WINGS OF GLASS demonstrates Gina Holmes's amazing storytelling ability. There is so much she could have included in this story about a young woman just eighteen who is swept off her family farm by a sweet-talking farmhand, but Holmes makes smart choices, ones that elevate her story to the top of fiction's heap.

Penny wanted to escape the drudgery of her life, but she had no idea her prince would so quickly turn into a beast. Trent Taylor is an abusive husband, in part because of the violence he experienced as a child and in part because he chooses to be. Penny, the story's narrator, talking to her son, Manny, relates the tale of how things started out so well and so quickly went so bad.

WINGS OF GLASS is the story of how Penny comes to terms with her abusive relationship and how, when she is forced to find employment because Trent becomes injured, she finds salvation through friendship. Most of all, she tells the story of her redemption, a redemption necessary in order to save the life of her child.

The story moves swiftly yet with raw restraint. Nothing gratuitous, nothing unnecessary in the telling, although subject matter like domestic violence, organized religion and piety easily invite both. As Penny finds strength, readers will too, aware that we all make choices, each and every day. I found WINGS OF GLASS to be a poignant, stunning novel.