The Sowing Season is Katie Powner’s debut novel.  Clearly this is an author with lots of talent and insight to share with the world.  The book is written in such a way as to inspire both empathy and frustration with the main characters.  Poor choices are not considered acceptable, but readers are given a chance to hope and root for the characters.

Gerrit Laninga is described so well that one can’t help but love and pity the man.  Powner has such a way with words that every bit of bone weariness felt by Laninga oozes through the text, and the reader will feel wrapped up in his world of harbored bitterness and be pained by his lack of purpose.  His experiences as he comes to understand different things about himself and his family are eye opening and lend themselves to introspection.

Katie Powner brings to life a great many trials that people endure and helps readers appreciate the complexities of the human condition.  All this is done in a story with characters that really draw on the emotions of the reader.  It is refreshing to read a story that is not solely focused upon romance and lost loves.  This is a book that has some of those elements, but more importantly, it is an interesting story about interesting people with real problems.  The only negative was that the book seemed to end a bit too abruptly.  At least an epilogue or something would have been nice.  Hopefully there will be a companion book that covers some of this. 

Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy.

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Bethany House Publishers

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Note:  A character implies a derogatory name by suggesting its rhyme.

Violence/Gore:  Report that a person stabbed another; a character is reported to have kicked a dog in anger; a character wants to whack another with a glove; a man pushes another man against a truck; characters are involved in a car accident in which a pregnant woman loses her unborn child; an adult grabs a teen by the shirt front and threatens him; it is mentioned that a teen is a victim of physical abuse from an adult.

Sex/Nudity:  A male character deliberately brushes his arm against a female’s breasts, she doesn’t mind; married characters embrace.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death of a sibling, physical abuse

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Report of a man using booze; a character is staggering around drunk.