Book Review: Hope Springs

   Kim Tate's newest novel Hope Springs tells the story of a small Southern town, and of two families that reside there. The story flips back and forth between the perspectives of three characters, Janelle, Becca, and Stephanie, a refreshing writing style. The two families are close friends and yet they remain divided by boundaries of race that still exist in the small town setting. In this modern day and age, it's pretty unique to find a story that deals with present time segregation, but Tate handles this job well!

In a small Southern community where everyone is holding tight to something, the biggest challenge may be learning to let go.
Hope Springs, North Carolina, is the epitome of small town life—a place filled with quiet streets where families have been friends for generations, a place where there’s not a lot of change. Until three women suddenly find themselves planted there for a season.
Janelle Evans hasn’t gone back to Hope Springs for family reunions since losing her husband. But when she arrives for Christmas and learns that her grandmother is gravely ill, she decides to extend the stay. It isn’t long before she runs into her first love, and feelings that have been dormant for more than a decade are reawakened. And when Janelle proposes a Bible study a the local diner--and invites both African American and Caucasian women she has met--the group quickly forms a spiritual bond . . . and inadvertently adds to underlying tension in the community.
Becca Anderson is finally on the trajectory she’s longed for. Having been in the ministry trenches for years, she’s been recruited as the newest speaker of a large Christian women’s conference. But her husband feels called to become the pastor of his late father’s church in Hope Springs. Will small town living affect her big ministry dreams?
And Stephanie London has the ideal life—married to a doctor in St. Louis with absolutely nothing she has to do. When her cousin Janelle volunteers to stay in Hope Springs and care for their grandmother, she feels strangely compelled to do the same. It’s a decision that will forever change her.
As these women come together, facing disappointments both public and private, they soon recognize that healing is needed in their hearts, their families, and their churches that have long been divided along racial lines. God's plan for them in Hope Springs—and for Hope Springs itself—is bigger than they ever imagined.

Throughout the course of the novel, the three women bond and their characters develop in ways they most definitely didn't expect to take place in the ordinary town of Hope Springs. Tate entwines the will of God in their daily lives, and makes for an entertaining, light summer read.