Beyond The Storm by Carolyn Zane

Hi Out There,

This was a fast moving book, on a rather terrifying topic. I didn't realize when I got this one how real Carolyn   Zane would portray the tornado and the aftermath that follows. She did a GREAT job on that. I speak from far more experience than I wish to have. In school we had more tornado drills than fire drills! In my life time I have seen three major tornado incidents and that doesn't count the ones when I was a baby. If you haven't been in one, this is a very good an accurate description.

I really enjoyed the town's store names. They were cute and fun!Quick In Go (gas station and store), Quilty Pleasures (the quilting shop), Doo Drop-In Hair Saloon, and Low Places (the bar and restaurant  made me giggle and smile. The radio announcements took my breath away because I have lived through this enough to see it coming before it came. (Maybe that is why I stopped listening to the radio for storms and things, I just couldn't stand it anymore.)

The good part is that there is a good story occurring along with the storm, new life along with the death and destruction. Abigail and Justin find that they are attracted to each other, in-spite of where they first met, and that they are not what they first outwardly seemed. As the events that this storm causes unfold they work together to help others. Heather and Rob Ray have a marriage headed for the rocks. It was very nice to see how this storm changed their lives and the lives of those around them. Most of all there were the scraps of cloth. Often all that is left among the rubble from the kind of devastation major storms and disasters leave in our lives. The quilt that was born from that brought tears to my eyes. It is a good book, a decent story, and a remind of how God pieces our lives together over and over again to make what He wants out of us.

Carol

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Beyond the Storm

Abingdon Press (October 2012)

by

Carolyn Zane

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Author of 35 books, wife, mother and yes…hot (flasher) lives with her fabulous husband, Matt and their 5 children and 3 dogs in the scenic Willamette Valley in Oregon.  When asked to describe her family, Carolyn likens her crowd to the
Brangelia Bunch saying modestly, “Only we’re better looking.”  Right now,Carolyn is back in the saddle with her new title: Beyond The Storm, coming out in October 2012!  In the mean time, be sure to catch her on the critically acclaimed TOOHOTMAMAS Blog where Carolyn and Wendy tackle Marriage, motherhood and menopause: How to do all three and stay out of prison!  They are hilarious!  You'll wet yourself, guaranteed!  Visit them at: www.toohotmamas.wordpress.com.


ABOUT THE BOOK

After a tornado rips through her town, store owner Abigail comes across a piece of fabric from a wedding dress among the devastation. Abigail is moved to start collecting other swatches of fabric she finds – her neighbor’s kitchen curtains, a man’s necktie, a dog’s bed – which she stashes in shopping bags. As she pursues her seemingly absurd quest, horrible realities spark the question, “What kind of a God would allow such tragedy?”

As she struggles to reconcile her right to happiness amidst the destruction, Abigail begins piecing together a patchwork quilt from the salvaged fabric in hopes it will bring some peace. But a new relationship with Justin, a contractor, may require too much of her fragile heart.  Will her pain and questions of faith give way to the courage to love?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Beyond the Storm, go HERE.

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1426745974