"Sweetwater Burning"
Delivers Powerful Punch!

 

by: Bobby McDonald

 

 

Are you looking for one of those books that's so full of action, that you can't put it down? Well, look no further than Heather Sharfeddin's Sweetwater Burning, a powerful delivery of dealing with faith, Parkinson's disease, and life altering circumstances, that seem to never end!

Originally published under the title "Blackbelly," the book takes a middle-aged nurse to a remote Idaho ranch, where it's 41 year-old, single, owner, raises Blackbelly Barbados sheep, outside of the small town of Sweetwater. Chas McPhearson not only has a ranch to run, but his father is slowly dying from the last stages of Parkinson's Disease, and he solicits the help of Mattie Holden, to help him care for his father.

Mattie arrives to a ranch house that's been neglected for way too long, with the bachelor rancher, failing to clean, doing his own cooking, and washing, finding an insurmountable mountain of work. Meanwhile, there is the daily ministrations of caring for the ailing father, who doesn't speak and requires long hours of feeding and care, as he blankly stares and "casts a spell" on those around him.

 

 

 

 

When Mattie begins to care for the father, she suddenly is drawn into the daily chores on a "hardscrabble ranch" and finds that Chas is slow to tell her about the "sins of his father" in the small ranching community, as the local preacher. Add to the conflict a Muslim family, who Chas sells his blackbellies to for the Enid celebration and a small town "bent" on traditional Christian values and the celebration of Christmas. Soon, you, like Mattie and Chas, are asked to evaluate your own feelings between being religious and embracing your faith in God. There is truly a difference!

Follow the small ranching town's reaction to an arson investigation, prejudice in their midst, and even murder, as Mattie and Chas explore their own shortcomings and sins, against a dying man's influence.

You're certain to turn page after page, as the story unfolds and Sharfeddin delivers a delightful read that asks you to examine your own motives and faith.

Other books by Sharfeddin, the daughter of an Idaho and Montana cattle rancher, include: Windless Summer and Mineral Spirits.

 

 

______