The Scent of Lilacs

In Ann  Gabhart's The Scent of Lilacs, the first installment in the Heart of Hollyhill Christian-Inspirational novel series, this heart-warming story will tug at our heart string about faith and family. Set in the 1960s, for fourteen-year-old Jocelyn "Jocie" Green,  she lived in Hollyhill, Kentucky with her single father and never knew her mother. When she asked God in a prayed for a dog, he delivered her a dog she named Zeb, who might be her friend Wes's lost dog. Then she prayed for her sister Tabitha to return home. Once again, God had granted her wish. Tabitha, at age twenty, returns at their doorstep. She haven't seen her sister in seven years, when she left with her mother to go to California.  Since then, she had stuck to her father like glue and had her Aunt Love to help take care of her. Her father, David, was the interim pastor for the church and needed a vote to be the permanent preacher. But he had a problem, someone named Ogden Martin, who had it in for him and wanted him away. Meanwhile when Tabitha returns, she brought up a new problem of her own--she's pregnant and keeping the baby. And that cause of problem for David's position at the church. For Josie, she's getting to learn a lot more about the truth of her mother and the secret her aunt Love had kept close to her chest.  Meanwhile, she ran away in a midst of a tornado brewing, and later learned what really makes a family and how God provides us all.

This was a truly moving and inspirational novel about God's family and your own family in a small community. I instantly cared for Jocie who's a bit curious and a bit adventurous for her young age. I did feel bad that she never knew about her mother who had abandoned her for her own selfless reasons. But for David to take it on as his own gets high points for me to preach at church and being. single father. Maybe something would come out of his relationship with Leigh. I also did feel bad for Love who had lost the love of her life and so much more at the tender age of twenty too. The Brooke family had been dealt a whole lot of hardships throughout the years. I loved the 1960s eras to show social issues and current events for that time period like Elvis and JFK's murder by a cold-blooded assassin in a small town in Kentucky.  This would make you sigh and weep and shake your heads a few times and a believer in God too with non-stop action, drama, suspense and a hint of inspiration to find your own faith.

Will you witness the Scent of Lilacs today?