| Title | : | The Scent of Lilacs (The Heart of Hollyhill #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 354 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2005 |
Full of stories of lost loves and the trials of small-town living, this heartwarming novel explores the journey of faith and family.
The Scent of Lilacs (The Heart of Hollyhill #1) Reviews
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My first inspirational fiction. At last, I think I found my writing home. Love writing inspirational fiction and had great fun writing Jocie's story. Wrote this book after a few years of writing disappointments and decided to take the age old advice "to write what you know." I knew small town life and country churches. So I came up with the daughter of a preacher/newspaper editor in the small town of Hollyhill. Then I let Wes drop in with the wild story that he was from Jupiter and fell out of a space ship on the way over Hollyhill. He added a lot of smiles to the story.
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This author came highly recommended, but this particular book missed the mark for me. It tangled with my sensibilities in ways that I can’t mention due to spoilers. Most of the large “secrets” were predictable to me, though they might not be to everyone. There were about a dozen expletives, especially speaking of an illegitimate child, as well as several replacement expletives and profanities. This book was filled with small-town melodrama but not the interesting sort, at least to me. It quickly became a slog for me.
Some high points I enjoyed: I really loved Wes. He was amazing and had a wonderful sense of humor. I liked Jocie and her innocence. Would that more children her age would be so naïve today! The way the main family banded together through hard times was quite enjoyable.
I have two more of this author’s books, but I’m not sure yet if I’ll give them a whirl. -
This was a soothing, captivating ,and pleasurable read! It felt as if I was there watching the story in a sense. She is an author I will certainly read more of as these years, I kind of give "one chance"....if it's too long, tedious, not uplifting nor wholesome per say, I probably won't bother with another. There are galores of fascinating stories to be savored and enjoyed :)
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I enjoyed this one even more than I’d hoped to! The first half was easy reading, smooth, and overall a gentle, expectable story. Very well-written, the whole book was. But the second half! Wow, the pace really picked up as the story whipped through unexpected twists and turns, with even more unexpected stories and storms thrown into the mix. I couldn’t put it down during that second half! So glad it was a Sunday afternoon, when I had time to finish it. :) I absolutely flew through reading like mad. I grew to really like and empathize with the characters, especially in that second half. I am so looking forward to the next book now! The end was complete enough to finish, but left the end open enough to allow for a sequel (or several). God has a prominent part in this story, but it doesn’t feel forced, either into the story or onto you, the reader. I would definitely recommend this book! I’d wanted to read a Gabhart for a while, ever since I saw and loved the cover of Words Spoken True. Therefore, when this book came up for review I snatched it up – and I’m so glad I did! Great book.
**Revell supplied me with this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to post a positive review, nor was I paid in any way other than the book.** -
There were parts of the story I enjoyed, but it took me forever to read this. The story just didn't grab my attention. The point of view switched between Jocie, 13 years old, and her father, David. There was one specific section about Aunt Love's father which was difficult to read.
All in all found the story sweet but just okay. -
While this was a YA book, it had plenty in it to appeal to adult readers as well. I really appreciated its faith message for teens - God is no magic genie that grants your wishes, but a loving Father who guides your life with wisdom.
Jocie is coming of age in Hollyhill, Kentucky. It's a small town where not much ever changes, but for Jocie a lot of changes happen at once. Not only is her prayer for a dog answered, but so is her prayer to once again see her older sister, who disappeared years ago along with her mother. Jocie was so young when it happened, that she has few memories of that time - now she lives with her father (a newspaperman and preacher) and her Aunt Love, an elderly spinster who is slowly losing her memory for everything but quoting scripture. When Jocie's sister Tabitha appears on the front porch one night, everyone but Jocie realizes that something is wrong. Even Aunt Love can see Tabitha's condition - unmarried with a baby on the way. Family secrets - this is only the beginning, and some of them are very hurtful to Jocie. But along the way, she finds that she is surrounded by love - love of family and friends to help bear the burdens of revealed secrets. -
Uplifting story of a thirteen year old, Jocie, and her family. The Christian family lives in Hollyhill, Kentucky. The year 1964. Enjoyed the humor and personality of Jocie.
