Miracle in a Dry Season by Sarah Loudin Thomas - REVIEWED

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Miracle in a Dry Season Bethany House Publishers (August 5, 2014) by Sarah Loudin Thomas

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sarah Loudin Thomas grew up on a 100-acre farm in French Creek, WV, the seventh generation to live there. Her Christian fiction is set in West Virginia and celebrates the people, the land, and the heritage of Appalachia. Her first novel, Miracle in a Dry Season, releases August 2014 through Bethany House. Sarah is represented by Wendy Lawton of Books & Such Literary Agency.

A graduate of Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC, Sarah once dreamed of being a marine scientist. But her love for words won out and she has spent much of her career in public relations and marketing. She currently oversees fundraising and communications for a Christian children’s home in Black Mountain, NC.

Sarah and her husband Jim live in the mountains of Western North Carolina with Thistle–the canine equivalent to a personal trainer pushing them to hike, run, and throw sticks. Sarah is active in her local church and enjoys cooking and–you guessed it–reading.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In a Drought, It's the Darkest Cloud

That Brings Hope

It's 1954 and Perla Long's arrival in the sleepy town of Wise, West Virginia, was supposed to go unnoticed. She just wants a quiet, safe place for her and her daughter, Sadie, where the mistakes of her past can stay hidden. But then drought comes to Wise, and Perla is pulled into the turmoil of a town desperately in need of a miracle.

Casewell Phillips has resigned himself to life as a bachelor. . .until he meets Perla. She's everything he's sought in a woman, but he can't get past the sense that she's hiding something. As the drought worsens, Perla's unique gift divides the town in two, bringing both gratitude and condemnation, and placing the pair in the middle of a storm of anger and forgiveness, fear and faith.


My Thoughts:

“All too often sorrow and joy come skipping into your life holding hands.”  (p. 201)

It has been quite some time since I have wept over a great piece of fiction, but Miracle in a Dry Season caused me to both weep and laugh out loud.  This is a very special story told with such poignant  and lyrical phrases that you will find yourself re-reading passages out loud just to hear the beauty of the words.  I’m telling you as honestly as I know how that this book is powerful!

Perla Long and Casewell Phillps are just everyday Christian folks trying to make their way through the judgment of others and their own self-condemnation.  When Casewell tells Perla that there is nothing new under the sun, he was speaking  truth that shouts to the masses even today!  As believer’s we tend to be in a constant learning curve when it comes to forgiving other – and ourselves.  Casewell walks through a valley with his dad that prepares him to take a step forward in his own life.  It is Casewell’s spiritual growth that encourages Perla to let go of some excess baggage in her life and take a giant leap forward for herself and her precious daughter.

This is a tender story of grace that will take you on a journey toward forgiveness and freedom that I daresay you probably don’t recognize you have a need to receive until it’s plainly laid before you.  Sarah Loudin Thomas is a gifted writer who knows the heart of her Heavenly Father. She pours out grace like a refreshing stream in a dessert!!  Don’t waste one minute!! Pick up your copy of this excellent book today!

If you would like to read the first chapter of Miracle in a Dry Season, go HERE.