Publisher's Synopsis
Wander into The Cove at will? Not possible. You are either Summoned or Sent. Once there, you are changed...forever. THE COVE is in the hidden heart of the Smokies. This first book covers the amazing journey of Wren and Kyle Makepeace, a couple in their mid-thirties, who discover a mysterious community of Elders dwelling in a forgotten settlement, Lovada Cove. Their journey quickly segues into a period of self-revelation that shakes both their self-images and their marriage relationship. Wren, abandoned shortly after birth, finds her true "Mamaw" and through a series of visionary episodes, discovers horrifying events surrounding her conception and birth. Kyle encounters his own rejected past in the shape of Belva, a she-bear demented by grief. Through Mencie, an ageless, gnome-like figure with preternatural powers who patrols the Borderlands surrounding the Cove, Kyle reclaims his inherited role as a Cherokee shaman as well as the abandoned responsibilities of his priestlhood. Challenged by Jonah, a former mentor and now community Elder, Kyle acknowledges his long-standing feud with God stemming from the tragic death of his twin brother. It is Zettie, another of the Elders of the Cove, who reveals to Wren and Kyle the startling task that is theirs: saving The Cove from treachery by one of their own. Into a storm-lashed night, the couple is sent to confront this Judas while the Cove community keeps prayerful vigil. Confronting, at last, the person who has brought ruin into her own life, Wren faces an appalling decision. Upon her choice rests the future of The Cove. Their odyssey finally brings them both to the secret source of Lovada Branch - The Spring - where further challenges await. The legacy of Lovada Branch is a way of life shaped over generations of communal reading of The Book by a people so isolated that denominational formality has never taken root among them. Descendents of The Cove drift quietly through society, spreading the commingled currents of Native American teaching, mountain lore, radical Christianity and the wisdom of a land that has witnessed millennia of change while itself perduring. The Cove will draw you in...if you are summoned; whisper to your inner soul and then send you back - not unchanged- from whence you came. The Legend of Lovada Branch continues in the next book in the series: "Panther Gap".
