The widow of Saunders Creek

Corrie Saunders had grown up having all the world could offer and married the man of her dreams, Jerrod Saunders. She always dreamed of becoming an artist but laid that dream aside to marry. Jerrod was always a bit impulsive and proved he was such the way he died in Iraq, hailed as a hero. For months after Jerrod's death, Corrie lives with her mother in Dallas then decides to move to Missouri to the old home place Jerrod inherited from his grandmother. Jerrod's cousin, Eli, is hired to fix up the old place. When Corrie arrives, she experiences some strange things around the house. The small town is deep into mystic, including Jerrod's aging aunt who assures Corrie that Jerrod hasn't truly left her. Eli, a strong believer in Christ, realizes that in order to save Corrie from falling into trap of believing in such thing, the battle for the Truth has just begun. If I need to sum up my initial thoughts on this book, I might have to say "strange". While I am fully aware that spiritual warfare exists and that mountain people may have some odd ways of thinking, I must say that I have never met anyone like Jerrod's extended family and people of Saunders Creek believing in ghosts and haunted houses. Even Eli, who is the strongest Christian in the book says in his mind that there is no evidence from the Bible or from reality.....Isn't the Bible and reality the same thing? Since those wonderings occur on page 15, it left me wondering about the theology of the whole story. Overall, I did enjoy watching the friendship develop between Corrie and Eli but all the supernatural thinking sort of got in my way. This probably won't be a title I will add to our church library. I did receive this advanced copy free from the publisher, Waterbrook Press.