Review: Hope Springs by Kim Cash Tate

Title: Hope Springs

Author: Kim Cash Tate

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Publish Date: June 12, 2012











Summary from Amazon:

In a small Southern 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 where families have been friends for generations, a place where there's not a lot of change. Until three women suddenly find themselves planted there for a season.

Janelle Evans 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. And when Janelle proposes a Bible study a the local diner--and invites both African American and Caucasian women she has met--the group quickly forms a spiritual bond . . . and inadvertently adds to underlying tension in the community.

Becca Anderson 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. Will small town living affect her big ministry dreams?

And Stephanie London 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, facing disappointments both public and private, they soon recognize that healing is needed in their hearts, their families, and their churches that have long been divided along racial lines. God's plan for them in Hope Springs-and for Hope Springs itself-is bigger than they ever imagined.

My thoughts:
Janelle, Becca and Stephanie comes back to their hometown, Hope Springs, because of a death in the family, but they each end up staying for another reason. This book was all about family, love, God, humility, change, grief, and a plethora of a bunch of other things. It showed how family comes together during tragedy. Janelle, Stephanie and Libby are cousins in the Sanders family. Janelle takes care of her grandmother and learns that she can still love after the loss of her late husband when she sees her first love, Kory, who has his own problems with his soon-to-be ex-wife. Becca Dillon is married to Todd who's father has just died. Becca learns a lesson in humility when things don't work out the way she wants them to. Grandma Geri has her own secrets which makes this story so rich. This story was like a seven layer dip with all the yummy goodness layered on top of one another. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I felt like I truly was in Hope Springs and made friends with these characters. This was a really great book that pulls at your heart-strings.