Clothed in Thunder: In the Shadow of the Cedar, Book Two

Sheila
Hollinghead
ISBN Number: 
10-1480108057
Genre: 
Young Adult

Sarah Jane Hunter, Jay to her friends, and her brother Zeke are moving to Cedar Springs,  Alabama to live with their aunt and uncle.  After their father died, their mother couldn’t keep up their farm, and has broken down under the pressure.  To Jay, her life is one of loss - her father, her mother, her home, her animals, and her boyfriend, Michael Hutchinson.  Even going to a new school and making new friends can't compensate for the losses, until Daniel Drake comes along.  Once an old school friend, he is now in the Army, and has cleaned up his life in more ways than one, and Jay finds herself caught between two romances.  Michael comes by to visit, and she can't help but compare the two men.  But an ugly reality intrudes.  Jay finds out that Daniel, Michael, and others are close to discovering her struggle with alcohol.  This fight tears Jay's life apart, as she finds more secrets and skeletons in closets than she dreamed existed. 
Sheila Hollinghead writes a great story of a young girl trying to make her way in the world, while working to figure out what's really important in relationships and family.  Tackling common but very serious issues that affect so many young people, the author succeeds in creating characters who are both human, yet engaging, and the multiple threads in the story hold a reader's interest as each page bringing a new twist and turn.  Jay's efforts to live her life bring the story to a surprise ending, with the reader cheering for the happy-ever-after!

Victoria Z. Burg