MY REVIEW:
Although they are often profiled as illiterate, moonshiners, snake handlers, and hillbillies, the cliched perception of Appalachian highlanders has been put to rest in Walt Larimore’s “Sugar Fork”. The residents of the Sugar Fork valley are a unique group of resourceful and hard-working people who are fiercely loyal to their friends and neighbors and dedicated to taking care of each other. Featuring Abbie Randolph and her family, the story relates their continued struggle to maintain ownership of their unspoiled land as an unscrupulous lumber company makes repeated attempts to force them to sell. Faced with new challenges and even more tragedy, they find an unexpected ally in the area’s new young doctor Wade Chandler who soon finds himself smitten by Abbie.
“Sugar Fork” is a beautiful picture of the way people should work together to care for each other. The Randolph family, their friends, and neighbors exemplify what can be accomplished through faith in God and unity of purpose. I thoroughly enjoyed “Sugar Fork” which has earned its rightful place among such notable novels as “Christy” and “The Last Sineater”. I hope you will pick up a copy for yourself or as a gift.
This book was provided for review by Howard Books.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
This captivating story takes place in the Sugar Fork Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains wilderness during 1925-26. Nate Randolph and his five unique daughters wrestle to survive after the death of Callie (his wife and their mother) as well as maintain their farm, forests, family, and faith against a menacing business and an evil company manager seeking by every means possible to pilfer their land and clear cut their virgin woodland.
This sequel to Hazel Creek continues with the colorful cast of characters our readers came to love in the prequel, including independent and earnest mountaineers, Cherokee Indians, gypsies, lumbermen, moonshiners, two world-famous writers, and, of course, a flesh-and-blood Haint … all of whom join the Randolphs in their gripping struggle against the evil and violence of a murderous lumber company manager.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Walt Larimore has been called one of “America’s best-known family physicians” and listed in “Distinguished Physicians of America,” “The Best Doctors in America,” and “Who’s Who in America.” Walt was awarded the 2004 Christianity Today Book Award for cowriting Going Public with Your Faith: Becoming a Spiritual Influence at Work. He has been a Gold Medallion Book Award finalist three times—for the Going Public book and small-group video series, as well as his book The Highly Healthy Child. He also authored the popular Bryson City Tales books and coauthored the TSI series with Paul McCusker. He lives in Monument, Colorado.
