Deborah Raney - Beneath a Southern Sky  

Forget the movie of the week. Beneath a Southern Sky reads like a dramatic film, but has substance of eternal importance. Six months after reading it, Im still digesting what it means to me. Everyone will be talking about this book!

L ISA T AWN B ERGREN
best-selling author of the Full Circle series and Midnight Sun

There arent many novels that keep me awake reading into the wee hours of the night, but Beneath a Southern Sky did. Nathan, Daria, and Cole slipped from the pages of this book and into my heart. I experienced all their heart-wrenching emotions, agonized over every decision they had to make, and rejoiced as they triumphed by Gods grace in the midst of an impossible, hopeless situation. Bravo, Ms. Raney!

R OBIN L EE H ATCHER
best-selling author of The Forgiving Hour and Whispers from Yesterday

Beneath a Southern Sky has magnetic qualities! I just couldnt seem to put it down! In her normal, five-tissue fashion, Deborah Raney has created an impossible situation for her heroine, Daria Camfield. As I read, I thought I imagined all the ways Raney could tie her book into a neat little bow. Not so! The poignant ending of this thought-provoking novel took me unaware and lingered in my mind for days afterwards. You definitely wont be disappointed.

L ISA E. S AMSON
best-selling author of The Church Ladies

In Beneath a Southern Sky, Deborah Raney reminds us that Gods ways are not our ways but His paths lead to fulfillment and joy.

A NGELA E LWELL H UNT
author of The Note and The Heirs of Cahira OConnor series

Beneath a Southern Sky captured my attention on page one and held me in its grips to the last page. Deborah has written an incredible tale of passionate love, tragic mistakes, and second chances. Write faster, Deborah Raney!

D ENISE H UNTER author of Reunions

Deborah Raney dug deeply into my heart with this story of sacrificial love. No reader could walk away from this novel without a clearer, more personal picture of the love of Christ. I thank Deborah for reminding me that, even though lifes choices arent always easy, God is always there to help us make them.

H ANNAH A LEXANDER author of Sacred Trust, Solemn Oath, and Silent Pledge

For my mother,
Winifred Ann Teeter,
who taught me to love books and
who, by her example, taught meteaches me still
how to be a Christian wife and mother.
and
For my mother-in-law,
Shirley Ann Raney,
whose love and friendship I cherish
and who raised the wonderful son who became my husband.
I love you both with all my heart.

A chill spring rain washed the Kansas Turnpike, and the angry grey skies overhead offered no hope for an end to the downpour. It seemed to Daria that hers was the only car on this lonely stretch of highway. The deserted road seemed a fitting metaphor for what her life had become. She passed the Emporia exit and shifted in her seat, settling in for the long haul. Shed been on the road for well over an hour, and her destination was still more than two hours away. Was two hours long enough to decide what she would do when she got there? Was a lifetime long enough?

She took her hands off the wheel and rubbed away the beginnings of a headache. As she turned her head from side to side, trying to ease the taut muscles in her neck, her eyes fell on the yellow piece of paper that lay on the passenger seat beside her. In this world of fax machines and e-mail, she hadnt realized that people still sent telegrams. And yet it seemed appropriate somehow. She couldnt imagine news such as this 8 -by-11-inch sheet of paper held coming any other way. Daria turned her eyes back to the road. She didnt need to read the telegram again. She had it memorized. But committing the tersely worded message to memory didnt answer the heartrending question it begged.

Barely forty-eight hours ago she had thought she was the happiest woman alive. But nineteen words on one thin yellow sheet of paper had changed everything, and now the reality of her dilemma nearly took her breath away. How did a woman choose between two men she had always loved with all her heart?

The relentless drumming of the rain on her windshield and the incessant rhythm of the wipers carried her back to another time, to another rain, and bid her to walk the paths of memory one more time. And like the silver ribbon of highway that curled ahead, the past three years of Darias life spooled out before her.

T he fingers of the jungle breeze swept across the village, playing the palm fronds like so many harps. Under the conductorship of the wind, the symphony of the rain forest rose to a crescendo. Over the plip, plip, plip of the raindrops chorus, thunder struck its clashing cymbals before the clouds moved in, lowering a curtain on the sun.

Daria Camfield looked up from the skirt she was mending, and her eyes scanned the village for her husbands tall frame. Though the rains werent usually severe this time of year, she always breathed easier when Nathan was nearby.

As though her thoughts had summoned him, she spotted Nate loping down the pathway, holding a large banana leaf over his head. She knew his makeshift umbrella was not meant to protect him as much as to shield the book he was carrying close to his chest.

Hey, she hollered in greeting as he jumped the narrow stream that separated their hut from the village proper. The wind had begun to blow the rain underneath the thatched roof of the stoop where she sat, so she wove her needle safely into the thin cotton fabric of the skirt and rose to greet him.

Nathan leapt gracefully onto the stoop of their stilted hut, flashing Daria a wide smile. Hey, babe. What are you up to?

Oh, Im trying to fix this stupid skirt I tore yesterday, she huffed. What I wouldnt give for a sewing machine.

He gave her a long-suffering look. Nate had never been sympathetic to her complaints about the lack of modern amenities in this remote South American village. She let it go and tilted her head to receive the kiss he offered.

He tossed the soggy banana leaf over the side of the stoop and took his precious book inside the hut. Daria followed him in, leaving the door open behind them.