Wonderfully Warm

For Six Good Reasons by Lin Stepp is a most charming contemporary novel that warmed my heart and made me smile. It is the third A Smoky Mountain novel but can be read as a stand-alone.

Once more Lin Stepp delights the reader’s senses as she paints the landscape with her words. The area is remote and rugged, the houses offer hospitality and the barns provide shelter. The reader meanders through the novel as we explore the area with the characters.

All the characters were well drawn, realistic and charming. Lin Stepp has perfectly captured the five year old twins with their mannerisms, words and zest for life. They act before they think but their hearts are good.

For Six Good Reasons is about fostering. Six siblings need a home together. Foster worker, Alice, refuses to split the family, preferring to give the children a home with her. The love and care exude from the novel. We understand the children’s fear. “What if we start to love you … and then you die, too?” This is counter balanced with a vow to always look after each other.