Thursday, May 30, 2024

The Song of Sourwood Mountain by Ann H Gabhart

 


Book description:

The doors she thought were closed forever are starting to open up . . . just a crack

Though the century began with such promise, it is 1910 when Mira Dean's hopes of being a wife and mother are dashed to pieces. Her fiancé dead from tuberculosis, Mira resigns herself to being a spinster schoolteacher--until Gordon Covington shows up.

No longer the boy she knew from school, Gordon is now a preacher who is full of surprises. First, he asks Mira to come to Sourwood in Eastern Kentucky to teach at his mission school. Second, he asks her to marry him. Just like that.

With much trepidation, Mira steps out in faith into a life she never imagined, in a place filled with its own special challenges, to serve a people who just might end up becoming the family she always yearned for.

My review:
  The only books I have previously read by this author were her Hidden Springs Mystery Series, which was awesome. Though this one is not suspense, I thought it sounded interesting.

 This was a slower paced read, but I really enjoyed it. Mira and Gordon were great and likable characters, and the book was filled with other interesting, odd, and likable characters.

 The author did a great job of describing life in a mountain area inhabited by mountain folk, a lot of them suspicious and leery of outsiders. With Gordon being the pastor and his wife being the teacher, there was a constant parade of individuals through the church, school, and home. 

  Though it wasn't a fast paced novel, I did have a hard time laying it down when I needed to, and wanted to see how it ended. One thing slightly disappointing: There was an event that was going to happen, and the author didn't have it happen in the book. Instead, it was mentioned in a letter from Mira to her sister at the end of the book. That is vague, but I don't want to give spoilers. 

 This was truly an enjoyable read of a young couple falling in love after they are married as they navigate teaching and ministering to a wide variety of mountain people. It left me wanting to check out the author's other non-suspense novels. (Though I wouldn't mind more suspense novels from her.)

 Special thanks to the publisher for an advance copy of this novel. I was under no obligation to provide a review and the thoughts contained herein are my own.



About the author:
Ann H. Gabhart
is the bestselling author of many novels, including In the Shadow of the River, When the Meadow Blooms, Along a Storied Trail, An Appalachian Summer, River to Redemption, These Healing Hills, and Angel Sister. She and her husband live on a farm a mile from where she was born in rural Kentucky. Ann enjoys discovering the everyday wonders of nature while hiking in her farm's fields and woods with her grandchildren and her dogs, Frankie and Marley. Learn more at AnnHGabhart.com.

The Song of Sourwood Mountain is available from Revell Publishing, part of the Baker Publishing Group.

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