A Sky Without Stars

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing A Sky Without Stars Abingdon Press (February 18, 2014) by Linda S. Clare MY THOUGHTS:
 A Sky Without Stars is a story of fresh starts -- which often aren't as easy as hoped. It is set in the 1950's (which was easy to forget) in Phoenix, Arizona. The story revolves around Frankie Running Bear, a widowed mom of Indian heritage, trying to make it in a world that was pretty hostile.

I really enjoyed this book, the next in the Quilts of Love series. It is well written and the story has a lot of twists and turns between several interesting characters. I particularly enjoyed the historical aspects of the story. That is one of my favorite aspects of this series -- I learn a lot of information about various periods in history woven through an enjoyable story!

I would have liked more information at the end of the book -- it seemed like it ended a bit suddenly. This would be a good one for a sequel!





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Linda S. Clare is an award-winning author and coauthor of several books and has also published many essays, stories, and poems in publications, including The Christian Reader, The Denver Post, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her most recent book is A Sky without Stars, the newest release in Abingdon’s Quilts of Love line. Born in Arizona, Linda and her husband now make their home in Eugene, Oregon, where Linda has taught college-level creative writing classes, and writes, edits, and mentors other writers. She also is a frequent writing conference presenter, a church retreat leader, and mom to four grown children and five wayward cats.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Frankie Chasing Bear is caught between cultures. She wants to raise her son Harold to revere his Lakota heritage, but she also thinks he will need to learn the white man’s ways to succeed. After the untimely death of her husband, Frankie joins the U.S. Government’s Relocation Program and moves to Arizona. There she begins sewing a Lakota Star pattern quilt for Harold with tribal wisdom sung, sewn, and prayed into it. A bed without a quilt is like a sky without stars, but neither the quilt—nor her new life—comes easily to Frankie. Nick Vandergriff, for instance, is the last man Frankie wants to trust. He’s half-Lakota but Christian, and Frankie can see no good coming from that faith after her own parents were forced to convert at an Indian school. Can Nick convince Frankie that white men and Christians aren’t all bad? And will Frankie learn that love is the most important ingredient—for her son’s quilt and life itself?


If you would like to read the first chapter of A Sky Without Stars, go HERE.