With Hope

Starred review from August 31, 1998
The bestselling author of Sweetwater and more than 20 other novels tackles Depression-era Oklahoma with wit, freshness and memorable characterization. In 1932, after Henry Ann Henry's father dies, she's left with a farm to run and two disreputable half-siblings to civilize. Soon the young woman's brood grows to include her African American foster mother, a vagrant with a secret past, and the young son of a handsome neighbor whose wife is going mad. There are plenty of troubles to contend with, not the least of which are the wagging tongues of the town gossips. An old-fashioned storyteller, Garlock creates people and places with a tart honesty reminiscent of a more adult version of the "Anne of Green Gables" series. Although the black dialect may grate on modern ears, it still has the ring of authenticity. The book is billed as a historical romance but should have wider appeal. National print advertising. (Sept.) FYI: This is the first of three books by Garlock set in the 1930s; the next, With Song, will be published in spring 1999.

August 1, 1998
Straying from her more typical late-19th-century time period, Garlock skirts the edges of the contemporary subgenre and launches a promising trilogy of novels set during the Great Depression. Seldom used in romance novels, this difficult, dynamic time comes alive in Garlock's hands as she pens a gritty story about a kind, determined young woman struggling both to attend to her farm and step-siblings and to help her neighbors during the Oklahoma dust bowl days. Garlock's realistic but not always likable characters drive the plot of this vividly depicted romance that calmly and powerfully deals with deception, infidelity, child abuse, and insanity and provides a warm and satisfying love story in the process. Garlock (Sweetwater, Warner, 1998) is a popular writer of earthy, unsentimental Americana-type romances and lives in Clear Lake, IA.