REVIEW: I’m in awe! I just finished a beautiful book by Joanne Bischof called The Gold in These Hills. It is classified as Contemporary Christian Fiction. Please don’t let that scare you away. It is not in your face Christian. Joanne Bischof is a new author for me and as soon as I finished this book, I was looking to see what else she has written that I could read. She did a phenomenal job with this book. 

There were two timelines in this story that took place on the same piece of property. How awesome is that? The first timeline took place a hundred years ago when property was part of a ghost town. The modern timeline includes the house that was built for the town founder that still stands and was recently used as a museum. My only problem with the book was that I loved both timelines and since the each chapter went forward and backward, I found myself not wanting to leave the time period I was reading. I wanted more of each one!  

Bischof’s writing had a nice and easy flow. It was a piece of art. The characters were well developed and not one dimensional. I fell in love more than once with a character or two or four in this book. 

The Christian parts of the book only made you think of blessings and hardships and how all our lives go through them. It made you think a little bit.

I would highly recommend this book to my best friend. It was entertaining and thought provoking. If your looking for a read that will give you all the feels, this book is it. I’m looking forward to reading more from Bischof.

I received a copy of this book from #Netgalley/#FirstEditions/#ThomasNelson for a fair and honest review. Thank you! 

SYNOPSIS: One wild and mysterious ghost town. Two second-chance love stories. And the century-old legacy that binds them together. 

Upon arriving in Kenworthy, California, mail-order bride Juniper Cohen is met by the pounding of the gold mine, an untamable landscape, and her greatest surprise of all: the kind and loving man who awaits her. But when the mine proves empty of profit, and when Juniper’s husband, John, vanishes, Juniper is left to fend for herself and her young daughter in the dwindling boomtown that is now her home.

Juniper pens letters to her husband but fears she is waiting on a ghost. Perhaps worse, rumors abound claiming the man she loves could be an outlaw. Surviving in a ghost town requires trusting the kindness of a few remaining souls, including the one who can unlock the mystery of her husband’s disappearance—and Juniper’s survival depends not only upon these friends but also the strength of heart she must fight to maintain.

Present day. Trying to escape the heartache of his failed marriage, Johnny Sutherland throws himself into raising his children and restoring a hundred-year-old abandoned farmhouse in what was once known as Kenworthy, California, in the San Jacinto Mountains. While exploring its secrets he uncovers Juniper’s letters and is moved by the handwritten accounts that bear his name—and as a love story from the past touches his own world, Johnny might discover yet that hope and resilience go hand in hand.

With The Gold in These Hills, acclaimed and beloved author Joanne Bischof returns with an absorbing masterpiece of faith, perseverance, and love that changes the course of history.