Book Review: Hope Springs

About the book
In a small community where everyone is holding tight to something, the biggest challenge may be learning to let go.

Hope Springs, North Carolina, is the epitome of small town life-a place filled with quiet streets, a place where there's not a lot of change. Until three women suddenly find themselves planted there for a season.

Janelle hasn't gone back to Hope Springs for family reunions since losing her husband. But when she arrives for Christmas and learns that her grandmother is gravely ill, she decides to extend the stay. It isn't long before she runs into her first love, and feelings that have been dormant for more than a decade are reawakened.

Becca is finally on the trajectory she's longed for. Having been in the ministry trenches for years, she's been recruited as the newest speaker of a large Christian women's conference. But her husband feels called to become the pastor of his late father's church in Hope Springs.

And Stephanie has the ideal life-married to a doctor in St. Louis with absolutely nothing she has to do. When her cousin Janelle volunteers to stay in Hope Springs and care for their grandmother, she feels strangely compelled to do the same. It's a decision that will forever change her.

As these women come together, they soon recognize that healing is needed in their hearts, their families, and their churches. God's plan for them in Hope Springs-is bigger than they ever imagined.

My thoughts
I enjoyed Hope Springs immensely.  While it revolves around the lives of Janelle, Becca, and Stephanie, there are many, many more characters that will make you smile as well.  In fact, there are so many more characters, it can get a bit difficult to keep them all sorted in your mind.  Fortunately, the author realized this and included a family tree in the front of the book for the reader to reference as needed.  What I love most about this book is the way it deals with real issues that many of us have in our lives today.  The topics of illegitimate children, divorce and remarriage, and racism are handled very well in a Christian way, without being preachy.  Christianity is a large part of what this book is about, but it is not in a pushy way.

I recommend this book to anyone who does not have a perfect extended family (isn't that all of us?) and enjoys seeing how others deal with the events and people in their lives that are contradictory to how they live.  I also recommend it to anyone who is interested in seeing how segregation still exists in churches today and how we can change it.

About the author
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.

Disclaimer
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.