Caught in the chaos of evacuating a small coastal town directly in the path of a ferocious hurricane, two women’s lives intersect. Kai Miller, a young woman with a past even stormier than hurricane Glorietta, comes across 70-yr-old Donetta Bradford stranded in a minivan, out of gas and miles from safety. Donetta is accustomed to having her own way, but this time her headstrong determination has nearly gotten her and her friends killed. They pile into Kai’s VW van and flee, but the only thing moving faster than that storm is Donetta’s mouth. A friendship develops, and even before they’re completely out of harm’s way, Donetta is making plans – this time for Kai.

This is the first book I’ve read by Lisa Wingate, but it won’t be the last. She spins a good story, and she does so with a beautiful style and wit that swept me into the story world as surely as if I’d been caught in that hurricane with Kai and Donetta. The book feels almost like two separate stories, the first involving the building tension of the hurricane, and the second full of the charm and small-town appeal of Daily, Texas. Both Kai and Donetta have compelling conflicts – Kai is struggling to overcome loss and a difficult childhood, while likable busybody Donetta battles the feeling that she is unimportant by her husband. The two mesh together in a touching, immensely satisfying resolution that brought tears to my eyes more than once.

I love finding a new author, and I can’t wait to look up Wingate’s other novels. Thanks so much to Kathy Carlton Willis Communications for providing a review copy of Never Say Never.