Heartwarming

Down By The River by Lin Stepp is the most charming contemporary Christian novel that I absolutely loved. It is part of A Smoky Mountain series but can be read as a stand-alone.

I adore all Lin Stepp’s books – my favourites are in this series. The stories are always delightful. They truly are a hug in a book as they wrap around my heart like a warm blanket.

Right from the start the reader receives a huge welcome. The story is very community-minded as the residents all look out for each other. The town has an air of love and care. It feels like home. “Home is always a place you can come back to.”

No matter what your age, you are never too old to have a new start – whether it is a physical one or a spiritual one. God longs to welcome us all home to Him.

A character has a fresh beginning, after being widowed in recent years. “Begin to live your own dreams.” All her life, her dreams have been squashed in favour of others. Her talents have been ridiculed as position, wealth and power have been the order of the day. Lives were all about show and polish. The outward appearance was all that mattered. People were judged by what they had. “You worked hard to fulfill those expectations… but you lost a little of yourself along the way. You were so busy being what you should be that you forgot a little of who you really were.” A character lost herself over the years. Now is the time to discover just who she was created to be.