All of This
A girl running from her past. A quirky Southern town. And a summer that could change everything.
Sadie Franklin is all about independence, but when one of her popular parties gets too crazy, her usually uninvolved dad sends her across the country to spend the summer with relatives.
Living in smalltown Pecan Creek, Georgia, is culture shock for a girl from Seattle, and it doesn't help that Sadie's aunt and uncle are total church people. Sunday school? No, thanks. Add a houseful of little cousins, an accidental friendship with the preacher's daughter of all people, and the attention of a guy who might actually understand her murky past, and it's enough to cue an identity crisis.
When lifealtering news rocks Sadie's world and reveals messy family secrets, she's forced to face the God she's avoided since her mom's death eight years ago. Sadie is surrounded by people who say God loves her and has great plans for her life, but if God is really good, why does He let Sadie's life unravel? Could there really be a purpose in all of this?
Just One Thing
Sadie Franklin wants to move on, but first she must return to everything she wants to forget.
Senior year in Seattle is the perfect chance for a former party girl to start over, right? All she has to do is build a relationship with her detached father, make decent grades, and avoid her ex-friends. Oh, and convince everyone she really has changed. Easy peasy.
The first chance she gets, she wants to hop on the next flight back to Pecan Creek, Georgia. Although the tea there is sweet enough to give her cavities, at least the people love her and believe she has a purpose bigger than her painful past. Sadie meets a new friend looking for her own fresh start, who shows Sadie the value of true friendship and reminds her there’s always more to a person’s story than what’s on display.
But figuring out the next step is messy, and it’s hard to change a reputation. An after-school job, constant arguments with her dad, and an undefined relationship with the wonderfully annoying Georgia guy who won her heart only add to the crazy.
When tragedy collides with Sadie’s carefully re-built life, she learns that trusting in a God she can’t see is more difficult than she ever imagined.
Is starting over worth the cost?
What I Know
A Pecan Creek Short Story
When you wake up in the morning, you have no way of knowing if your life’s gonna change with a goodbye, or a hello…or both.
Before he ever met the girl from Seattle, the boy in the baseball cap had his own life-changing summer. Travel back in time as Truitt Peyton faces the unthinkable and discovers what it means to be courageous when all you have are questions.
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