Poppy Hives

Somewhere along the continuum of Flannery O'Connor, Erskine Caldwell, and Dave Barry (what, there is such a continuum?) comes Chris Blaine. In this honey of a Southern novel, Blaine takes you into the lives of some simple country folks. These characters are the salt of the earth. They know innocence and a number of the seven deadly sins. There is grace and honesty in this story of courtship and preaching, grief and loss. There is humor in the dialogue and humor in the plot twists. And in the end, there is the triumph of country wisdom and pure, earnest love.