Review of As Waters Gone By Cynthia Ruchti

Review of As Waters Gone By Cynthia Ruchti

Cynthia Ruchti has written another moving story. She touched my heart on multiple levels. I could identify with many of the characters and many of the situations. The characters are people you will want to get to know. They are rich in personality and you will enjoy each of them. Emmalyn is hurting as everything in her life has changed when her husband went to prison. She hardly knows who she is anymore. Cora’s husband is deployed and unavailable so she has to hold the family together. Bougie is a friend to all because she, too, has faced hurts. Sweet Hope is a young girl, mature beyond her years, because she had to be. How do they all fit together? How do they all relate? Add Cora’s son, a transient dog, difficult family, and you have real life being lived out.

The story touches reality with so many situations that people are facing today.  In it, you will find a wife dealing with deployment, a troubled marriage, infertility, a move, an older child needing a home, a prison sentence, and surrounding it all, hope! There is pain in all of those situations, yet hope brings about a second chance.  

I felt like this book was written for me. My son and his family have been through 3 deployments. I adopted older children. I have experienced some of the emotions and hurts that the characters faced.  I felt their pain, but I felt their awakening of hope, too. No matter what difficult situation you are facing, you will know that hope gently perseveres to heal and give a second chance. The story shows a persistent hope that changes lives.

This is one of my new favorite books! I fell in love with the characters and felt a true affinity with them. I didn’t want the story to end. But even though the story ended, the sense of peace that hope brought stayed with me. This is a book to read and to share.