The Longing Season by Christine Schaub is up this week on the CFBA!!!

Here's a link to buy the book

Link to Christine's site

From the Publisher
In the 1740s, British culture allows few options for the son of a merchant ship captain. And in a time of war, a man with John Newton’s experience must serve the king. But Newton a man who quotes Virgil and curses God with equal fervor is interested in serving only himself.

Mary Catlett simply cannot believe her childhood friend sailed away on a British warship and vanished in Africa. In desperation, she takes a step that will change her life and call her lost love home. But will he arrive in time?

Newton’s odyssey takes him from the West Africa gold coast to the banks of Newfoundland to the heart of the Atlantic before he finds what he’s spent his entire life longing for: deliverance.

In an account that challenges popular myth, Schaub continues the Music of the Heart series with one of the greatest redemption stories of all time the story of Amazing Grace.


My thoughts so far:
The beginning starts out with some brutal stuff. Whipped with a cat o'nine tails, nearly starved to death, delirious with fever, mocked, lonely, hopeless, humiliated. And all that happened in the first five chapters. John Newton was in some dire straits in the first part of the book. It really sets the stage...and helps you understand how he became bitter. And poor Mary had no clue where John went or what happened to him. I'm just starting chapter 6. So far it's holding my interest. :) I like stories that aren't nicey-nicey.