STEPPING INTO A NEW DAY – Beverly Jenkins
A Blessings Novel , Book 7
William Morrow
ISBN: 978-0-06-241263-8
ISBN: 978-0-06-241264-5 (eBook)
July 2016
General Fiction

Henry Adams, Kansas – The Present

Two men are headed to Henry Adams. The first is Riley Curry. He is returning because he must escape Los Angeles, so he steals a dealer's car during a test drive, and drives off with his pet pig while abandoning his mounting debts. The second is retired truck driver TC Barbour who is coming to visit his nephew, Gary, and Gary's two girls, Leah and Tiffany. TC accepts a part time job as driver for the town's owner, Bernadine Brown. His first assignment is to pick up Genevieve Gibbs from the airport. Genevieve was married to Riley for forty years but divorced the embezzling bum and is now trying to become her own person.

Henry Adams is a unique place, part utopian vision for community spirit, however, one filled with human fallibility. It is a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business. With TC's arrival things begin to change. He helps his over-stressed nephew by cooking dinners while teaching Tiffany and Leah to become more self-sufficient. He also has a problem to overcome, and the alluring Genevieve might be able to help him keep a promise to his deceased wife. High school senior Eli James wants to return to California for college but doesn't think his father will let him. Reverend Paula helps Eli through counseling, but a family funeral brings up haunting problems of the past. While Genevieve struggles with her own changes, her best friend, Marie, who helped her during the atrocious time of her divorce, sits is in a morose self-imposed exile from her friends, and then Riley arrives.

Love, respect, and friendship abound in Henry Adams, and the residents certainly needed them for everyone to arrive at a better place than they were before. TC and Genevieve's romance threads through the story, along with Eli's coming of age story, and Reverend Paula's fractured family saga. Readers will quickly become concerned for the outcomes of the many characters, sharing their emotional turmoil and ultimate successes.

Robin Lee