A flicker of light

Katie Powner

eBook - 2021

Secrets are like pennies. Everybody's got one, even the poorest among us. For generations, the Jensens have raised their families in the small Montana town of Moose Creek, where gossip spreads faster than the wind. Yet some secrets need to be told. When twenty-one-year-old Bea discovers she's pregnant on the heels of her husband losing his job, she's forced to admit she needs help and asks her dad for a place to stay. But past resentments keep her from telling him all that's going on. Mitch Jensen is thrilled to have a full house again, though he's unimpressed with Bea's decisions: dropping out of college, marrying so young-and to an idealistic city kid, of all things. Mitch hopes to convince Bea to return to t...he path he's always envisioned for her, but she's changed since her mom died. And he refuses to admit how much he's changed, too, especially now that he might be losing his mother as well. Grandma June is good at spinning stories, but there's one she's never told. Now that her mind is starting to fade, her time to tell it is running out. But if she reveals the truth before her memories are gone forever, the Jensen family will never be the same.

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Subjects
Published
[United States] : Baker Publishing Group 2021.
Language
English
Corporate Author
hoopla digital
Main Author
Katie Powner (author)
Corporate Author
hoopla digital (-)
Online Access
Instantly available on hoopla.
Cover image
Physical Description
1 online resource
Format
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
ISBN
9781493433766
Access
AVAILABLE FOR USE ONLY BY IOWA CITY AND RESIDENTS OF THE CONTRACTING GOVERNMENTS OF JOHNSON COUNTY, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, HILLS, AND LONE TREE (IA).
Contents unavailable.
Review by Library Journal Review

Residents of Moose Creek, MT, have to be sturdy to withstand the town's frigid temperatures, barely paved roads, and stilted economy, but even tough nuts will crack under enough pressure. The stalwart Jensens are pushed to the limit when matriarch Juniper rapidly succumbs to dementia and wanders into a blizzard on foot. Even as her mind betrays her, Juniper holds tight to the penny in her pocket: a reminder of a terrible secret that only she can reveal. Her granddaughter Beatrice returns home to Moose Creek with her unemployed city slicker husband and a surprise baby on the way. Bea simultaneously envies and disdains the quiet resilience of her old friends and family but discovers that her small town may not be as small-minded as she thought. VERDICT Powner (The Sowing Season) delivers a powerful sophomore novel in which helping hands and faithful prayers are flickers of light that pierce the darkness of suffering. Fans of thoughtful contemporary fiction such as Susie Finkbeiner's Stories That Bind Us and Cynthia Ruchti's Facing the Dawn will want to add Powner to their lists.--Christine Barth, Scott Cty. Lib. Syst., IA

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