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Small-town Christian drama with genuine characters and hope

  • Dec 10, 2012
Rating:
+4

A lovely Christian novel of small-town life, Kim Cash Tate’s Hope Springs brings the reader into the Southern town of Hope Springs together with other family members gathering to mourn the passing of a much-loved pastor. For a while I didn’t even realize half the characters were white and the other half black. For a while I didn’t know color would even an issue. And that’s as it should be. But history has created problems for these people despite their best intentions, and broken hearts lie behind many smiles as wounded relationships find a place to mend.
Pleasingly up to date with natural dialog, young characters glued to their cellphones, facebook and twitter while older ones ponder more changes to come, this novel combines the feel-good aspects of a romance with the depth of family drama and the tragedy of deeper hurts unseen. There’s a convincing Christian faith throughout the tale that’s clearly more than skin-deep, but these genuine characters are no cardboard cut-out believers or non-believing friends. The good have sinned and the less than good have hope, even as the final surprise is revealed, even as the heart longs for perfection in this imperfect world.
As a Christian, I really enjoyed the lessons in this tale, the reminders to see the logs in our own eyes, the hope to see the specks so gently removed. When a character decided not to go home I actually felt pleased that I’d see more of her, as if all these people were real and I just a guest invited to their home.
Hope Springs is a pleasing novel of hope in a very real world. Sickness, broken relationships, past mistakes, future longings and dreams all come together and, as the front cover nicely reminds the reader, “the biggest challenge may be learning to let go.” Don’t let go of this book until it’s finished. It’s a blessing of a novel.
Disclosure: I received this book through the Amazon Vine program and I promised to review it.

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About the reviewer
Sheila Deeth ()
Ranked #51
Sheila Deeth's first novel, Divide by Zero, has just been released in print and ebook formats. Find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells, etc. Her spiritual speculative novellas can be found at … more
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About this product

Wiki

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.

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