Here’s my confession: When I first picked up Carla Stewart’s Chasing Lilacs, I fully expected to put it down again a few pages later. I’d heard it was garnering favorable reviews, and because I try to stay current on the latest and greatest in Christian fiction, I thought I’d give it a whirl. Set in the ‘50s and told from the vantage point of a preteen girl, it’s not my usual fare, and I assumed it would be too tame for my tastes.

I was wrong.

It’s the summer of 1958, and life in small-town Texas should be simple and carefree. For twelve-year-old Sammie Tucker, however, it’s anything but. Her mother who has “nerve problems” is sent away to a place where she can receive shock treatments that are supposed to heal her. To Sammie – who blames herself for being unable to help her mother – this sounds frightening, and she questions her father for allowing it to happen. As she wades her way through a complicated swirl of emotions, she clings to a know-it-all friend, her bird-loving neighbor, and the intriguing new boy in town. She also befriends an elderly widower with a dark past and surprising connections to Sammie’s small world.

Though the uplifting tone of Stewart’s novel reflects her “passion for times gone by,” her themes and issues are timely ones – relevant and real. And although a few of her secondary characters lack the subtlety to make them truly believable, most are drawn with deft, clean lines. Emotions are rendered authentically, and the main characters reveal an unusual amount of depth for a coming-of-age novel. Stewart also manages to nail a great opening line and a satisfying concluding one.

Though I can’t say it’s one of my all-time faves, Chasing Lilacs blew my misguided preconceptions out of the water. All in all, I found it an impressive debut.