A man with a painful past. A child with a doubtful future. And a shared journey toward healing for both their hearts.

It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven-year-old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. But the little girl’s pretty yellow dress can’t quite hide the ugly scar on her chest.

Her latest customer, a bearded stranger, drains his cup and heads to his car, his mind on a boat he’s restoring at a nearby lake. The stranger understands more about the scar than he wants to admit. And the beat-up bread truck careening around the corner with its radio blaring is about to change the trajectory of both their lives.

Before it’s over, they’ll both know there are painful reasons why crickets cry . . . and that miracles lurk around unexpected corners.

Rating: 2.5 stars

I’m usually a big fan of Charles Martin book, but this one didn’t do it for me. I’m glad it wasn’t my first exposure to his writing, but I don’t know that I would have read another of his books after this one. (If you’re reading this and didn’t care for the book but haven’t read any of Martin’s other books, don’t give up on him yet!)

I’m not a huge fan of dual timeline novels in general (which is a style Martin often employs), but his storytelling is usually so good that I don’t mind. This time, however, it was just confusing–it bounced between childhood, newly wed, and later-in-life timelines, and it often took a paragraph or two to figure out when that scene was taking place.

I probably could have overlooked the timelines if there hadn’t been sooooooooo much irrelevant information. If you’re interested in the exact workings of the human heart and open heart surgery, this is a great book to read. If, however, you’re more interested in the characters and their story lines, you might want to skip it. Not only does the story stop to explain in detail how a surgical procedure is performed, the procedure is often interrupted to explain the different types of anatomy involved. I didn’t count the pages, but I’d say at least 30% of the book is an anatomy lesson. I skimmed a LOT.

This book reminded me a lot of Cutting for Stone–pages of information that might be interesting but aren’t necessary to tell a good story.

Rated PG for content (DETAILED descriptions of surgical procedures–I don’t recommend it if you’re squeamish). Get your copy here.

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