Growing up with a grandmother who resented her very existence and deprived of a normal family and childhood, Sarah Graham takes refuge in her music. Her violin is the only solace she has, as everyone Sarah meets bears the brunt of her anger and caustic tongue.
“I’d been called heartless before. Sometimes with blatant disgust, by those I had – in their own estimation – handled too carelessly. And other times with admiration for my deft ability to remain unmoved, untouched. Either way, I’d always taken the observation as a compliment.”
But life is about to change for Sarah. When her father leaves a stipulation in his substantial estate for Sarah, that she must remain for six months in his isolated mountain home, Sarah begins to meet a town of characters who will forever touch her heart and life.
I read this book so quickly as it drew me into Sarah’s journey to find some meaningful resolution to her difficult circumstances.
Christa Parrish has created a believable slate of characters in this novel of a young girl, hardened by her tragic background. Some situations, in order to illustrate Sarah’s difficult personality, were a little on the raw side although never graphic. The author so cleverly presents the realities of human frailty, the universal need for caring relationships, and the individuality of personality within an enthralling story that engages the reader from the very first page.
“My hate for my father had faded during the past several months, despite me. I had clung to it, but like handfuls of sand, the tighter I squeezed, the faster it had fallen away. Now it erupted as I counted my losses. Because of him, I never knew my mother, never fought with her over boyfriends, never made her a red felt valentine or a clay pinch pot for her birthday. He went off to prison, and dumped me with my grandmother.
He ruined me.”
Country Girls Read 