Lisa Kay Hauser

Turn Back Time is the kind of book that makes time stand still while you're reading it. You've hardly begun reading until you're hooked. The writers have the ability to catch you up in the story of Kentucky coal miner Smith Delaney and young widow Hattie Crowe. You will be captivated by the true-to-life details about Hattie and her babies, her brothers and sisters, her blunt and bossy ex-mother-in-law, and her growing affection for the stranger she lets move into her smokehouse to help out around the home place. In the hands of less-talented authors, this plot could have turned into a problem-of-the-week kind of formulaic saga. Hauser and Smith (a daughter-and-father writing team) manage to avoid those pitfalls and paint such a vivid picture of life in 1930s Muhlenberg County, Kentucky that you find yourself caring deeply about what happens in these people's lives. These people are guided by a strong faith in God and that is reflected in how they meet the obstacles they must overcome. The authors hit just the right note in showing how these Christians respond to problems but don't go too far toward preachiness. This is definitely one of the better books I have read in a long while.… (more)