Summer Snow

Julia DeSmit is finally learning to accept her new life. Optimistic and anxious to begin again after dropping out of college, she is taking fumbling steps down a challenging yet hope-filled road. But the careful existence Julia has begun to build falls hopelessly to pieces when her estranged mother, Janice, appears on the front porch one icy March night. Mother and daughter have not seen or talked in ten years, and a decade of anger, resentment, and bitterness follows in Janice's wake, along with a surprise Julia could never have anticipated. Julia is convinced that which is broken cannot be mended. Yet when she faces the very decision her mother did years before, she begins to realize what it means to truly accept grace. Will it be her undoing, or the impetus for a change she'd never dared hope for? Tyndale House Publishers

“Why are you here?” I whispered achingly, afraid to hear the answer.

She didn’t even pause. “I had a dream that you forgave me.”

Julia DeSmit is finally learning to accept her new life. Optimistic and anxious to begin again after dropping out of college, she is taking fumbling steps down a challenging yet hope-filled road.

But the careful existence Julia has begun to build falls hopelessly to pieces when her estranged mother, Janice, appears on the front porch one icy March night. Mother and daughter have not seen or talked to each other in ten years, and a decade of anger, resentment, and bitterness follows in Janice’s wake, along with a surprise Julia could never have anticipated.
Julia is convinced that which is broken cannot be mended. Yet when she faces the very decision her mother did years before, she begins to realize what it means to truly accept grace. Will it be her undoing or the impetus for a change she’d never dared hope for?

Publishers Weekly

In her sophomore outing and excellent follow-up to After the Leaves Fall, Baart continues her saga of Julia DeSmit with the same careful prose and enjoyable storytelling she showed in her debut. Julia's pregnancy is starting to show and she's dropped out of college to live with her grandmother and work at Value Foods in a small Midwestern town. Her beloved "boy next door" is marrying another, and the father of her coming child is out of the picture. But when the unexpected happens, Julia discovers the bitterness of being unforgiving, the possibility of second chances, and the place in her life that only God can fill. Baart communicates deep spiritual themes with a light touch, and some scenes, such as Julia and a friend watching cottonwood fluff ("summer snow") blow over a lake at sundown, are lovely. She also has a knack with characterization, and wise words come from both expected and unexpected places. This is a treat for faith fiction readers, and proves Baart is not just a one-hit wonder.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.