How Sweet the Sound

How Sweet the Sound
Amy K Sorrells
(Tyndale House Publishers)
ISBN: 978-1496426130
September 2016/384 pages/$15.99

Wealth and etiquette can hide a lot of things in the South, as the esteemed Harlan family of sleepy Bay Spring, Alabama, knows. But behind the gentle facade of white pillared porches and acres of cultivated pecan orchards, family secrets smolder.

Young Anniston Harlan cares little for high society and the rigid rules and expectations of her grandmother, Princella. She finds solace working the orchards alongside her father and grandfather, and relief in the cool waters of Mobile Bay.

Anniston’s aunt, Comfort Harlan, has never quite lived up to the family name, or so her mother Princella’s ever-apparent scowl implies. When she gleefully accepts the proposal of her longtime boyfriend, Solly, a flood tide of tragedy ensues that strips Comfort of her innocence and unleashes generations of family secrets, changing the Harlan family forever.

While Comfort struggles to recover, Anniston discovers an unlikely new friend from the seedy part of town who helps her try to make sense of the chaos. Together, they and the whole town of Bay Spring discover how true love is a risk, but one worth taking.


Read an excerpt.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amy K. Sorrells is a long-time believer in the power of story to change lives. Her diverse writing career includes more than two decades of freelance writing, including medical journal publications and a popular op-ed newspaper column.

The driving mission behind all her writing is to bring words of hope to a hurting world. Praised by reviewers for the way they both poetically and accurately portray real-life hardship and hope, Amy's novels are inspired by social issues that break her heart and the Bible stories that reflect God's response to those issues. Her first novel, How Sweet the Sound, was a response to her personal questions about how God redeems the pain of sexual abuse. How Sweet the Sound won the 2011 Women of Faith Writing Contest.

Since then, she has published two more novels, Then Sings My Soul and Lead Me Home. Amy's novels have been short-listed for various fiction awards.

In addition to being a writer, Amy is also grateful to be a practicing registered nurse at a busy suburban hospital. She loves doting on her husband, three young-adult sons, and their golden retrievers at their home in central Indiana. If there's leftover time after that, she enjoys up-cycling, gardening, binge reading, exercising, and Bible journaling. Connect with Amy at her website and on Facebook.


MY THOUGHTS

Amy K Sorrells and Tyndale House have teamed up to republish her award-winning debut novel. The sounds of cicadas, porch swings, and ice swirling in sweet tea are practically audible in this tale set in the South, yet its roots go even deeper, to the Biblical story of Tamar. Raw, honest, and emotive, the story is achingly realistic. Readers are privy to the scars hidden within this dysfunctional family as Sorrells smoothly interweaves the various members' voices. Both heartbreaking and hopeful, How Sweet the Sound demonstrates the tragic consequences of unchecked generational sin while at the same time reminding the reader that God redeems and restores. Highly recommended.



Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book from Tyndale House Publishers and Wynn-Wynn Media. I was not required to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”