Review Title: Swing, Read, Swing
Reviewed Book: A Southern Season: Four Stories From A Front Porch Swing
Authors:
Eva Marie Everson
Claire Fullerton
Ana Mulligan
Linda Yezak

***** 5 Stars

For those who enjoy reading stories set in the South by authors from the South, this book will be a delight. Each author’s story is a stand alone with a unique voice which contains understanding of Southern expressions, down home culinary distinctions, the small town community spirit, and the loyalty of family and friends bonded through generations by the Christian faith.

Three of the stories are about people dealing with the death of loved ones and how their lives have been affected by the occasion and what their life will be going forward. The stories are realistic and down to earth. They are portrayed from differing social spheres which gives added interest to the collection as a whole. Despite the shorter length of the stories compared to the authors’ longer works of fiction, the characters are fully developed into people the reader might encounter in real life.
The stories impart truth, and although entertaining, they will also challenge the reader to think about priorities in life, the importance of relationships, the universality of death and its varying ways of affecting people, and the centrality of a loving God guiding the affairs, times, and events in lives.

One story, not about the death of a loved one, explores the death of a career path dream. It’s about letting go to find God’s best when a woman has confused what God’s will was with her own ambitions.

The title of this book suggests it for summer reading. The stories are good for any season. The audience it will appeal most to consists of women in their thirties or older who have experienced a number of ups and downs in life.  Younger women will enjoy reading the stories which include women their age with typical struggles in finding their place and purpose in life. Romance brightens the lives in this book, too, which is an evergreen element appreciated by all ages of women.

This review intentionally contains few specifics about the stories because that information is readily available elsewhere. The reader will find this book quite worthy of a read and also worthy as a nice gift for family or friends. If you have a front porch swing on which to sit and read this book you’ll have the feeling of enjoying a dish of peach cobbler topped with homemade ice cream. Enjoy a Southern treat!