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Title: SCENT OF LILACS
Author: Ann H. Gabhart
Publisher: Revell
March 2013
ISBN: 978-0800730802
Genre: women’s fiction
After the summer of 1964, life for Jocie Brooke will never be the same.
Life-changing events rarely happen in quiet Hollyhill, Kentucky, and when they do, they are few and far between. But for young Jocie Brooke and her family, they happen all at once during the humid summer of 1964. Though on the surface things are just fine, it seems like everyone in Jocie's life has something they're not saying, something they're hiding from her--and from themselves. As Jocie digs into her family's past, she stirs up a whirlwind of discoveries. Will she find the answers everyone so desperately needs? Or will her questions lead to truths better left hidden?
Combining unforgettable characters, true-to-life struggles, and the perfect dose of humor and nostalgia, this riveting story from bestselling author Ann Gabhart explores the very essence of new life and love.
SCENT OF LILACS is mostly written in the point of view of Jocie, with a few forays into the point of view of her father, David. Jocie is a prayer, though she believes most people don’t even know what they pray, but her main prayers are for a dog, and for her sister—who disappeared seven years ago, with her mama. David is candidating to be an interim pastor at a church, but has little hope since he’s divorced. He’s also struggling with the town paper and Jocie who is asking too many questions that he can’t – or won’t – answer.
I wasn’t sure whether to classify this book as contemporary or historical. It happened before I was born, so has kind of a historical feel, but the back of the book says contemporary. I finally decided on women’s fiction. Either way, it is a character driven story, and one can’t help but fall in love with Jocie and with her father, David. Even the secondary characters, Wes, and her eccentric great aunt Love are well developed.
If you love character driven books, you won’t want to miss SCENT OF LILACS. It is a great read. $14.99. 352 pages. -
I'd have given this book another star except for one thing which I considered a plot contrivance and it bugged me the whole time I was reading it. The wife/mother Adrienne (who never actually appears in the book but is a huge influence on the main characters) seems to have dropped out of the sky in this little town that supposedly no one ever leaves. The character of David meets her at his father's funeral...but why is she there? She's a hot 18-year-old so unless her parents or grandparents? dragged here there, there's no explanation of why she attends. David doesn't know her. He marries her the next day but there is absolutely no mention of her having a family in this little town. No one. Parents, aunts, uncles, a cousin or a sibling. She's just out there floating all by herself with no connection to anyone and I found that a tough sell. I grew up in little towns. This is not how they work. If she had no family, it would have been simple to explain to the reader, but it never was. Boo.
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The characters in this book felt like old friends; as if I'd known them for years instead of just a few hours. A large part of this story involves family and personal secrets, but some things are left unsaid and you don't learn every secret. And that's okay too, because it just made each character that much more real. By the end of the book, I was ready to pack my bags and visit all my "friends" in Hollyhill. What a wonderful story!
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In Ann Gabhart's The Scent of Lilacs, the first installment in the Heart of Hollyhill Christian-Inspirational novel series, this heart-warming story will tug at our heart string about faith and family. Set in the 1960s, for fourteen-year-old Jocelyn "Jocie" Green, she lived in Hollyhill, Kentucky with her single father and never knew her mother. When she asked God in a prayed for a dog, he delivered her a dog she named Zeb, who might be her friend Wes's lost dog. Then she prayed for her sister Tabitha to return home. Once again, God had granted her wish. Tabitha, at age twenty, returns at their doorstep. She haven't seen her sister in seven years, when she left with her mother to go to California. Since then, she had stuck to her father like glue and had her Aunt Love to help take care of her. Her father, David, was the interim pastor for the church and needed a vote to be the permanent preacher. But he had a problem, someone named Ogden Martin, who had it in for him and wanted him away. Meanwhile when Tabitha returns, she brought up a new problem of her own--she's pregnant and keeping the baby. And that cause of problem for David's position at the church. For Josie, she's getting to learn a lot more about the truth of her mother and the secret her aunt Love had kept close to her chest. Meanwhile, she ran away in a midst of a tornado brewing, and later learned what really makes a family and how God provides us all.
