Absolutely Charming
The Sowing Season by Katie Powner is a marvellous Christian debut novel about love and life and family.
Katie Powner has created a delightful set of characters, all misfits in their own way, struggling to make sense of life in the season they are in. The main pairing is a fifteen year old girl and a sixty three year old man. On the surface they appear to have nothing in common, underneath they are both struggling to find their way in life and are not so dissimilar. Both are at, or approaching, a crossroads in life.
The two are both guilty of working to the exclusion of all else and they have both been trying to earn the love of their parents. “The years spent trying to make his father proud. Lost in his brother’s shadow.” Even now, years removed from events, they still have the power to haunt and to hurt. In contrast they both have God as the perfect parent but have yet to enter into a relationship with Him. God loves each of us unconditionally for just who we are.
It is no good trying to live out the dreams of others. We were each created with a unique dream and it is this we need to pursue.
Parental pressure is hard. “Proud of her? Only if she kept up with The Plan.” In our wish for our children to succeed, we may inadvertently be putting far too much pressure on them. What is success anyway? I believe it is to be happy, healthy and to know whose you are. The pressure to succeed puts far too much stress on a young life.
We need to own our choices or our choices will own us. “The weight of bad choices in the past.” God does not want us to buckle under our pasts. He wants us to give Him all our guilt and shame and to approach the future with a light heart, fully surrendered to Him.
We are never too old to have a fresh start. There are no retirement plans in the Kingdom. We witness lives in parallel as they try volunteering at the local church after school drop-in. As we make a difference in the lives of others, we find ourselves being altered and our lives become richer.
Withholding forgiveness is never good. We become bitter and that bitterness will consume us and destroy us. We need to throw off the shackles of bitterness and forgive as we have been forgiven.
Pets turn a house into a home. There are some pets within the novel that will make you smile. They are characters in their own right. Look out for a grumpy cockerel called Bernard!
The Sowing Season was a delightful read. It showed us that we will reap what we sow. We need to be sure to sow seeds of love and not seeds of bitterness.
I absolutely loved The Sowing Season. It was totally charming. I cannot wait for Katie Powner to write more.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.
JULIA WILSON
