Rainwater by Sandra Brown (2009, Hardcover)

This book is a little different from most of Sandra Brown’s novels. The idea for the book came from a true story told to Ms. Brown by her father. It is a sweet but sad story set in the Texas during the dust bowl in the 1930’s.

David Rainwater is the new arrival at Ella Barron’s boarding house. He will change her life forever. Mr. Rainwater is terminally ill and needs a place to stay close to his doctor until his illness progresses. He only has weeks to live and wants to make the best of them. Ella is a single mother of a special needs child who runs the boarding house with the hired help of a black woman named Margaret. She works very hard to run a respectable boarding house and care for her unusual child. She risks it all when they become involved in a very unpopular cause. There is a government program that buys starving cattle from ranchers who cannot afford to feed them. The cattle are then shot to death and buried. The local law enforcement will not allow starving people from town to butcher and eat them. Mr. Rainwater organizes a group of men to stand up to law enforcement so the poor can have meat. It becomes a gruesome battle! People are killed and homes are burned to the ground.

I love the old fashioned, down home flavor of the story. Eating berry cobbler with cream, putting a block of ice in the ice box, washing clothes in a hand cranked wringer washer, snapping string beans for supper, going out for ice cream at the local drug store - all reminiscent of a slower, simpler time period and contrasting to the violent events occurring at the same time. People were starving and prejudice was thriving against the lower classes and races. Law inforcement was dishonest and untrustworthy. The good people had to band together to protect themselves.

This is a good, quick story to read with lots of contrasts. There are surprises, some unexpected romance, lots of action and violence, and also sweetness and continuity.

Excellent story taking place in the mid 1930's and the tough times for a single mother raising a special needs child. Touching as only Sandra Brown could write the story.

This is the most wonderful little book.Sandra Brown at her best.
I buy every novel that sandra puts out so that is why I bought the book.
It is not really her typical fashion but she is such a master that anything she writes just immediately captures you.
This one is such a sweet warm and enduring love story,it does not have a lot of graphic sex or language just what true and long lasting love is all about.I found mtself thinking of the characters long after I had finished the book.

- - NOTE THIS IS NOT THE SANDRA BROWN RAINWATER BOOK - -

This review is for the:
"Paper Transformed A Handbook of Surface Design and Creative Paper Projects"

This book is really a great source of information for different and unique ways to manipulate paper. It is such a stretch from the simple ways to utilize paper and make it into a true work of art! I truly like reading this book over and over, I always find something I missed the last time I read it.
Beth Anne R.

So different, but SO GOOD!!! I'm a die hard Sandra Brown fan and I read all of her books... Wish it was a little longer, but the story worked well being a quick read. LOVE IT!!