It is 1936 and Kate Merritt, the middle child of Victor and Nadine, works hard to keep her family together. Her father slowly slips into alcoholism and his business suffers during the Great Depression. As her mother tries to come to grips with their situation and her sisters seem to remain blissfully oblivious to it, it is Kate who must shoulder the emotional load. Who could imagine that a dirty, abandoned little girl named Lorena Birdsong would be just what the Merritts need?
In this richly textured novel, award-winning author Ann H. Gabhart reveals the power of true love, the freedom of forgiveness, and the strength to persevere through troubled times. Multidimensional characters face real and trenchant problems while maintaining their family bonds, all against the backdrop of a sultry Kentucky summer. Readers will be drawn into the story and find themselves lingering there long after they’ve finished the book.
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Sexual Content - 1/5
1/5
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Violence - 1/5
1/5
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Language - 0/5
0/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 2/5
2/5
Summary
Overall A touching read! This is a book that is built upon emotional tension from beginning to end. It starts with a husband who drinks to drown out his dreams about the
horrors of the war he experienced yet the reader gets the idea there is more to it than that. The results are a wife and daughters who suffer the instability that comes with it. There are other deaths: of a young man in his prime for whom his father had big plans; deaths from influenza and mental illness that resulted from those losses.
There is the era of the Depression when there was little to be had. In addition, a little girl is left on the doorstep of the local church, and a battle of wills ensues over whom she should live with, while the little girl is unable to understand why her parents left her. And this is only the half of it! It sounds rather depressing, but the
author wove together a beautiful story of struggle and victory and life. It is a jewel!