“Song of Sourwood Mountain” by Ann H. Gabhart

Ann Gabhart’s latest novel, Song of Sourwood Mountain (Revell Press 2024), explores the meaning of family and community. With its focus on a slow-developing romance, and overt evangelical religious values, the novel reads like a historical Christian romance in the tradition of Grace Livingston Hill.

The Song of Sourwood Mountain tells the story of Mira Dean, a single woman living in the city of Louisville Kentucky in the early 20^th century. At twenty-five, she finds herself with neither parents nor children of her own. As a teacher she enjoys her work, but she grieves for the imagined life she lost when her fiance died; she grieves particularly for the loss of motherhood. She sees herself as a spinster teacher and is in the process of reconciling herself to her lot in life when a former school chum shows up in town.

Gordon Covington is a circuit-riding traveling minister visiting Louisville and spots his former classmate, Mira, in the congregation where he is speaking about his mission work.  He has come to the city to raise awareness about the people of Sourwood in the Eastern Kentucky mountains. Upon learning of her circumstances, Gordon makes Mira an impulsive, yet practical offer of marriage. The children of Sourwood need a teacher and he needs a wife. To drive the point home, he reasons that she would be most accepted in the community if they were married.

Besides the sweet, “clean” romance, which is the sole subject of the first third of the novel, the remainder of the story shows the marriage and romance deepening in the context of Eastern Kentucky mountain culture. The author uses her experience as a Kentucky native to enliven the story with unique cultural traditions.

For instance,  Mira and Gordon are serenaded when they arrive for their wedding night in their cabin in Sourwood. Gabhart uses this “serenade”—which, to be clear, has nothing to do with singing in case you were imagining overalled crooners outside the couple’s bedroom window—to introduce key neighbors and add a bit of local color. One of the things any writer of Appalachia much sturggle with is including cultural customs without it feeling stereotypical or gratuitous, but Gabhart deftly weaves cultural details into the fabric of the plot. Not only does this serenading scene interupt the awkward wedding night conversation of Mira and Gordon just as they are beginning to feel close to one another, increasing the romantic tension, but it is here that Mira learns the history of the little girl, Ada June, who needs a mother as much as Gordon needed a wife. And so the second half of the novel unfolds with Mira finding herself and her place in Sourwood.

Readers of genre romance, particularly sweet Christan romance, or Amish romance, will enjoy this novel.  Additionally, readers from the Appalachian region may find this book engaging for its nostaglic, yet respectful look at our culture.

Ann Gabhart

Ann H. Gabhart is a native Kentuckian and the author of over thirty novels. You can order her books and read more about her at https://www.annhgabhart.com.