Litfuse Publicity presents Hope Springs by Kim Cash Tate (with bonus review)

Grab your copy of Hope Springs and join me for an Author Chat Party on July 10th at 8:00 PM EST (that's 7:00 Central, 6:00 MST, & 5:00 PST)! During the evening Kim will be sharing the story behind her new book, posting book club questions, testing your trivia skills, and of course, there will be plenty of chatting and fun giveaways - books, gift certificates and (I'm so excited about this) - a Kindle Fire! But, wait there's more – she’ll also be giving you a sneak peak of her next book too! RSVP today and then come back on the 10th ... and bring your friends!

Find out what readers are saying here.

Kim Cash Tate is the author of Cherished, Faithful, Heavenly Places and the memoir More Christian than African-American. A former practicing attorney, she is also the founder of Colored in Christ Ministries. She and her husband have two children. Find out more about Kim, her other books and read her blog at www.kimcashtate.com.

About the book:

Hope Springs is the epitome of small-town life—a place filled with quiet streets where families have been friends for generations, a place where not a lot changes . . . until now.

Janelle Evans hasn’t gone back to Hope Springs for family reunions since losing her husband. But when she arrives for Christmas and learns that her grandmother is gravely ill, she decides to extend the stay. It isn’t long before she runs into her first love, and feelings that have been dormant for more than a decade are reawakened.

Becca Anderson is finally on the trajectory she’s longed for. Having been in the ministry trenches for years, she’s been recruited as the newest speaker of a large Christian women’s conference.

But her husband feels called to become the pastor of his late father’s church in Hope Springs. Will small-town living affect her big ministry dreams?

Stephanie London is married to a doctor in St. Louis and living an ideal life. When her cousin Janelle volunteers to stay in Hope Springs and care for their grandmother, she feels compelled to do the same. It’s a decision that will forever change her.

As these women come together, they soon recognize that healing is needed in their hearts, their families, and their churches that have long been divided along racial lines. God's plan for them in Hope Springs—and for Hope Springs itself—is bigger than they ever imagined.

My review:

I enjoyed this third book in the series, though not as much as the first two books. My favorite novel of the author's is still the first story, Faithful, though I should say I did get a bit choked up a few times reading Hope Springs, so the author did a good job helping me to identify with several situations. There were some couples that I preferred reading about more than others. My only issue is that some of the story seemed to drag for me, while other parts were very interesting. I think the parts that dragged had to do with the fact that there were so many characters that I didn't care about some of them all that much. While there was conflict in this novel, some of it seemed almost too perfect in it's resolution. While on the one hand I do like the healing themes in this author's books, on the other hand, it doesn't feel as real to me when everything ends up tidy by the last page. Granted, some people had endings that were less than ideal (don't want to post a spoiler here) but they were inevitable conclusions, and in fact, that part of the book seemed to zip right on by...almost too fast for me.

Though I point out some things that didn't work for me, overall I liked this book. It was more spiritually focused in tone and dialog (and some readers might even see it as preachy) than her other two books. There were some good themes in this story such as the one questioning who you are doing ministry for...yourself, or others? What's your real motivation? I liked the conflict with Janelle and Kory. That part of the story worked for me. I loved it. I was not as fond of Becca. Her husband seemed like a good guy, though. I also loved the character Libby who had a history with Travis. I guess I like reading more about the broken-hearted women who see themselves as damaged in some way. Even Janelle felt guilty about having feelings for anyone after her husband died.

While grandma Geri was core to the story, I never grew that attached to her. I did like the underlying secret of Keisha's existance coming out toward the end, and also the theme about bringing the two churches together to blend them more and make them less segregated. So I did enjoy this book, but found myself skimming in some places because the conflict wasn't sufficient hold my attention. I don't like when I find myself skimming, and that's why I didn't rate it as high as her other novels. Overall she is a good author, though. Like I said earlier, I loved the first two books in this series.

Hope Springs was published by Thomas Nelson and released in June 2012. A copy of this book was provided to me by Litfuse Publicity for reviewing for this tour. The opinion expressed above is entirely my own.