Pulling the Heartstrings

“Share your life with others. You will have a joyful life.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita

I get notices when someone leaves a review of one of my books on BookBub. Since my new book,  A Chance for Kallie Mae, released a couple of months ago, most of the reviews that show up right now are about it. I did see two reviews for that book today. Reviews are so helpful to get the word out about my book, and I’m always glad to see reviews of my  new releases. Thank you if you’ve posted any review of my stories.

But I’m also super glad to see reviews of my books that have been out for a while. The reviews that came in today featured two other books besides the new one. There was a review of The Pursuit of Elena Bradford from a reader who had never read any of my other books.

“The Pursuit of Elena Bradford was the first story I have read written by Ann H. Gabhart, and I look forward to reading more stories. I loved learning about the historical facts that this story is based on.” ~Mrsryanmoser

Of course the line I liked best in her review was that she looked forward to reading more of my stories. At least I hope she meant my stories.

But the review I found most interesting was the one from bcrug for Scent of Lilacs. 

“I would definitely say you should read the back cover synopsis of this book before you give it to someone else to read, or if you’re sensitive about mature subjects in a Christian book. BUT I will say straight off that this book has more Gospel in it than many other Christian fiction books I have read. This book is gritty, real, messy and tough on the heartstrings! I’m happy to have found it so that I can continue on with the series.”

I loved writing my Heart of Hollyhill stories. When I give book talks, I often tell how Wes fell into the story, unplanned. But what a gift his character was in the story, especially his and Jocie’s Jupiter talk. I hoped that added smiles. Bcrug’s comment that readers needed to consider if they wanted to read about mature subjects got me thinking about those stories. There are some, as she said gritty scenes in Scent of Lilacs, but I think it could pass with a PG rating. No curse words. No concerning love scenes. But she’s right. Some of the scenes are intense in between the small town smiles and characters. Oh, and the Jupiter talk.

Lilacs was my first book that was considered an inspirational novel. It was first published in 2005 with this cover showing Jocie’s bicycle with some lilacs in her basket. It’s set in the Sixties. I modeled the setting after what I remembered my small town being like then and also used my country church when I described the country church in the story. I love country churches and how the members are like a family with the same kind of caring and also some of the same kinds of friction and problems.

Since I was a new author and the sales of the book were okay but not anywhere near the best-selling range, the Hollyhill books went out of print. I was sad, but then my editor went to bat for me and Revell re-issued the books with new covers to give Jocie and her family and friends new life. That was a happy decision for me.

At top of the blog is the current cover of the book. It has Jocie sitting on the porch steps reading. That could be me when I was that age which makes the cover fun. I’ve shared in other posts here a picture of me that is similar. If you want to see that picture, you can check out on this post from 2016. At the time, the book was a free e-book download and stayed that way for almost a year, the best I remember. It’s still free now on Kindle Unlimited, or available to buy for less than $5.  Perhaps because it was free for so long, I got many reviews. These are some that I shared on that blog post in 2016.

“I took longer to read this book than I should have because I savored every word. I even went back and reread some chapters just because I enjoyed them so much.”

“From the very beginning the characters of Hollyhill had my attention. A child full of wonder, spirit and life, Jocie is real. She keeps me smiling. Her child like faith teaches me hope.“

“Ok. I hardly ever review the books I read, but this was a good one. The central theme of the faith of a young girl can be bittersweet, and her answered prayers remind me of the prayers I had answered as a child.“

“I completely enjoyed this story and all of the characters in it. I felt as though I knew everyone and loved most of them by the end of the book. A wonderful, heart warming story of a father’s love for his children and God’s love for all of His children.”

“What a heart string tugging, 5 Kleenex story!”

None of those mention messy and gritty, but cdrug was right. Jocie did have a messy family life in many ways, but she was full of the joy of life. Aunt Love did have a gritty story to tell that maybe made the readers like her better or at least understand her. And I have hesitated to recommend the book to young readers without their parents’ approval. Best of all , I’m happy that reading this first story about Jocie has the reviewer wanting to read the follow-up stories, Orchard of Hope and Summer of Joy. There could be some gritty scenes in those too.

Thanks, Connie, for the review and for reading my stories.  I’m glad you found the Gospel in the story. I think you will find even more in the second Hollyhill book. It has a revival scene at the end. And I needed plenty of tissues while writing that.

Have any of you been to Hollyhill? Do you like seeing the Gospel show through by what happens to the characters and how they respond?

Oh, and I do my best to pull at a reader’s heartstrings. 🙂