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The Scent of Lilacs ~ The Heart if Hollyhill ~ Book 1 is a Christian story about Jocelyn Brooke, a thirteen year old daughter of a preacher. Her mother left when she was five, taking her older sister Tabatha with her seven years before. Jocie believes in prayer and has two man prayer. The first one to come true is she finds a stray dog, so her dog prayer is answered and the other is her sister prayer and Tabatha returns the day after she finds a very ugly dog that smiles at her.
Aunt Love lives with them and quotes Bible verses from memory to Jocie often; Tabatha returns with a problem that her father accepts, the church votes to keep her dad as temporary pastor. Jocie hears a truth from a boy that constantly makes her miserable and runs away. An unusual summer tornado, Wes, the Juniperian press operator at her father's paper gets hurt and her Dad finds a possible new preacher's wife in Leigh, as Jocie offers to make a stepmother prayer for them.
The Scent of Lilacs is a wonderful Christian story of the trials of a family and how prayer helps them find acceptance of their problems and compassion for their fellows. -
What a wonderful book! This story grabs your heart and won't let go. Thirteen-year-old Jocie Brooke of Hollyhill, Kentucky is quite a young woman. She expects things to go along as usual during her summer, but the surprises and unexpectedly revealed secrets just keep coming, until she isn't sure what to think anymore, especially about her preacher/newspaperman father, her somewhat batty Aunt Love, the surprising return of her sister, the mother who ran away and who hated her since her birth, the grandfatherly Wes, and the young woman Leigh, who might just be in the running for the role of stepmother in Jocie's life. The story takes place in 1964 in small-town America, and Jocie is a delightful character that you hate to leave when you reach the last page.
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It took me a while to get into this one. I was tempted to give up on it through most of the first half of the book. Jocie’s story of growing up with a single dad, life in a small town and her preacher father started out rather bland but then managed to change the pace with more interesting side stories in the second half which grabbed me enough to hang on & finish it. Definitely a Christian theme with lots of bible quotes and church politics.
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Actually didn't finish. Boring ... and then it's quite depressing, wife leaves husband takes one daughter, the other daughter isn't even the dad's.. then the first daughter shows up, a true flower child and pregnant.. the dad's a preacher, there's a lot of preaching... the whole book was just not my style. I don't recommend it.
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I wanted to give this book a 3, as it was a good story with good characters, but the whole storyline wasn’t “ grabbing” me and I was able to put the book down time and time again…. The ending was nicely done and somewhat unexpected, so that upped it up a 4! Will definitely read more by this author!
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Love this author's books!
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It's the summer of 1964 in the tiny town of Hollyhill, Kentucky. David Brooke's first calling is as a preacher, and he hopes to land the interim pastor position at the Mt. Pleasant Church His day job is working at t he Hollyhill Banner, so that he can earn money to take care of his family. Thing is it had been seven years ago that his wife Adrienne left and taken his oldest daughter Tabitha with her, leaving their youngest daughter Jocie for him. The summer of 1964 sees several changes taking place in the Brooke family when his daughter Tabitha who is now twenty returns home. With questions that she want's answered Jocie decides to the only way to get those answers is to dig into a past that just might be better left alone. Will Jocie get the answers she needs and will it strengthen the Brooke family, or tear them apart?
