A Thousand Tomorrows

March 7, 2005
Kingsbury, a CBA bestselling author, delivers her signature mix of melodrama, formula and genuine emotional punch in this novel about two young rodeo stars and their experiences with Down syndrome and cystic fibrosis. The young leads inhabit Christian romance fiction clichés: Cody Gunner is the ruggedly handsome outdoorsman with a painful past (his backstory, as it happens, is identical to that of the male lead in Susan May Warren's Happily Ever After
) and Ali Daniels is the daintily beautiful yet doggedly determined young cowgirl who wins his heart. Both characters are driven to succeed by a need to overcome hidden pain. Cody has suffered from besetting anger at both of his parents since the day his father left the family because he was unable to handle Cody's brother's Down syndrome. Ali, on the other hand, secretly has cystic fibrosis, and she rides in horse races despite the dust, hay and allergens associated with her sport, which will shorten her already brief life expectancy. When these two predictably fall in love, they provide each other with some measure of healing before the novel reaches its telegraphed conclusion. Despite the plot's limitations, Kingsbury fans will undoubtedly be pleased by more of the inspirational fiction for which this author has become beloved.