Where the Blue Sky Begins by Katie Powner is different from many other offerings on the religious fiction marketplace. The characters are quirky and interesting. The basic premise is pretty standard – namely a big city guy is sent to a small town for a while to help out a struggling business. What really sets it apart is the lack of a potential romance driving the plot. Don’t despair romance lovers, you too will find some things to get you interested, but it is very much second place to the rest of the plot.

Powner portrays Eunice Parker in a very powerful way. The reader is privy to her innermost sensitive thoughts and yet the story doesn’t feel like it gets lost inside Eunice’s head. The author knows how to keep things to just the right amount of detail and brevity. 

The book switches back and forth between two main characters and their points of view. The switches are smooth and frequent. Readers will not spend so much time with one character that they want to skip ahead to find out what happens to the other character. The writing keeps everyone’s story moving and the readers are pulled along on a thought-provoking and heartbreaking journey.

Review of an Advance Reading Copy provided by the Publisher

Content Analysis

Profanity/Language: None

Violence/Gore: Person wants to strike another.

Sex/Nudity: A non-married male and female character are sleeping in the same house. It is implied that in the past they slept together, but that does not occur in this story; a married man snuggles with a woman who is not his wife; it is reported that a teen is pregnant; a woman says a man has a tight bottom.

Mature Subjects:

Terminal Illness

Drug/Alcohol Use:

Characters consume alcohol a social event.