Grace at Low Tide

June 6, 2005
Critics of evangelical novels often talk about the dearth of literary fiction in the Christian market, but this debut from South Carolina native Hart comes close to that coveted adjective. DeVeaux DeLoach's Daddy has gone belly-up after one too many bad business deals, so the DeLoaches must quit their fancy Charleston digs for a small country cottage. DeVeaux has to pull out of her posh prep school and take a weekend job. Daddy grows progressively meaner throughout the book, screaming at the family, ordering DeVeaux's mother to get a job and cruelly mocking her plump physique. For her part, Mama is mainly worried that DeVeaux, now old enough to turn men's heads, remain chaste. DeVeaux is kept afloat by her Christian faith, a cousin and the youth group leader at her church. DeVeaux's charming narration is the book's greatest strength—readers will love DeVeaux like a sister by the end—and its greatest weakness, for she's still an adolescent but sounds implausibly wise for her age. Still, this is a promising novel by a lovely, gifted writer.

Kate Forbes narrates with just enough of a Charleston accent that the listener can easily step right into the story and experience the life and emotions of the characters. Telling her own story in the first person, wealthy teen DeVeaux DeLoache recounts being thrust into a life of poverty through her father's misfortune. As she experiences the vicissitudes of her new situation and her father becomes angry and difficult to live with, DeVeaux becomes stronger in her Christian faith, learning to apply what she learns from scripture to her own circumstances. This is an appealing story of faith and inspiration in the midst of hardship. N.L. 2007 Audies Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine