"Room for Hope" by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Set in Kansas during the Depression, this novel opens with Neva Shilling learning about her husband's death and double life all in the same moment. While she believed her husband was an upstanding traveling salesman, it turns out that she wasn't his only wife and he had less than ethical business practices. With the unexpected death of Warren and his second wife, Neva also learns she has been named guardian of Warren's other three children - children she never knew about until they were delivered to her door.

Neva struggles with the uncertainty of taking on Charlie, Cassie, and Adeline while raising her own teenage children and continuing to run the town mercantile. The little ones are a constant reminder of her husband's betrayal, but how could she send them to an orphanage? Neva also worries about how the town will react and treat all of them when they find out where the children came from.

New to town is sheriff Jesse Caudel, who befriends Neva and helps her navigate the immediate crisis of accepting the children into her home. Other point of view characters are Neva's son Bud and neighbor Arthur Randall, who thinks he finally has the open door to buy the mercantile and expand his own business.

Somehow this is the first book I've read by Kim Vogel Sawyer. I've known she is a respected author, but until this novel we'd never personally crossed paths. I enjoyed this book right from the start, being drawn into the setting and the hearts of the characters. I also really, really liked that this book did not play out as I expected and took me by surprise. The characters had a nice depth and reality about them. I'm sure this won't be the last book I read by this author.

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