Thankful Rest

The homestead called Thankful Rest promises peace, but for Hepzibah Strong, it has always meant relentless labor. When a black-edged letter arrives bearing news of her sister's death, Hepzibah's ordered world fractures. Now she and her brother Joshua must take in two orphaned children, strangers to their quiet household, and learn to be guardians to grief-stricken Tom and Lucy. Annie S. Swan writes with keen psychological precision about what happens when duty collides with the unwelcome tendering of the heart. Hepzibah, who has built her identity around stolid self-reliance, finds her carefully maintained composure cracking as she confronts not just the children's grief but her own long-buried longings. The Strongs and the Hurst children must learn to be a family, and in doing so, discover that Thankful Rest may finally live up to its name.