Ann Gabhart, The Scent of Lilacs

Ann Gabhart, The Scent of Lilacs - In 1964, in Hollyhill, Kentucky, the owner of the Hollyhill Barrier, David Brooke, knows that he can only be an interim pastor at the Mt. Pleasant Church because the congregation expects its leader married. Thus David works the newspaper to feed his extended family and the church out of love. Seven years ago, David's wife Adrienne left without a look back, taking their older daughter, then thirteen years old, Tabitha with her. She left behind their other child, then six years old, Jocie. David's septuagenarian Aunt Love lives with them, but he feels more like a referee between his two female relatives than their kin.

Jocie wants to know about her family and what made Aunt Love into a preaching, stoic spinster who is turning senile except for her biblical citations and why her mother left, especially without her. She would also like to see her older sister who turns twenty shortly. As Jocie investigates her recent roots, secrets some would prefer left hidden begin to surface; she learns more about her aunt, her parents, and even the newspaper pressman.

THE SCENT OF LILACS is a well-written, Christian, historical, family drama that sub-genre fans will deeply cherish. Jocie is a great inquisitive young teen struggling to understand the dynamics that engulf her in a shroud. The totally in black Aunt Love will surprise readers when they learn alongside Jocie about her past. Finally, David is split apart as suffers guilt over his broken marriage and loss of a child and finding solace tending to his flock so that secularly he feels broken while spiritually connected. Ann Gabhart provides an inspirational family drama.

Revell, May 2005, $12.99, 320 pp.

ISBN: 0800730801

Harriet Klausner