When a fire destroys the Brambleville Asylum that is home for displaced individuals who have no other place to live, Christina Willems works hard to find homes for all her “family.” What Once Was Lost Kim Vogel Sawyer Waterbrook Multnomah September 2013 What Once Was Lost by Kim Vogel Sawyer is a very touching and wonderful story that takes place in Kansas in 1890. Christina Willems runs the Brambleville Asylum that is a home for displaced individuals who have no other place to live. A fire destroys the home and Christina is working hard to find homes for all her “family.” Levi Johnson is the owner of the local sawmill but is a loner and wants nothing to do with anyone in the community. In spite of his reputation, Christina approaches him to open his home to Tommy who is a blind, eleven year old boy. He grudgingly agrees to keep Tommy and soon a bond develops between Levi and Tommy which leads to several surprises in the story. The mission board refuses to rebuild the home which is a devastating blow to Christina. She begins to doubt her ability to continue with the mission that she believes is her calling in life and she even wonders if maybe she was the cause of the fire. An adversary comes back to town and continues to cause all kinds of trouble for Christina but with God's help she is able to overcome the obstacles that are put in her way by the mission board and her adversary. Christina finally turns everything over to God and finally accepts help from the community. All elements of the story were very well developed. The characters simply came to life on the pages of the book and their dialogue was true to life and very interesting. As each scene in the story opened, I felt as if I were right there in the middle of what was going on for the author did such a good job of developing the action. I really appreciated the way the author kept God's love and forgiveness as one of the central themes throughout the entire story. There were a few subplots and some mystery but all the loose ends were tied up neatly at the end of the story which ended on a happy note. To learn more about the author, you can check out the publisher’s website for a short bio and visit her website for more information. I highly recommend this story to anyone who likes a good clean Christian story with a happy ending.