Season of Forgiveness

Emma Johnson believes that in order to reach some people, she has to live out what she believes. If Jesus dined and associated with sinners without judging them, than that is just what Emma will do and teach her growing family of seven boys. To say she is strong in her faith is an understatement and it permeates everything she does and says in raising her boys while her husband Jake drives the cattle on their growing ranch. But not everything for Emma has been easy. As a daughter of a white father and Indian mother, some of the people in the town of Riverbend can't see past their own race prejudices and treat her as less than worthy of God's kindness.

While Jake and her two older twins Jed and Jerry are on their way back from a long cattle drive, Emma is faced alone with caring for her five younger sons. Knowing how to shoot and take care of their needs, she still has an unsettled feeling, danger is lurking nearby. As she plans to head out for a picnic with the boys in hopes of adding some coneflower roots to her medicinal supplies, she encounters a man who has more on his mind than cause Emma harm. He plans on having a little "fun" before he takes her life. Only he wasn't counting on Emma being trained in how to use a gun and finds himself shot before he can do anything to do. Not only once in the shoulder, but when he failed to take her warning seriously, she shot him in the knee as well. But Emma isn't planning on letting him die. After she ties him up, she begins to treat his wounds.

Daisy Carson is trying to understand just where she keeps going wrong. Her father seems to find fault in everything she does, no matter how hard she tries. After losing her mother, it seems like her father can't seem to find joy in anything, except drinking, finding faults and insulting Daisy, making sure she understands she is worthless and if the punishments need to take on a physical nature to get his point across, he doesn't hesitate. Along with his drinking, he takes to assaulting Daisy at night when he visits her in her bedroom. Just when she thinks it couldn't get any worse, her brother believes that since their father can get away with treating Daisy that way, so can he. But just before he assaults her, the hired hands that work for her father, manage to arrange a rescue. They arrange to raise some money to ensure Daisy no longer has to be treated like that by her family. She takes a train and heads west in hopes of finding a new life in the mountains.

In the novel Season of Forgiveness by author Templa Melnick, each of the women in the novel find themselves in different circumstances that teach them just how powerful prayer is, and how the act of forgiveness can work to heal them in ways they could never imagine no matter how hard it is to do. With God's help each of the women learn the strength that comes from their faith as well as how important prayer is in helping them move forward in their futures despite what others may think of them. I received Season of Forgiveness compliments of Cladach Publishing for my honest review and did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review. I love how each of these women find their own strength in their faith and no two examples are exactly alike. Emma has to struggle with racial prejudice, Daisy has to deal with finding her own self worth, Dee, will need to come to terms with starting over with other's preconceived notions of who she was in her past despite trying to move forward and Sally needs to learn how to move on when her husband abandons her in search for gold. It is a testament to what we all have to deal with in learning to forgive others who have hurt us and realize that God's love supercedes what others may think. I easily rate this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars. This is the first novel in the Seasons of Riverbend series as well as the debut for Templa Melnick, and I personally can't wait for the next one!!!

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Season of Forgiveness by Templa Melnick

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