Publisher's Summary:
Maybe out there in the country she could catch her breath, learn to breathe again.
Happily married and owner of two successful boutiques, Jade longs to begin a family with her husband, Max. But when she discovers that Max has an illegitimate son—who he wants her to help raise—Jade’s life is turned upside down.
She flees to her childhood home, a rambling Iowa farmhouse, with enough room to breathe. There—while her mother’s health grows fragile, and the tug of her first love grows stronger—Jade begins to question everything she thought she knew about family, love, and motherhood. In the wide-open landscape, Jade begins to see a future that doesn’t rest on the power of her past but in the goodness of God's tender mercies.
My Thoughts:
Softly and Tenderly is a multi-layered story that just drew me in right from the beginning. In the words of the main character, she married into a Southern soap opera. And the book is definitely filled with lots of drama. But believable drama. It's the story of a family's life of secrets. And what happens when one convinces themselves that keeping a secret is for the good but then the secrets start to rise to the surface. It's a story of loss and reconcilliation and of God providing in ways that we would never have imagined. It begged me to ask the question would I be willing to find the blessing in the way God chooses to provide rather than in the way I would imagine. I found it well written and was surprised to find after reading it that it's actually a second in a series. The book can stand well on it's own and I was never lost or confused. The characters are all so relatable in their reactions and emotions. The only thing that was a negative for me and it's just a small oversight in my opinion, was that the character who throughout the whole book who was refered to in the story as June all of a sudden started to be refered to as Mom in the later chapters. Which sort of threw me and I had to think who they were talking about. But I definitely enjoyed the story and would love to get ahold of the 1st in the series and look forward to the 3rd coming next year.
Thanks to BookSneeze for providing the book free for my honest review. The opinions expressed are my own.
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3 comments:
Sounds interesting! I'm not sure if I have ever heard of this author -- will have to look her up.
this book sounds good!! I'm guessing the author went from using the woman's name to the more intimate form of "mom" because perhaps that is how the illegitimate son started to see her as?? i've never read this book nor even heard of the author so this is just an educated guess based on past books with pronoun/noun changes.....I'll hav eto find this book!!
I LOVE this book! It told the story of a young couple trying hard to have children in what seems like the perfect town with the perfect family and the perfect jobs. Its a story that shows you that not everyone is as perfect as they seem to you or to their fellow family members. Its a story that starts with a childhood mistake and love that haunts the main character for her lifetime until she is able to come into a similiar situation and live and let go. A book that shows that it is normal to question your faith and walk yourself through the answers in due time.
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