Jolie Bowers sat up in bed. For a moment she forgot where she was. She couldn't see the covers or her hands. The bedroom had a musty, sulfuric aroma. A flash of lightning bounced off the window pane and streaked through the thin cotton curtain, brightening Essie's round face and wide eyes. "What do you mean, you felt something?"
Courage & Compromise by award-winning author Stephen Bly – Book #2 Homestead young adult fiction series.
In this young adult fiction series, without warning, the Scottsbluff, Nebraska sod roof of the Bowers family house caves in on them. During a torrential September rain. Father Matthew Bowers is away in Lincoln, so mother Lissa and her 17-year-old daughter Jolie shepherd the children into the barn for the night.
Clear skies greet Jolie as she awakens the next morning, but the storms are far from over for the Bowers family. Mr. Bowers gets arrested in Lincoln for starting a riot. There is trouble between farms and the railroad over shipping rates. Both sides hire gunmen. And as Jolie and Tanner Wells contemplate marriage, the sudden appearance of a handsome widower tests Jolie’s feelings for Tanner.
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Excerpt:
“Jolie, did you feel something? Something dropped on me, right on my arm,” Essie called out.
Jolie Bowers sat up in bed. For a moment she forgot where she was. She couldn’t see the covers or her hands. The bedroom had a musty, sulfuric aroma. A flash of lightning bounced off the window pane and streaked through the thin cotton curtain, brightening Essie’s round face and wide eyes. “What do you mean, you felt something?”
“Like the ceiling leaking.” The roar of wind and thunder mixed with driving rain muted Essie’s words. “Look. It’s right there on my arm.”
…”We have rubber tarps on the sod roof, Essie. Not much can get past them. Let’s snuggle up and sleep through the storm. We’re safe in here.”
“My side of the bed is wet,” Essie whined.
… Jolie propped herself up on one elbow and peeked out the window at the next flash of lightning. Was that one of our rubber tarps blowing into the cornfield?
— from Courage & Compromise, Homestead Series by Stephen Bly
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Playlist: a new site for Christian young adult fiction releases: http://playlistfiction.com/books/all-books/
If you like The Homestead series, you’ll also enjoy The Skinners of Goldfield, another family life historical fiction series:
https://www.blybooks.com/product_category/historical-western-novels/page/2/
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Courage & Compromise in Paperback $9.95
Hardback/large print (limited qty) $19.99
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