A Promise Child

We have all heard of the Great Depression from either our history books or perhaps a family member has shared their experience with you, but very few have been impacted by it except those who have experienced it. I have heard it said, that the reason so many people are 'hoarders' is that they remember living through the Great Depression years. It is a by-product of those times. Yet we don't really understand or even empathize with those who have because it hasn't impacted us. I have had the distinct honor to read a series of novels by Kathryn Spurgeon who has based each of her novels around the true stories of her parents or grandparents stories of what they dealt with during their times of growing up.

In the novel The Promise Child, she takes readers into the very heart of what the Great Depression felt like for the Trimble/Pope family. For Sibyl Trimble Pope, she remembers the life of prosperity her family had had during her younger years when she was a child. They never had want for anything. They may have watched the beginning signs of struggle for others but it never really impacted them until she married and watched the signs of the times and had hoped that they would weather the storm. She watched her father leave their family and divorce her mother leaving their children behind to fend for themselves. This was a time in which divorce was considered a bit of a curse in small towns. No one did that. No one had an affair in affluent families and simply walk away for greener pastures elsewhere. But that is what her father had done.

Now with the Depression hitting everyone, her mother and remaining siblings were struggling to make ends meet. To find ways to make clothes and shoes last a bit longer. To find ways to even put food on the table. Sibyl herself in her own new family feels like she needs to help. Her own husband Fremont hold on to the filling station they purchased to help make ends meet. Yet with fewer and fewer people being able to fill their cars, their own business is falling apart. She tries to reach out to her father who is well enough to help but figures out that they need to manage their finances better and refuses to help any of them. Her only option is to take her father up on a job offer and leave her family for a short time to send back money working in the bigger cities or pack up what they have and head for the west where people have been heading since this began.

I received A Promise Child by Kathryn Spurgeon compliments of Memory House Publishing. This really opened my eyes up to the struggle of families have to endure the effects of the Great Depression. Trying to stretch your food sources as much as possible, even doing without food so your own children didn't go hungry. It really grabs hold of you and makes you a witness to what is happening not only to the Pope family but others that they are watching go through it with them. I didn't want to put this book down because I was emotionally invested in their family and their struggles. I was praying and rooting for them to make it every step of the way and for me, those are ear-marks of an exceptional book and the reason for my 5 out of 5 stars.

For more information about A Promise Child, Kathryn Spurgeon or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

A Promise Child by Kathryn Spurgeon

You can find Kathryn Spurgeon on Facebook to stay up to date on all her latest books.

To read more reviews on A Promise Child, please visit Memory House Publishing's website. 

A Trail of Crumbs

"He got that bread and broke it all to bits. As he and Gretel followed behind their father into the dark woods, he dropped pieces of it behind them, leaving a trail of crumbs so they could find their way back home." "They never went home," Beanie said. "Once you go, you can't never get back." (pg12).

Pearl Spence has had a tough life up to this point in her life. Having survived the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, she wonders if there is such a place in the world that offers anything green anywhere. However when another unexpected dust storm rolls into the town of Red River, this one will devastate the Spence family in ways they couldn't see coming. This time it would claim the life of her sister Beanie whose only goal in life was to be a part of Pearl's world and she stood back and watch as the dust storm consumed her without being able to do anything to stop it.

It was at that moment that the Spence family knew they had to leave while they could. Most of the town was filled with the places people used to live in before and now there were only a handful of families that remained, most of them unable to leave because they couldn't afford it or had no where to go. Pearl's family takes her Uncle Gus and Aunt Carrie up on the offer to move to Michigan at the height of the depression, but for her family it feels like a dream come true to see greenery in a land again and to raise your own food in gardens. However it was a complete change for Pearl's mama who seemed to have physically left Oklahoma but not mentally.

Pearl struggles to fit in where society has already laid claim to who fits in and who doesn't. She watches as her friend Ray makes friends while she is almost considered an outcast. She tries to act tough despite all she has been through, but it's not enough to make friends. She even finds more in common with the boys than with those her own age and her Momma is bound and determined to ensure Pearl acts like a lady, even if she doesn't want to.

I received A Trail of Crumbs by Susie Finkbeiner compliments of Kregel Publications.In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, you should assume that every book reviewed here at Reviews From The Heart was provided to the reviewer by the publisher, media group or the author for free and were received, unless specified otherwise.  This novel follows on the heels of her first novel A Cup of Dust where we first meet Pearl and her family. It picks up exactly where the other one left off and we still see the struggles Pearl has to face with dealing with a kidnapping by a crazy man who dragged her off into the cellar. Now she is trying to find a sense of normal in a world that is anything but. When her sister dies, Pearl has only her Momma to connect with, but it seems even she is disconnected from trying to find a new start for the family which again leaves Pearl to fend for herself with only her dad and Ray as crumbs that lead her home. I give this novel a 4 out of 5 stars in my opinion and would have liked to have seen more about the Great Depression written into this book, much like the Dust Bowl still makes an impression in not only the first novel but also in this one. For me, it was kinda misleading since the cover states it is a novel of the Great Depression, but you don't really felt like anyone was dealing with it in the novel.

For more information about A Trail of Crumbs, Susie Finkbeiner or where to pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

A Trail of Crumbs by Susie Finkbeiner

You can find Susie Finkbeiner on Facebook to stay up to date on all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on A Trail of Crumbs, please visit Kregel Publications website.

A Cup of Dust

I think as an adult I appreciate history more now that when I was in school. Perhaps it's because I realize that the things that happened in our past are not simply stories in a history book but truly impacted the lives of the people who had to endure them. Yet when we look back into our history books, very little was written about the Dust Bowl. We know how it came to be but not really how it impacted all those families who had to sit back and hope that things would change somehow and their lives would pick back up again if they got rain.

