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ABOUT THE BOOK:
For nearly twenty years, readers have been coming to bestselling author Ann H. Gabhart for thought-provoking and heartwarming stories set in fascinating times and places, and her newest offering, The Song of Sourwood Mountain, is no exception. This gripping tale about having the courage to follow the Lord’s leading (even when it seems he is leading us down strange and unpredictable paths) has everything Gabhart’s fans expect: a memorable setting, a realistic conflict, and complex characters you love to root for. . . . .
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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.
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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
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Interview with Author Ann H. Gabhart--The Song of Sourwood Mountain:
Question: Can you please provide a brief summary of your novel The Song of Sourwood Mountain?
Author's Response: Mira Dean’s dreams of marriage and motherhood seemed lost after the man she loved and planned to marry died of tuberculosis. Five years later, Mira is resigned to her life as a spinster schoolteacher until Gordon Covington shows up in town with an audacious marriage proposal. Following him to the mountains takes courage, but an even bigger challenge is being a proper wife to Gordon. The two take tentative steps toward learning about each other and sharing the mission of helping the people in Sourwood. Mira will see that doors she thought closed forever may be opening after all.
Question: Your novels take place largely in Kentucky. Can you tell us why that setting resonates so much with you as a writer?
Author's Response: I was born in Kentucky and have always lived in Kentucky. I feel as though I know the people here, especially those who live in rural areas and small towns. Most of my stories have that kind of setting. I also have access to historical sites and a wealth of research materials that offer inspiration to my stories. I understand the love of one’s homeplace and its land, which helps me as I follow my characters on their journeys. I understand how roots can go deep. I have the same kind of roots and feeling for the land here on my country farm. I truly love Kentucky and Kentucky people, both past and present. The people of Appalachia have often been seen as backward or even immoral.
Question: How do you portray them in this novel?
Author's Response: Appalachian people are independent, proud, and strong. They are very family oriented and can be clannish if they feel they or their family have been wronged. Due to their isolation, they lacked the opportunities for formal education, good medical care, and ways to make a living other than subsistence farming or coal mining. I try to portray my characters in ways that readers can relate to. They may not always be book smart, but they are often very wise about nature and life. I like seeing my characters in The Song of Sourwood Mountain as a community and showing how they relate to one another. The early twentieth century was such a hopeful time.
Question: What do you hope readers will gain from reading The Song of Sourwood Mountain?
Author's Response: I always want readers to be glad they picked up one of my books and took a journey with my characters. With The Song of Sourwood Mountain, I hope they will invite my characters into their hearts as I did. I hope they will identify with the spiritual challenges Gordon faces and cheer on Mira as she steps out in faith to find a new future. I hope they will love my young character Ada June as much as I did while I shared her story. Last of all, I hope that something in my characters’ faith journeys will resonate with them and make their own faith stronger.
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Author Ann H. Gabhart has gifted readers with another outstanding Christian historical romance set in the heart of the Kentucky Appalachian Mountains in the early twentieth century.
The multi-dimensional characters, human and canine, provide a rich foundation for this engaging plot. The story begins in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, when Preacher Gordon Covington arrives in town to preach and to ask for support for his mission school in Sourwood in Eastern Kentucky and to hire a school teacher.
He has current schoolteacher Mira Dean in mind for the position of the teacher to the children in the community in a one-room schoolhouse that is still under construction. He and Mira were schoolmates as children in Louisville. To avoid perceived improprieties of the members of the Sourwood community, Gordon proposes marriage to Mira at the same time he offers her the teaching job.
Doubt and apprehension send Mira's stable life into a tizzy after she is dismissed from her job in Louisville along with losing her rental rooms in the home of the town's spinster, Miss Ophelia. After receiving advice from her landlord, Mira decides to take a great leap of faith and accept Gordon's two-part proposal.
The love story between Mira and Gordon is heartwarming and realistic as both of them make every effort to build a life together by creating a nurturing home for two foster daughters. Mira and Gordon's relationship is based on their shared faith and respect for each other. They both demonstrate a sincere desire to minister to the families in this small mountain community.
Ada June, an orphaned ten-year-old girl who the Covingtons foster in their small home and her dog Bo quickly grew to become my favorite characters because of their unique relationship with each other and because of Ada June's exceptional gift of sharing her caring, compassion to animals and people.
'The Song of Sourwood Mountain' is a story that will remain in my heart and mind for a long time because the characters and the events in the story touched something deep inside me much like three other books from my past that I feel the same way about: 'Christy' by Catherine Marshall, 'The Joy Luck Club' by Amy Tan, and the children's picture book 'The Story of Holly and Ivy.'
This book is completely clean in language and content, and the faith thread is tightly woven into the entire story. I highly recommend this book to fans of Christian Fiction, Christian Romance, and Christian Historical Fiction.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through their Revell Reads Blogger Program. All of my thoughts and opinions shared here are solely my own.
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