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    The Forgiving Kind
    The Forgiving Kind
    The Forgiving Kind
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Forgiving Kind

    Written by Donna Everhart

    Narrated by Tiffany Morgan

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    For twelve-year-old Martha "Sonny" Creech, there is no place more beautiful than her family's cotton farm. She, her two brothers, and her parents work hard on their land-hoeing, planting, picking-but only Sonny loves the rich, dark earth the way her father does. When a tragic accident claims his life, her stricken family struggles to fend off ruin-until their rich, reclusive neighbor offers to help finance that year's cotton crop.

    Sonny is dismayed when her mama accepts Frank Fowler's offer; even more so when Sonny's best friend, Daniel, points out that the man has ulterior motives. Sonny has a talent for divining water-an ability she shared with her father and earns her the hated nickname "water witch" in school. But uncanny as that skill may be, it won't be enough to offset Mr. Fowler's disturbing influence in her world. Even her bond with Daniel begins to collapse under the weight of Mr. Fowler's bigoted taunts. Though she tries to bury her misgivings for the sake of her mama's happiness, Sonny doesn't need a willow branch to divine that a reckoning is coming, bringing with it heartache, violence-and perhaps, a fitting and surprising measure of justice.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 29, 2019
    ISBN9781977332080
    Author

    Donna Everhart

    Donna Everhart is the USA Today bestselling author of Southern fiction with authenticity and grit, including the Indie Next List selection The Education of Dixie Dupree, The Forgiving Kind, The Moonshiner's Daughter, and the Southeastern Library Association Award-winning novel The Road to Bittersweet. Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, she now lives just an hour away along with her husband. Please visit her online at DonnaEverhart.com.  

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    Reviews for The Forgiving Kind

    4.5/5

    40 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Well written. Loved following Sonny through her walk into becoming a young adult. There were some hard things to read but things were difficult during those times. Kept me turning the pages.
    • 5/5
      As a farmer's daughter growing up in the 1950's, I really enjoyed reading The Forgiving Kind by Donna Everhart. The story centers around a twelve year old girl and the pitfalls that happen to her and her family. Losing her father , Martha "Sonny" Creech, her mother, and two older brothers try to work the cotton farm as their father would have if he were here. A neighbor, Frank Fowler, comes over, helps the family financially, and takes over their lives. What happens next has me engrossed with so many emotions while reading, i.e, love, hate, grief, loss, forgiveness. I loved the authors descriptions of farm life and how hard farming can be, so rewarding when good crops come in and despair when a farmer has a bad crop. I'm now a fan of Donna Everhart and look forward to reading more of her books!
    • 5/5
      Perfectly encapsulates the time. Beautifully written. Will read more by this author
    • 5/5
      Do you ever wonder how an author comes up a story that will invoke every emotion there is possible within the reader? A story that is warm and beautiful, dark and terrifying, a story full of goodness and evil, love and hate? A story that is breath-taking? Donna Everhart did it with her newest book THE FORGIVING KIND. I read the last page, closed the book, took a deep breath and thought “How did she do it?”THE FORGIVING KIND took me back to my childhood days. A time that was carefree. Growing up in a rural area I am very familiar with the sights and smells and tastes Donna describes in this beautiful book. Even the characters’ dialogue brought back childhood memories. “No honey, I ain’t seen hide nor hair of it.” I was awed with the imagery she paints with her words – “freshly plowed soil looks like that rich chocolate powder Mama uses for baking.”In 1955, the Creeches were a fairly typical farming family in rural North Carolina. Their main source of income was their cotton crop. Twelve-year-old Sonny and her brother Ross loved working in the cotton fields. Their brother Trent wasn’t quite as enamored with farming. Then one day their idyllic life comes to an end.When Sonny’s father dies the family fights to save their farm. No longer able to get a line of credit they are unable to buy the seedlings needed to plant their next crop. Their seemingly magnanimous neighbor Mr. Fowler steps in to assist. But Sonny, Ross, and Trent soon learn that Fowler presents one face to their mother and a vastly different one to them. In her author’s note, Everhart writes “for all of the idyllic living, the Southern hospitality, the genteel way of life, intolerance and narrow-mindedness can still be found”. This is heartbreakingly evidenced in the character Daniel, Sonny’s closest friend.This is a story sure to remain in your heart and mind long after the last page has been read and the book placed aside. The characters have become a part of you, embraced and taken lovingly into your forgiving heart.
    • 5/5
      I loved everything about Donna Everhart’s novel, “The Forgiving Kind”. “The Forgiving Kind” has all the ingredients of an amazing,intriguing,intense, captivating, riveting, enthralling and thought-provoking Novel. The Genres for this book are Fiction, Suspense, Mystery and History. The timeline for this book is set in the 1950’s in North Carolina. The “Forgiving Kind” has a flavor of “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.This is a coming of age story. It is a story of good and evil. It is a story of prejudice, bigotry, hatred and bias that existed in the 1950’s. It is a story of good people who farm the land, cotton and soil. It also is a story of survival, family, love and hope. The author describes her colorful cast of characters as complex, complicated, ignorant, good and evil, and dysfunctional.Twelve year old Martha “Sonny” Creech loves working with the soil, and has inherited the skill of finding water from her deceased father. The other children make fun “Sonny” and call her a “water witch”. Sonny finds comfort with her friend Daniel, who has his own quirky personality and problems. Mrs. Creech and her two sons and Sonny are left in a financial dilemma when her husband dies. Mrs. Creech is forced to accept an offer of help from Frank Fowler a neighbor that has motives of his own. In order to survive, the Creech family has to grow cotton, pick it and sell it. Rumors are circulating that there will be a drought. How will the Creech family survive?Sonny finds that there are some secrets in her family. Donna Everhart vividly describes the land, the soil, and the process of planting. There are twists and turns. It is a long hot summer and it is dangerous. If only certain people would get their just desserts.I appreciate that the author discusses important issues as homosexuality, race, color, laws, bigotry and prejudice, ignorance, justice and hope. I highly recommend this important novel to those readers who enjoy a thought -provoking story.
    • 5/5
      If I could give this book 10 stars, I would. Donna Everhart has once again given us a young main character who in many ways is wise beyond her years as she tells us the story of her early years. The setting is rural NC in the 50s. The descriptions are so well done that you can feel the heat when the family is planting cotton and chopping weeds and you can feel the joy of the rain after a drought. The characters are so well done that you can feel their tiredness after a long day in the fields. you can feel their pain when their father dies and their fear of the person that they hated. You will know them so well that you'll laugh with them and definitely cry with them as you cheer them on throughout the novel. In other words, this is a must read and I highly recommend it.Twelve year old Sonny lives on a cotton farm with her parents and two brothers. Like her father, she feels a real connection to the land and loves her life there. When an accident causes the death of her beloved father, the family is unsure whether they will be able to continue farming until a neighbor offers to help them and then share the profits at the end of the season. When it turns out that the neighbor is interested not only in the land but in her mother, Sonny and her brother know that life is abut to get more difficult but they have no idea how terrible their lives will be.This book is not only beautifully written but is also very well researched. The author has everything well suited to the time period of the 50s and is very knowledgeable about cotton farming. Most importantly is that this is a book you don't want to miss. It's going to be one of my top books of the year.Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.