I received a free copy of, A Rome for the Restless Hearts, by Sister Lisa Hezmalhalch, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Sister Lisa Hezmalhalch was a protestant before converting to Catholicism. I really enjoyed this book, Sister Lisa answered some great questions, people have about Catholics, like when in the church.

I was given a copy of A Rome for Restless Hearts by Sister Lisa Hezmalhalch from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a surprisingly dense book, considering how short it was. I think this worked quite well as an autobiographical guide of Hezmalhalch's life choices, with occasional advice meted in throughout the book about how she felt we, the readers, could interpret the Bible and what lessons could be gleamed in everyday life.

I picked this book because I was intrigued by how people in the modern age decide to become part of a religious order, and she answered these questions quite well. I wonder if there may have been a second writer who could have asked her questions. There could maybe be an additional chapter in this regard.

Overall, I was pleased that I read this and feel I have based my review on fulfilling some of my curiosity and having an overarching picture of religious life in this day and age as an alternate image to the world around us.

I’m a newbie Catholic, having been a Protestant all my life. It hasn’t been a straight forward path, and living in a small community, there hasn’t been a lot of people I can talk with about my journey. Protestant friends don’t normally understand my choice to follow this relatively unique path. Catholic friends have been Catholics all their lives, so also struggle to understand what seems odd or unusual to me. I hadn’t managed to find many books that were on my wavelength. Reading ‘A Rome for Restless Hearts’ was such a blessing. It felt like I had finally found that friend who had travelled the same path as me. Someone who had wrestled with issues such as Mary, Saints who aren’t really dead, purgatory, the role of women in the Catholic Church and what true unity in the worldwide Church looks like. Thank you, Sister Lisa, for sharing your heart, and providing encouragement to those of us who are travelling a similar path. It’s so lovely to have a companion on the journey.