Tempest's Course

Sowell, Lynette. Tempest's Course. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013.

Kelly Frost is a textile conservator who has been hired to restore a quilt at Grey House, a home to one of New England's early whalers. Tom Pereira is a veteran who was severely injured and is now keeping the grounds at the home. Both have issues with which they are dealing. Tom's is health-related; Kelly's is something that happened in a relationship in the recent past. Tom is also working other jobs. It's a romance that is growing, particularly when both discover they are both Christians. Of course, the issues from the past can always create problems in a relationship. I enjoyed the characters of Tom and Kelly. The author did a great job portraying them. The setting was interesting as well. Although it is a Christian book, the characters deal with genuine issues, including moral ones, and the book is not preachy in its presentation. The characters simply live out their faith. There is, however, one major flaw in the book. The owner of one place Tom is helping traces Tom's genealogy back about 150 years using census records. The problem is that the gentleman claims to have used both the 1950 and 2010 censuses in his research and that they included names and other information. Any genealogist knows that the latest available census for this type of research is the 1940 census which was released on April 1, 2012. The 1950 census will not be available under current laws until April 1, 2022. The 2010 census would not be available until April 1, 2082. There is a 72-year waiting period. Only demographic/statistical type of information is available for censuses more recent than 1940. I am certain that every genealogist, including me, would love to get our hands on those censuses ahead of schedule, but it isn't going to be happening and should not be depicted as such in a book. Since I read an advance e-galley of this book via NetGalley, I sincerely hope that the author and publishers of this book will correct this very big error prior to publication. It was quite enjoyable otherwise. As mentioned, this review is based on an advance e-galley of the book provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.