The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond

GIVEAWAY

WRIGHT, JAIME JO
THE RECKONING AT GOSSAMER POND

For over a century, the town of Gossamer Grove has thrived on its charm and Midwestern values, but Annalise Forsythe knows painful secrets, including her own, hover just beneath the pleasant facade. Yet her strange and sudden inheritance of a run-down trailer home -- full of pictures, vintage obituaries, and old revival posters -- leaves her wholly unprepared for how truly dark and deadly those secrets may be.

A century earlier, Gossamer Grove is stirred into chaos by the arrival of controversial and charismatic twin revivalists. The chaos takes a murderous turn when Libby Sheffield, while working on her father's newspaper, receives an obituary for a reputable church deacon hours before his death. As she works with the deacon's son to solve the crime, it becomes clear that a reckoning has come to town -- but it isn't until another obituary arrives at the paper that they realize the true depths of the danger they've waded into.

Two women, separated by a hundred years, must unravel the mysteries of their own town before it's too late and they lose their future -- or their very souls.

My Review:

"Life is hard and it takes guts, faith, and a massive amount of out-of-this-world grace." (p 307)

Wow...this is another how-do-I-find-the-words-to-explain-how-I-feel kind of books. Definitely masterfully written. The way Wright weaves together past and present...the pacing of information revealed, the mystery build up -- it's incredibly well done. Kept me hanging every time we flipped from 1907 to present day. And the author is infuriatingly (and delightfully) slow at revealing all the pieces of the puzzle. I went from lost, to grasping at hints of clues to formulating a hypothesis only to have it dashed and scrambling to start all over again.

At first, the stories seem so separate and unconnected in any deep way but that gradually changes with every new revelation until they converge on each other in a frantic rush of action and danger in the nail-biting conclusion. Phew! I was riveted. And a little swoony over the Gothic elements that created all that moody ambiance!

Jaime Jo Wright is a gifted wordsmith and I kept pen and paper on hand to copy down bits of exquisite perfection that I didn't want to forget. Lots had to do with the exceptional inspirational threads on forgiveness and grace woven into both time periods....mind boggling doesn't begin to cover it. Maybe the most compelling and moving I've ever read in a novel. She doesn't shy away from awkward questions and hard realities. And she writes in a way that urges the reader to dig deep and come to their own reckoning.

"Denying God's ability to forgive...is denying oneself the ability to live." (p206)

and

"One may carry guilt and shame with them for years, only to discover that while they attempted to dodge God's judgement, they instead cheated themselves of His forgiveness." (p 163)

What more can I say? Two incredible heroines, a complicated mystery that spans a century and the kind of  delicious writing that begs to be read out loud...with frequent pauses so you can sit in the moment and absorb it all. Sublime!

Book provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like a chance to win a copy of The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you add your email to a comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it's easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday September 9 2018. Offer open to International Readers. Good luck!