I really enjoyed the way the author switched perspectives allowing us to see things unfold thru the eyes of Jocie as well as David. I really enjoyed the voice of Jocie, and her unwavering faith in God. I loved that she prayed to get a dog and she got Zebedee, a dog she said that no one would want. I could easily understand why Jocie would have questions about her sister,and the fact that she prayed that her sister would come home seemed so realistic. I really enjoyed the secondary characters in this story, their unique voices really kept the story moving along for me. Overall, this was a story that drew me in and wouldn't let me go. I love historical fiction, and when it's peppered with bits of humor, an inspirational message along with true to life characters I always hate seeing the story end. Fortunately this is just the beginning of The Heart of Hollyhill series and I for one can't wait to read the rest of the series.
A complimentary copy of this book was provided in exchange for an honest review. -
Ann H. Gabhart's writing sparkles in The Scent of Lilacs. When you finish this book, you will want to read all that she has written. Ann H. Gabhart shows so much love and care with her characters. So many times while reading I was wishing that I could actually meet them and talk to them!
The author brings the story of the characters in Hollyhill, Kentucky in 1964 alive and makes you hope that things will turn out alright for them. This story begins with Jocie Brooke, a thirteen year old girl who says one prayer for a dog to come into her life and another one for her sister, Tabitha to return home. Jocie narrates and we meet her unusual friend, Wes who has all sorts of stories of coming from Jupiter and her Aunt Love who spouts bible verses constantly but who is hiding her own tragic story. Then her father takes his turn in telling the story. He is hoping to be the fulltime instead of a temporary preacher. He loves both of his daughters deeply hides his pain from his wife’s desertion of him. He thinks he has failed. We go back and forth the narrators and the pieces of the puzzle of this story fit so neatly.
There are plenty of quirky characters and all of them have their own secrets which spill out bit by bit through this story. There is humor throughout and the characters feel closer to each other as their private secrets are revealed. This is a tale of forgiveness and the building of love.
I recommend this book to all lovers of Christian fiction and everyone who loves the story of To Kill a Mockingbird as this book is about human values and love. This is a book that you will want to hug! -
I was raised in a small town in the midwest and could really relate to Jocie and the pace of Hollyhill. Even though the book is set in 1964, they have many of the same struggles that people have today. Jocie is so innocent when the story starts. Her two biggest prayers are that God will bring her a dog and will bring her sister Tabitha home.
Seven years earlier, when Jocie was only 5, her mother left in the night, taking Tabitha, her older sister, with her. They receive letters from Tabitha, usually asking for money so she can come home and visit, but she never does. Jocie prays everyday that Tabitha will come home, and she prays for a dog as well.
One day out in the woods, a dog finds Jocie. He follows her home and she is smitten. She names him Zebedee or Zeb for short and sees that God has answered her prayers. Since he answered the prayer about a dog, she surely believes He will bring Tabitha home. And sure enough, within a few days, after being away 7 years, Tabitha shows up on their front porch - no longer a young girl of 13, but now a young woman of 20.
Jocie has always been full of questions, but now she starts to question what she knows to be her family's history. As the truth starts to come out, will it make things better to know the answers, or should some secrets stay buried.
This book was originally published in 2005 and was rereleased with a new cover. I found it to be very engrossing and read it in one afternoon. It was a good lesson to me that even Christians can make mistakes, but we need to grow from every decision that we make, whether it be good or bad. I am looking forward to reading more books in this series. -
This story takes place in small-town Hollyhill, Kentucky during the summer of 1964. Thirteen-year-old Jocie Brooke has two prayers, her dog prayer and her sister prayer. She has always wanted a dog, and she wants her older sister to come home. Her mother and older sister left for California whenJocie was five years old, and Jocie questions her mother's reasons for leaving her and her father. Jocieis bombarded with daily bible verses from her elderly aunt, and her father's friend claims to Jocie that he's from Jupiter, and tells her tales of his adventures on a spaceship.
