About the Book:
The doors she thought were closed forever are starting to open up . . . just a crack
Though the century began with such promise, it is 1910 when Mira Dean's hopes of being a wife and mother are dashed to pieces. Her fiancé dead from tuberculosis, Mira resigns herself to being a spinster schoolteacher--until Gordon Covington shows up.
No longer the boy she knew from school, Gordon is now a preacher who is full of surprises. First, he asks Mira to come to Sourwood in Eastern Kentucky to teach at his mission school. Second, he asks her to marry him. Just like that.
With much trepidation, Mira steps out in faith into a life she never imagined, in a place filled with its own special challenges, to serve a people who just might end up becoming the family she always yearned for.
My Thoughts:
“Sometimes sorrow and joy could shoe up at the same time
in a person’s life.” (p 282)
Ann Gabhart’s character, Mira Dean, gets introduces into your
heart already struggling with this emotional dichotomy. In 1910, if you weren’t married young, had a
job you loved you were old-maid material still subject to second-class
treatment by men. Mira had suffered an
untimely loss, was settled into her only life-choice, teaching - until she wasn’t. A series of events over a period of a few
short days finds her seemingly impossible circumstances!
Mira finds herself taking marriage vows to a complete stranger
in a town with a stranger name – Sourwood.
Just like that, she’s married to a preacher of a mission in the middle
of the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. I
have to say, right off the bat, that I’d never have been strong enough to make
that move! After her wedding night, I’d have been on the first train or buggy
out of there!!
However, Ann Gabhart’s characters are so believably real and
brave, I found myself reading faster and faster to discover what would happen
next! Mira turns out to be one of a host
of characters to open up your heart in this tender story. Like the quote I opened with, these characters
weave their days together through both joy and sorrow, and I experienced it all –
right alongside them!
I’m pretty sure I loved Gordon long before Mira, and the
folks of Sourwood won my heart soon after!
I love a book that literally takes me away for hours! If you enjoy
historical fiction, you will love The Song of Sourwood Mountain!
About the Author:
Ann H. Gabhart is the bestselling author of many novels, including In the Shadow of the River, When the Meadow Blooms, Along a Storied Trail, An Appalachian Summer, River to Redemption, These Healing Hills, and Angel Sister. She and her husband live on a farm a mile from where she was born in rural Kentucky. Ann enjoys discovering the everyday wonders of nature while hiking in her farm's fields and woods with her grandchildren and her dogs, Frankie and Marley. Learn more at AnnHGabhart.com.