Book Review: Room for Hope

                                                 

Hello everyone!  I'm back with another book review.  Room for Hope by Kim Vogel Sawyer is the book I will be reviewing for you today.  Let's do it!

Summary

In a desperate time, can Neva find forgiveness for a grievous wrong—and make room for hope?
Neva Shilling has a heavy load of responsibility while her husband travels to neighboring communities and sells items from his wagon. In his absence, she faithfully runs the Shilling Mercantile, working to keep their business strong as the Depression takes its toll, and caring for their twins.

When a wagon pulls up after supper, Neva and her children rush out—and into the presence of the deputy driving a wagon carrying three young children. The deputy shocks her with the news that Warren and his wife have died, insisting it was their last request that the three children go live with “Aunt Neva.”

Neva’s heart is shattered as she realizes that Warren’s month-long travels were excuses for visits with his secret family. She wants nothing more than to forget Warren, but can she abandon these innocent children to an orphanage? Yet if she takes them in, will she ever be able to see them as more than evidence of her husband’s betrayal and love them the way God does?

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I have never read a story quite like this one before.  As you might have read above, this story is about how one man secretly had two families.    He died along with is illegitimate wife and left behind three sweet children under 8.  Before he died he requested that they go be with "Aunt Neva," who is really his legal wife. 

As you can imagine, Neva is heartbroken when she finds out, and angry.  How could Warren (her husband) have done such a thing?  Now she has to take care of his three other children along with her twins, Belle and Bud, during the depression.  Or she could send the three kids to an orphanage, but she can't do that, she grew up in a kind orphanage herself, but now it is no more.  An orphanage would separate the children from each other, and Warren requested that she take care of them.

So she decides to keep them, even though she cannot look at Warren's other son, Charley, because he looks like his dad and reminds Neva of what her husband did.  At first Neva doesn't tell Bud and Belle that the three youngsters are actually their half siblings, she just says that their father wanted them. 

Bud goes through lots of emotions, being upset that his Pa is gone, mad that his Pa wanted another son, like Bud wasn't enough.  Then when he finds out what his Pa had done, he couldn't believe it!  He is a bully to Charley and encourages his friends to be, too.

This book had wonderful character devolvement.  Bud, from being a bully to loving and being kind, Neva from not caring about these children to loving them, Arthur from being a moneygrubber to being loving and kind, Jesse to becoming the Prodigal son and following God (Arthur is a Prodigal son, too). 

I wish that the ending was a bit different.  To my knowledge there is not going to be a second one and it kind of left you hanging.  By the way, Jesse is the Deputy that brings the children to Neva and ends up being the new Sheriff to the town.  He leaves to see if his adopted folks are still alive or one of his sisters, it never says if he finds them or not.

Arthur is as I said is (or was) a moneygrubber and then he starts to fall in love with Neva.  I personally thought it was going to be Jesse and wasn't to thrilled about it being Arthur, but now I am ok with it after reading the whole book.  But it didn't say that they got married, I'm assuming that they did.

This was a very nice read.  I wish that Belle was in it a bit more, she was such a sweet character that we didn't really get to see her thoughts and feelings.  It was also a bit slow going for a little while at the beginning, but then it got better.

This is a great story to show that the sins of the father are not his children's and how God can heal all hearts.

4 out of 5
                                   
*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.