Scent of Lilacs is an endearing and timeless story of family dynamics where untold secrets are revealed, and generational parallels surface. Ann Gabhart writes with wonderful insight into this rural community in small-town America. Her characters are realistic and represent an abundance of colorful personalities, from an eccentric "biker" who claims to be from Jupiter, to her elderly great aunt whose forgetfulness is cause for concern. I discovered I had read the book previously when it was originally published, but it was well worth a second reading. It's a story that warms the heart and restores faith in humanity.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from BookFun.org and Revell for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own, and no monetary compensation was received for this review. Thank you to Fred St Laurent at TBCN and Revell for making this review program possible. -
This is a story about a small town and some of it's residents. Jocelyn (Jocie) is a young teen who has had some tough times in her short life. Her mother left her and took her sister with her when Jocie was just a small child. Even when her mother was there, she never wanted Jocie.
Jocie's father was different, though. He loved her even before she was born.
I really enjoyed this delightful novel that shows the true meaning of family, whether it be blood or otherwise. Ann (the author) creates some unique characters and covers a little bit of everything in her writing of this book. Jocie will win over your heart, Wes will make you laugh, Aunt Love will draw out your tears and Tabitha's situation will show that there is hope. David shows unconditional love that one would hope they get a chance to embrace with their family.
I wish there were a way to give 1/2 stars as I would give this book 4-1/2 stars. -
3.5 stars for a well written, but slow-paced read. The Scent of Lilacs follows 13-year old Jocie and her preacher father, David through some tumultuous family drama in the year 1964.
The characters spend much of the book quoting scripture, praying, going to church and talking about God. The characters are typical and pleasant, and the story, though foreseeable, contains some thought-provoking and truly heartwarming moments as well as probes social ideals on some darker issues like adultery and babies born to unwed mothers.
For the most part, I enjoyed this story. Gabhart does some amazing character development. But unfortunately, I found myself skipping over extra-long narratives that seemed unnecessary and made an already slow story even slower. -
The "Scent of Lilacs" really surprised me! I did not expect to bond with Joice or any of the other characters for that matter! I thought it would be sort of a light-heart read, but I was so wrong!
The story is deep and left me having to put it down because I was so shocked and hurt when hearing about some of the lives of the characters! They however really did show that God is real and hears our prayers!
I enjoyed diving deeper into the life of a pastor, especially one who had his wife leave him! I was pretty surprised by that and have never read a story like that!
Overall, a wonderful read!
I received this book for free from Bookfun.org in exchange for an honest review! -
Sweet story of a divorced pastor of a church in a small Kentucky town, raising his young daughter, living with his elderly aunt. His other daughter who had been living with his ex-wife in California, returns home pregnant. Reminded me a bit of Jan Karon’s and Philip Gulley’s novels. A feel good book. Christian fiction. Gave it a 4 because there were elements of the story that were left hanging at the end of the book.But I see Ms. Gabhart wrote a sequel, which I definitely will read.
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Absorbing Christian drama with intricate plotting and strong, believable characters. Thought it was an adult romance, but reads more like MG. Serious and mature themes handled with dignity. Full of Biblical references, but sadly violates 1 Tim 3 and Matthew 5. Would have been better without the excessive flashbacks.
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Wonderful book! It will tug at your heart strings though, so have tissues handy. There will be times you'll laugh too. It doesn't leave you hanging, which happens with some series. This book is definitely a keeper!
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I enjoyed this book. As I read this story, the characters thoughts and feelings were alive.
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Great read!
In The Scent of Lilacs, author Ann Gabhart delves into the era of the 1960s and all of its conflicts and family dilemmas. Jocie Brooke is thirteen and trying to figure life out in Hollyhill, the small town in which she has lived her whole life. Being raised by her single father who has been called to preach. After her mother and sister disappear in the idle of the night when she is seven. Jocie spends her time trying to fill the gap that her mother left. Set in Kentucky in the 1960s, Gabhart takes us back to a slower pace of life: kids run on the roads, play in creeks, explore the neighborhood and surrounding land and watch their shadow to know when it is time to go home. Gabhart's laid back style of writing allows the reader to drift away to another time and place when the world was a better place and the love a dog can heal everything. Secrets are revealed and things uncovered in this sweet book. Highly recommend to all who long for a simpler time.
