CFBA Review: A Sky Without Stars by:Linda S. Clare

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing A Sky Without Stars Abingdon Press (February 18, 2014) by Linda S. Clare ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Linda S. Clare is an award-winning author and coauthor of several books and has also published many essays, stories, and poems in publications, including The Christian Reader, The Denver Post, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her most recent book is A Sky without Stars, the newest release in Abingdon’s Quilts of Love line. Born in Arizona, Linda and her husband now make their home in Eugene, Oregon, where Linda has taught college-level creative writing classes, and writes, edits, and mentors other writers. She also is a frequent writing conference presenter, a church retreat leader, and mom to four grown children and five wayward cats.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Frankie Chasing Bear is caught between cultures. She wants to raise her son Harold to revere his Lakota heritage, but she also thinks he will need to learn the white man’s ways to succeed. After the untimely death of her husband, Frankie joins the U.S. Government’s Relocation Program and moves to Arizona. There she begins sewing a Lakota Star pattern quilt for Harold with tribal wisdom sung, sewn, and prayed into it. A bed without a quilt is like a sky without stars, but neither the quilt—nor her new life—comes easily to Frankie. Nick Vandergriff, for instance, is the last man Frankie wants to trust. He’s half-Lakota but Christian, and Frankie can see no good coming from that faith after her own parents were forced to convert at an Indian school. Can Nick convince Frankie that white men and Christians aren’t all bad? And will Frankie learn that love is the most important ingredient—for her son’s quilt and life itself?


If you would like to read the first chapter of A Sky Without Stars, go HERE.

My Review:
 A book based on family but also based on hate. The characters in the book find themselves stuck between two worlds. Two worlds;  one being the white mans world and the other being the world of the Lakota Indian tribe. Frankie's grandmother passed on the art and family tradition of quilting and made her promise should would carry it on and pass it down to the next generation. Frankie meant well when she agreed to the promise but her son is not really all that interested in quilt making and frankly, he doesn't understand why you would need a quilt when they live in Arizona.

 Frankie and Harold are trying to rebuild their lives in an alternate location when she starts quilting to make her feel better. Life in the 1950's shouldn't be this hard for Native Americans, should it? But it is a hard life, they are definitely racial intentions and slurs directed their way but with God's help, they plan to succeed.

**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from CFBA.