More Hope!

Don't you love that feeling that happens when you read the last page of a book, close it up, and sigh, still remaining for a moment in the cloud of that in place between the world of the story and real life? (This is usually where my family looks at me cross-eyed.)

Well, I just finished Hope Rekindled by Tracie Peterson and "it" happened.  What is a mystery to me, is that I didn't totally looove the book or bond with any one character.  In fact, the closest I came to a kindred spirit was Euphanel, the MOTHER of the heroine.  (Gasp.) 

The story takes place in Texas, in 1887, in a tiny mill town.  The time frame encompasses the "after the war" growing pains, and the soul of the nation is up for grabs.  Laws can be changed but hearts are not always willing.  Men take the law into their own hands by establishing yet another blight upon our country's conscience,  creating organizations such as the one in Tracie's novel called The White Hand of God, a negro hating group which really only served their thirst for spilling blood and lust for power- even the name makes me cringe.  They play a part in the suffering of the little town, but the real villain is a man named Stuart Albright, a man who could be caricatured as a Snidely Whiplash type, but really has an evil streak just because he is a cruel person, and he likes it that way.  

I have actually encountered that kind of person in real life.  (My husband served in the Missouri Legislature for twelve years...)

Snidely, I mean Stuart, will stop at nothing to financially ruin the Vandermark family and destroy the town.  If the laws he twists seem improbable,  I assure you, they were real.  My husband, David, changed the fifty/fifty per cent ownership law in Missouri when he was in the legislature, (which made some people angry)- so Tracie wasn't making this stuff up. 

The Vandermarks refuse to give up and continue to trust in God in spite of the turbulent times.

So in the end you could say that... Hope floats.