to patiently feed her meatloaf and mashed potatoes even though  she has long ago lost her sense of taste, Lily gives the love Bev meted  out to her in tiny pinches, in unmeasured generosity Bev knows she  doesn't deserve. But Lily's prodigious love changes Bev, and heals her.  Not by taking away from the suffering of losing control of her limbs to  the Parkinson's, but helping her to see beyond this life, to an eternal  love mirrored in the gentle touch of the soft hands of a young woman  whom the world rejects. The power of selfishness to destroy lives versus  the power of self-giving love to restore hope is the theme of this  amazing story set in the future. Strange as it was to see dates like  2066 written as dates in the past of the novel's characters, this is no  science fiction book. It is a story about real people who resemble  people around us, whose flaws hurt and whose love heals us, and the hope  that turns despair into love though the power of pure intentions. I  hugged my nine year old daughter with Down syndrome each time I  reluctantly put the books down, and saw heretofore unappreciated  qualities in my family. The Lily Trilogy filled my heart with gratitude  for my family, and made me determined to be the catalyst of God's  healing in my family. These are the novels I want my daughters losing  themselves in this summer. I want to sit outside with cups of tea in the  summer twilight and talk about Lily, Beth, Pablo and Terry. Then, I  want to pick up the books and visit them again. These books, after  drawing me into their world, make me reflect on my own with appreciation  and want to become the transformed Terry who sees the nobility in her  husband she missed in 20 years as he moved across the country to care  for her sister Lily. To make my home radiate with the joy of their  renewed love. To take my precious nine year old daughter Christina in my  arms and thank her for the joy she has brought to us, and not to fear  what her adulthood will bring. Whether or not she lives independently,  she, like Lily will be a blessing to whoever shares her life. How many  times can it be said that a novel makes you a more grateful, loving  person who reenters life from the world of the novel to embrace the  challenges which sent you running into the pages of the book in the  first place? Recommended for ages 14 and up, no objective content.  --Leticia Velasquez, Catholic Media ReviewPerhaps because of her own experience mothering a Down Syndrome child, Sherry Boas manages to be realistic in an understated, vivid way about the small but piercing aggravations  as well as the small, ordinary graces. -- Willa Fortuine Ryan, The Quotidian Reader