Book Review: Hold Up the Sky

I love stories about strong women.  Even more so, I enjoy stories that show the journeys of these women from heartache and pain to joy and victory.  I often find myself relating to these stories and saying “you go girl!”

Hold Up the Sky by Patricia Sprinkle is just such a book.

Four women each end up at a nearby farm house on their journey.  Each woman has her own secrets and pain she is dealing with.

Billie and Margaret are sisters, which are living worlds apart.   Billie’s husband left her to care for her daughter, whom has cerebral palsy.  However, Hold up the Skyhe continues to provide for his family until he suddenly disappears one day. Billie is left struggling to provide for herself and her daughter, while at the same time searching for her missing husband.  In the meantime she has to discover a way to provide for her family and overcome bad decisions and judgements she has made.  Throughout her journey she begins to find her inner strength and voice.

Margaret seems to have it all, with her country clubs and volunteering.  She is the perfect wife and mother to two sons, until her husband announces one evening he is leaving her.  Margaret has to learn to deal with her shattered world and slowly find a way to piece it back together and find a new normal and way of life.

Mamie, the elderly woman that looked after Billie and Margaret as children, is now dealing with her own health problems.  However, she refuses to stop working at the farmhouse, which is owned by the Billie and Margaret’s father.

Emerita is a Mexican immigrant Billie helps out two thirds of the way through the story.  She had to leave her homeland and family in the hopes of a better life.  However, she is hiding her own secrets and pain along the way.

Each woman has to come to a place of brutal honesty with herself and the other women, in order to deal with the past and move forward with the future. The characters are very relatable and well written.  I felt as if I knew these women and they were my friends.

Patricia Sprinkle is a master storyteller weaving these four stories together and sharing the emotional highs and lows in the lives of each woman.   This story has a little bit of everything, from the mystery of a missing husband, to romance with a high school crush, to making erroneous judgements in people, to even a bit of humor.

The lives of all four women become intertwined, as they overcome their obstacles and lean on their faith to get them through these difficult times.

This is my first Patricia Sprinkle book, but I will definitely be reading more of her novels.  If you enjoy a story of faith, heartache and redemption, you’ll love this story.

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