Susie Finkbeiner under the inspiration of such stories written by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, took her research a bit further to really understand the implications of living during that time, just on the heels of the Great Depression and just before the second World War in Oklahoma in her novel A Cup of Dust. This is not for the light-hearted. It really takes the story of ten-year-old Pearl Spence and showcases how life looked from her perspective. Knowing that her family was better off than most since her father was the town's sheriff, her mother always made sure to help those out whenever she could, from baking bread to unexpectedly paying off the bills at the grocery store of those just barely making ends meet.

Living with her older sister Violet Jean, but everyone simply called her Beanie, as she was born a bit mentally challenged from being denied oxygen during her birth. Pearl's job is to keep track of Beanie who has a tendency to wander off without telling anyone. Her grandmother, Meemaw is her hope and inspiration and keeps the families faith going against the odds. The one thing they can never manage to do is keep their home free from dust. It is everywhere and at odd times of the day or night, dust storms could kick up and plunge the skies into darkness. Most people have moved on to better opportunities out west but the Spence family believes God will save them soon. It isn't until a hobo departs a train one day with the knowledge of knowing Pearl, that the family will be plunged into a darkness greater than any dust storm could create.

I received A Cup of Dust by Susie Finkbeiner compliments of Kregel Publications for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation, aside from a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. There is parts of this novel that are a bit graphic and disturbing that might bother sensitive readers, but I would encourage you to hold out to the end to see how it all plays out. I almost put it down at that point, but pushed on to see how it might turn out in the end. Life is like that at times, sometimes wishing we could simply close our eyes and wish it was different, but I applaud the author for carrying it through so we can understand the motivation behind one character's action and how it impacted Pearl. For me I would rate this one a 4 out of 5 stars in my opinion. A reader's discussion guide is included at the conclusion of this novel.

For more information about A Cup of Dust, Susie Finkbeiner or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

A Cup of Dust by Susie Finkbeiner

You can find Susie Finkbeiner on Facebook to stay up to date on all her latest novels.

To read more reviews about A Cup of Dust, please visit Kregel Publication's Website. 

The Sweetest Rain - Giveaway and Review

For me, historical novels don't have to be a perfect match to something that has happened in history. I am not one of those fact checkers who are more concerned with the accuracy of the novel that the story itself. For me, if I can get so lost in the novel that I forget about time or that I feel like I can really see this happening in my mind, for me, that is a successful author and novel. In this case, that honor goes to Myra Johnson in her novel The Sweetest Rain. I am so thrilled I got the opportunity to review this one because as I have read in my history books quite a bit about the Great Depression but also the Dust Bowl. Living in California and suffering under some of the effects of the drought, it made me really want to know what a family might endure in the 1930's dealing with the effects of both of these issues.

In The Sweetest Rain, the first in the Flowers of Eden Series, we meet Bryony Linwood, who is struggling to help her grandfather and two younger sisters, Rose and Larkspur, to bring in what remains of their cotton crop. Like most tenant farmers, they are responsible to pay for the right to farm the land with a portion or share of their crops to the plantation owners, in this case, the Heath family. After another horrible year with dealing with the drought in Eden, Arkansas, it looks as if they will have to find another source of income if they want to keep food on the table. Bryony insists in pleading her case before Mr. Heath in hopes that he might give them more time to pay their rent. But another opportunity presents itself, when the plantation has need for another maid and if Bryony is obliged to work for the Heath's, he will deduct her earnings from what her grandfather owes him.

She just didn't expect to find love within the confines of the Heath plantation. Michael Heath is still recovering from the effects of mustard gas he was exposed to while fighting in the war as well as PTSD, or shell shock as it was known then. He finds solace in the botanical sketches he has been doing in his sketchbook and shares them with his mother, who is suffering from the early onset of Alzheimer's. It's the caring concern that Bryony shows for his mother by reading to her from one of the many books in the home, to taking walks in the garden that helps ease some of her symptoms but one thing is certain, that the love that is developing between the two is one thing his father will not tolerate or stand for. He has already cast out his daughter when she fell in love with the hired help and wound up pregnant. There is nothing Mr. Heath will not let stand in his way, even if it means doing the same to Bryony and her family as well.

I received The Sweetest Rain by Myra Johnson compliments of Franciscan Media for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review, aside from a free copy of the book, the opinions contained here are strictly my own personal ones. I love how well this message of redemption and hope comes across in this novel. It highlights how some families would have to band together in tough times to make ends meet. It also shows what keeps families together and what drives them apart as well as what each of them has to do to survive during the most difficult of circumstances. I can't wait to read more about this amazing and resilient Linwood family in the very near future. For me, this one rates a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

For more information about The Sweetest Rain, Myra Johnson or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

The Sweetest Rain by Myra Johnson

You can find Myra Johnson on Facebook to stay up to date on all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on The Sweetest Rain, please visit Franciscan Media's website.

Now for the amazing part. Thanks to the generosity of Franciscan Media, they are offering a giveaway copy of this novel to one lucky follower of my blog, Reviews From The Heart. Here are your guidelines for entering:

1.  "Like" my Facebook page, Reviews From The Heart. 

2. Not a Facebook user, no problem, make sure you are a follower of my blog, Reviews From The Heart.

3. Be a resident of the U.S. No P. O. Boxes please.

4. Leave me a comment below telling me why you'd love to win a copy of this novel. Don't forget to include your email address so I can contact you if you're the lucky winner. You can even use the words (at) and (dot) instead of the symbols.

I will notify the winner of the giveaway by email once it ends on October 16th, so be sure to enter. You can enter as many times as you want.