LEAVING NOVEMBER by Deborah Raney

This was a story I won't soon forget. Even while I was reading it and had to put it down and return to it later, my mind would be thinking of the characters and what they were going through. Although there were some difficult issues to deal with in this story, I am just so thankful for the way Deborah Raney dealt with them.

Vienne Kenney finds herself back in Clayburn, Kansas, after having "gotten out of town" to pursue a degree in law. Her Mom's health is bad and Vienne finds herself running the town cafe, which she turns into a cooffe house. Vienne has dealt with an alcoholic father all her life until he died, so she wants nothing to do with anyone who struggles in that area. Jackson Linder also left Clayburn and is back, but for totally different reasons. He left to check himself in to a rehab. place and get his life straightened out. When Vienne starts to have feelings for Jack, they take a nose-dive when she finds out his past.

This story is about forgiveness and letting go of the past and reaching towards the future. As Jack said in the book, "I know this isn't a batle that's easily won.. . . In all the victory stories I know, there's a common denominator. It's always God who makes the difference." It was so refreshing to know that when people read this book who might struggle with addiction of any kind, that there is hope, but it is God who will makes the real difference in their lives! And for Vienne's struggles with forgiving her Dad, she needed to let go of her bitterness and stop "projecting what she felt for her father onto God. Onto Jack. Even her mother. . . She'd found reasons to be bitter toward almost everyone she knew.

I can't say enough praises for the way this author wrote this story. I felt a part of the Clayburn town and felt as if I knew these people well. These people had some tough obstacles to overcome and I felt their pain and rejoiced with their victories! I could have kept on reading many more pages if the story would have continued on! Great job Deborah Raney!