Gone South - A Review

Tish McComb learns that the Civil War era ancesteral family home in Alabama is up for sale and jumps at the chance to leave frosty Michigan and start over in the deep South. Yet once she's there, she finds that old sentiments are hard to overcome because of her name. To make matters worse for herself, she takes in the local prodigal Mel. Mel's got quite a few issues and as Tish shows her love and compassion, changes start to happen. Yet with everything going against her, will Tish be able to call the small Alabama town home or will she wish she's back in Michigan?
The cover of this book is what captured my attention when I first saw it on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and some emails. In fact, the cover of this book alone has intrigued a co-worker of mine enough that she asked to borrow it from me! I'd never read anything by Meg Moseley before. And while I read a lot, most of what I read is historical romantic fiction, so I thought "Sure, I'll give a contemporary fiction novel a chance."

Overall, the story itself was good. There were some humorous moments mostly pertaining to the dog that kept escaping. I saw several parallels to some of the parables that Jesus told. The one that I thought was the most noticable was that of the Good Samaratian. Tish is the outsider who shows kindness and compassion to Mel, the native, that the residents of the town refused to help because she was the "bad girl."

I didn't find that I connected to the characters like I'd hoped. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book and it was a pleasant read, but I didn't have the heart connection that I get with some characters. While this story may not be a favorite of mine, I did pick up on the truths that the author tried to get across. From reading several of the reviews, I'm seeing that others did connect with the book, so please don't just take my opinion on the book!
I received this book for free from Waterbrook/Multnomah's Blogging for Books program for the purpose of reviewing. My thoughts and opinions are my own.


Recommended to fans of contemporary fiction, Marybeth Whalen
Rating - 3.5 stars - which on Amazon will be a 3 star rating.

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