Title: As the Tide Comes In
Author: Cindy Woodsmall & Erin Woodsmall
Release Date: August 2018
About the Book
After losing two loved ones in a devastating tornado and suffering a head injury, Tara Abbott flees to St. Simons Island, where her disorientation causes the lines between imagination and reality, past and present to blur.
There she encounters island residents Julep Burnside, Luella Ward, Sue Beth Manning, and Dell Calhoun--The Glynn Girls--who have been friends since Bible camp, forty years earlier. When Julep's son Gavin identifies a troubled soul in need of help, can the Glynn Girls guide Tara back to herself?
In As the Tide Comes In, Cindy
Woodsmall’s newest novel she co-authors with Erin Woodsmall, we meet Tara
Abbott. Tara’s life has been full of heartache and loss growing up in the
foster system in North Carolina. When she has a bright future ahead of her, the
18-year-old makes a life changing decision that changes the course of her
future.
Flash forward, 12 years and
tragedy strikes again, this time taking away the two people that means the most
to her in all the world. Recovering from a brain injury, Tara decides to take
the trip that her family had planned. The trip lands her on St. Simons Island
in Georgia and things just get more interesting from there.
In this novel, the reader is
taken on Tara’s journey of loss and grief and sees firsthand the effects that
it has on her. I loved the concept of being love’s vessel and spreading God’s
love on earth. Tara was a picture-perfect example of being a love vessel and it
was great to see how her journey brought her full circle in the end.
There is several
characters in the book and their stories intertwine with Tara’s, but in the end
the message was beautiful and it defiantly gives the reader something to strive
towards – spreading God’s love to others.
About the Author
Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times and CBA best-selling author who has written nineteen (and counting!) works of fiction and one of nonfiction. She and her dearest Old Order Amish friend, Miriam Flaud, coauthored the nonfiction, Plain Wisdom: An Invitation into an Amish Home and the Hearts of Two Women. Cindy's been featured on ABC Nightline and the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and has worked with National Geographic on a documentary concerning Amish life. In June of 2013, the Wall Street Journal listed Cindy as one of the top three Amish fiction writers.
She is also a veteran homeschool mom who no longer holds that position. As her children progressed in age, her desire to write grew stronger. After working through reservations whether this desire was something she should pursue, she began her writing journey. Her husband was her staunchest supporter as she aimed for what seemed impossible.
She’s won Fiction Book of the Year, Reviewer’s Choice Awards, Inspirational Reader’s Choice Contest, as well as one of Crossings' Best Books of the Year. She’s been a finalist for the prestigious Christy, Rita, and Carol Awards, Christian Book of the Year, and Christian Retailers Choice Awards.
Her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families enrich her novels with authenticity. Though she didn’t realize it at the time, seeds were sown years ago that began preparing Cindy to write these books. At the age of ten, while living in the dairy country of Maryland, she became best friends with Luann, a Plain Mennonite girl. Luann, like all the females in her family, wore the prayer Kapp and cape dresses. Her parents didn’t allow television or radios, and many other modern conveniences were frowned upon. During the numerous times Luann came to Cindy’s house to spend the night, her rules came with her and the two were careful to obey them—afraid that if they didn’t, the adults would end their friendship. Although the rules were much easier to keep when they spent the night at Luann’s because her family didn’t own any of the forbidden items, both sets of parents were uncomfortable with the relationship and a small infraction of any kind would have been enough reason for the parents to end the relationship. While navigating around the adults’ disapproval and the obstacles in each other’s lifestyle, the two girls bonded in true friendship that lasted into their teen years, until Cindy’s family moved to another region of the US.
As an adult, Cindy became friends with a wonderful Old Order Amish family who opened their home to her. Although the two women, Miriam and Cindy, live seven hundred miles apart geographically, and a century apart by customs, when they come together they never lack for commonality, laughter, and dreams of what only God can accomplish through His children. Over the years Cindy has continued to make wonderful friendships with those inside the Amish and Mennonite communities—from the most conservative ones to the most liberal.
Cindy and her husband reside near the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains in their now empty nest.
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