Welcome to the blog tour for Hope Springs by Kim Cash Tate!
Hope Springs, North Carolina, is the epitome of small town life-a place filled with quiet streets, a place where there's not a lot of change. Until three women suddenly find themselves planted there for a season.
Janelle hasn't gone back to Hope Springs for family reunions since losing her husband. But when she arrives for Christmas and learns that her grandmother is gravely ill, she decides to extend the stay. It isn't long before she runs into her first love, and feelings that have been dormant for more than a decade are reawakened.
Becca is finally on the trajectory she's longed for. Having been in the ministry trenches for years, she's been recruited as the newest speaker of a large Christian women's conference. But her husband feels called to become the pastor of his late father's church in Hope Springs.
And Stephanie has the ideal life-married to a doctor in St. Louis with absolutely nothing she has to do. When her cousin Janelle volunteers to stay in Hope Springs and care for their grandmother, she feels strangely compelled to do the same. It's a decision that will forever change her.
As these women come together, they soon recognize that healing is needed in their hearts, their families, and their churches. God's plan for them in Hope Springs-is bigger than they ever imagined.
About Kim:
Kim Cash Tate is the author of Cherished, Faithful, Heavenly Places, and the memoir More Christian than African American. A former practicing attorney, she is also the founder of Colored in Christ Ministries. She and Her husband have two children.
Link to buy the book: http://ow.ly/bAPH2
Review:
Hope Springs is a small town where everyone knows everyone. Of course, this also means everyone is involved in everyone else's business as well. When the pastor of one of the 2 churches in town passes away, former Hope Springs residents come back for the funeral. As they discover how theirs lives have changed, they also discover they still have many things in common. The Sanders family soon learns their matriarch, Grandma Geri, is very ill. They try to make the best of things, but a family secret soon rocks them to their cores. Meanwhile the Dillon family is making some big decisions of their own when husband Jim feels called to come minister to the flock his father left behind. There are ups and downs, but the residents of Hope Springs will find that with each other they can make it through anything.
This book kind of took me by surprise. There were a lot of topics that could be somewhat heavy, but the author managed to handle them very deftly. I will admit to getting confused with all the names though. I definitely needed that family tree in the front! I think the book managed to talk about sensitive topics without being too preachy (which is saying a lot for a book somewhat about preaching). Nothing was really wrapped up in a neat little bow, and I appreciated that. It made the book seem more realistic. I found myself cheering for almost every character. Even through the problems and secrets, I grew to love all the characters in different ways. The big family secret surprised me, and that can be hard to do sometimes. It wasn't really projected in any way, so I was feeling just like the characters.
I really loved the way race was portrayed in this book. To have so many people of different races who were equally successful and well-rounded was awesome. These are the types of positive characters that everyone could stand to read about. Sure, they all had their struggles, but they were all good people overall. Reading about the children being wonderfully colorblind helped give me hope. Issues with race in the past, present, and future were all addressed to some degree. Once again, no easy answers were given, but there were definitely a lot of things for me to think about. Just watching the people of Hope Springs start a conversation about it was great. When it came to forgiveness of others, I like that one character was ready to admit she couldn't just easily throw aside past hurts. I just felt like so many of they characters had problems that so many of us have had or will have in our lives. Watching them work through it all helped give me some ideas of things I could work on. This book was really fantastic, and I think a lot of people will enjoy reading it.
Galley provided for review.
| Celebrate the release of Hope Springs with Kim Cash Tate by coming to her Author Chat Party on Facebook. Find out what readers are saying here. Grab your copy of Hope Springs and join me for an Author Chat Party on July 10th at 8:00 PM EST (that's 7:00 Central, 6:00 MST, & 5:00 PST)! During the evening Kim will be sharing the story behind her new book, posting book club questions, testing your trivia skills, and of course, there will be plenty of chatting and fun giveaways - books, gift certificates and (I'm so excited about this) - a Kindle Fire! But, wait there's more – she’ll also be giving you a sneak peak of her next book too! RSVP today and then come back on the 10th ... and bring your friends! |
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Thanks so much for stopping by! Be sure to check out all the stops on the tour.
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