Revell Blog Tour: Scent of Lilacs

Author: Ann H. Gabhart

Genre: Life, childhood, kids, family, growing up

Series: Heart of Hollyhill

Number in series: 1^st

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 8.5

Type: Fiction

Number of pages: 346

Time period: 1960s

Publisher and price: Revell, $14.99

Passage about the book: It’s 1964 in small-town Kentucky, and Jocie Brooke is curious.  As she digs up answers to her questions about her family, the results will impact Jocie’s life forever. 

My overall opinion: I enjoyed this one even more than I’d hoped to! The first half was easy reading, smooth, and overall a gentle, expectable story. Very well-written, the whole book was. But the second half! Wow, the pace really picked up as the story whipped through unexpected twists and turns, with even more unexpected stories and storms thrown into the mix. I couldn’t put it down during that second half! So glad it was a Sunday afternoon, when I had time to finish it. :) I absolutely flew through reading like mad. I grew to really like and empathize with the characters, especially in that second half. I am so looking forward to the next book now! The end was complete enough to finish, but left the end open enough to allow for a sequel (or several). God has a prominent part in this story, but it doesn’t feel forced, either into the story or onto you, the reader. I would definitely recommend this book! I’d wanted to read a Gabhart for a while, ever since I saw and loved the cover of Words Spoken True. Therefore, when this book came up for review I snatched it up – and I’m so glad I did! Great book. 

Available March 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

**Revell supplied me with this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to post a positive review, nor was I paid in any way other than the book.**

Cover Focus: Words Spoken True

Words Spoken True by Ann H. Gabhart

Book blurb from amazon.com : Adriane Darcy was practically raised in her father's newspaper offices. She can't imagine life without the clatter of the press and the push to be the first to write the news that matters. Their Tribune is the leading paper in Louisville in 1855. Then Blake Garrett, a brash young editor from the North with a controversial new style of reporting takes over failing competitor the Herald, and the battle for readers gets fierce. When Adriane and Blake meet at a benefit tea, their surprising mutual attraction is hard to ignore. Still, Blake is the enemy, and Adriane is engaged to the son of powerful business man who holds the keys to the Tribune's future. Blake will stop at almost nothing to get the story -- and the girl. Can he do both before it's too late?

**Words Spoken True is coming out in February 2012**

What I like about the cover: Let's start with the background. It's definitely a large city. Note the spires in the background. And then look at her dress. Kind of brown/tan and dark red, with a bodice of velvet? See the stripes that show inside her sleeve as she lifts her hand to her hat? I love her dark hair. It's obviously not done up perfectly, a few strands are loose. To me, she looks rather deep in thought. What do you think?