BOOK REVIEW: Prayers For Sale

Reviewers have called Sandra Dallas “ the quintessential American voice”. I tend to agree. I just finished her most recent offering, PRAYERS FOR SALE and could not wait to share it with friends.

Seventeen-year-old Nit Spindle sees the sign advertising “PRAYERS FOR SALE” on Hattie Comfort’s fence. Actually, Hattie has never sold a prayer, but she invites the skinny girl in and a friendship develops that helps both women in the small town of Middle Swan, Colorado. The year is 1936 and life in a worn out mining town is tough. The shared hardships help to form a bond and soon dark secrets are shared.

Both women love to quilt and it provides time for talking. Hattie tells stories from her own life and of the people who have lived in Middle Swan over her years there. She knows that this is the way to make Nit adjust to the hard life.

Through these stories we get to know Hattie as a young bride and mother in Tennessee during the Civil War and how she lost her husband and daughter. We get to know the husband that she traveled to meet for the first time in Colorado. Each person, in her past and present, comes to life to us as we quilt with her and her friends.

We know that one thing has been bothering Hattie for all of her years in Middle Swan and it has to be resolved before she leaves town. Hattie's daughter does not want her to spend another winter in the high country, but to come to the city and live with her. Time is running out for Hattie. By the end of the book, the reader has gotten to know Hattie well enough to not be surprise that she has done the best that she could for everyone, including herself.

Sandra Dallas creates unforgettable characters in normal settings. These are people that you know, or wish you knew. Her stories have surprising twists and turns, but you always care what happens to these new friends.

If you have a chance, try ALICE’S TULIPS and THE CHILI QUEEN. These two books are connected to PRAYERS FOR SALE by telling the stories, respectively, of a sister back East during the Civil War and her brother who escapes to the West and gets involved with a house of prostitution.

                                 

Quilters will especially enjoy Ms Dallas’s books because quilting seems to be a favorite theme. This is one author who should be a leader in “ Women’s Fiction”.