The Finder of Forgotten Things - audio - Sarah Loudin Thomas
Narrated by Pilar Witherspoon

I thought Thomas' historical novel was wonderful and totally engrossing. It's about a small-town swindler, Sully, who I ended up liking about 2/3 of the way through; Gainey, who mothered everyone regardless of their status; and Jeremiah, a kind elder who comes searching for Sully for running off with his town's money for a well that he was supposed to have helped them find. Lots of sadness with lots of joy thrown in and Thomas has a great story that wraps you up in a blanket and invites you to sit by the fire.
It's not a fast-paced story but it flowed lazily and easily as I would assume summers do in West Virginia.

I felt Pilar, the narrator, did a good job of switching back and forth between characters which must have been difficult when there were several in a scene. There were only a few times throughout the entire audio when I couldn't notice the difference in tone between two characters. All in all, she did a good job with the pacing of the story and kept it flowing smoothly with her voice changes.

Highly recommended!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Sarah Louden Thomas, and RB Media for allowing me this free ARC for my honest opinion.

Sully makes you like him, love him, hate him, feel sorry for him and rejoice with him throughout the book. His history makes him a loner but it is obvious that isn’t his truth. The friends he helps along the way end up helping him. A story marbled with sadness, heartache and joy for all the main characters. An easy listen with an interesting story line and plot twists. The one thing he can’t find, his mother, will have you hoping she is the next thing he unearths!

To Gainey, Sully and Jeremiah - Thank you for the wonderful journey

A beautiful Heartbreaking but heartmaking journey where human lives are the bedrock of the story. Where everyone has hidden depths to them, whether the be good or evil, and the fate of three people are intertwined.

I loved the narrator of this audiobook. Pillar Witherspoon, did an incredible job bringing these characters to life, the calming American drawl and subtle changes for each character kept me completely and utterly enthralled.

The overarching theme, that made me fall in love with the story is that humanity is based on choices, choices to do good or bad, and everyone makes those choices everyday. We follow Sully, a morally grey, freedom loving diviner. Gainey, a strong, caring women who has a hidden past, and Jeremiah, a man who thinks carefully before he speaks. Experiencing the story through them is an amazing reminder of the good in humanity, but also a tragic reminder of the bad.

The Finder of Forgotten things is a very slow, warm, atmospheric read. The descriptions, dialog, just everything makes you feel so fully immersed. It the next best thing to time traveling back to 1930 !

The story did become very slow moving in places, its definitely a read for when you want to just relax and it let all wash over you (perfect audiobook material)

My Thanks to Sarah Loudin Thomas and RB Media for the opportunity to listen to this amazing story !

I didn't pay a lot of attention to the genre when I decided to listen to this book from Netgalley. I don't gravitate to Christian, but boy am I glad I did. Very easy to listen to and follow. It was interesting to listen to how people just want to belong and how they navigate their paths.

The Finder of Forgotten Things
by Sarah Loudin Thomas, Narrated by Pilar Witherspoon

The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster is one of the worst industrial disasters in American history. The construction of the tunnel began is 1927, near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, as part of a hydroelectric project. While providing employment to about 3000 men until 1935, the work exposed the men to silica dust, which caused a debilitating lung disease, silicosis. The disaster has an official death toll of 476 but an unofficial death toll of well over a thousand men.

The disaster is the backdrop of this historical fiction which focuses on three characters who long for family when family seems to be an impossible goal. The year is 1932 and good looking, sweet talking, twenty eight year old Sully Harris is doing what he does best. Grifting and swindling are his great talents and his ability to smooth talk almost anyone is how he moves through life. Right now he's a dowser, a seeker of water for those who need wells. He's just fled Kline, West Virginia, taking the town's money with him so he doesn't have to face up to the fact that where he told them to dig for water will just turn up a dry hole. I tried to resist Sully's charms, knowing what a scoundrel his is, but by the end of the book, Sully won me over, too.

When Sully arrives at Gainey Floyd's town she has her doubts about him but once he makes good on his claims that he can help others she has to admit he might not be so bad. Gainey is old enough to be Sully's mother and Sully wishes she was his mother. Inside, he's still the wounded boy whose mother abandoned him before he could even remember her. Sully's feeling of abandonment rules his life. Gainey has her own heartbreak she's never told anyone, decades of feeling like a fraud to the people who know her.

Jeremiah Weber, of Kline, comes looking for Sully so he can get his town's money back. Instead he meets Gainey, whose independent no nonsense attitude and mature beauty stirs feelings in Jeremiah that he thought were long dormant. He realizes he's tired of always putting others first, such as his town's expectations that he marry a young widow just because she needs marrying. In Gainey he sees the kind of women who can be a true partner although he knows that could be a hopeless dream.

These three people really caught my heart. There is the personal heartbreak of Sully and Gainey and the heartbreak of the abuse the workers of the Hawks Nest Tunnel endure, working literally to death for wages that are taken away by management through unfair company policies and the heartbreak of families losing one or more family members to lung disease. Sully is drawn to the men who suffer and the men who are dumped anonymously into holes in a secret graveyard. Sully, along with Gainey and Jeremiah, are the center of this touching, bittersweet story that is beautifully narrated by Pilar Witherspoon.

Thank you to RB Media and NetGalley for this ARC.

How have I not heard of this industrial tragedy before? A well-written historical fiction with wonderful characters, the author has woven the digging of the Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster during the 1930s into her story.

Times were tough and when there are jobs to dig and drill through a mountain near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, men black and white signed up. Unbeknownst to them about silica in the dust, these men were working without any breathing protection and as a result over 400 died from Silicosis. This part made me so upset. If you read "The Radium Girls", it's THAT same upset I'm having.

I enjoyed the pace and memorable and complex characters. There's a touch of romance, but one character grew on me the most, Sully. From a guy who tricks others into finding water for money, he later gives. Beautiful story.

Thank you Recorded Books and Netgalley for an audio ARC for review.

5 stars! This was really good and I loved it!
It was wonderfully written and told during a time when people shared and cared about each other. The time was 1932 and these were hard times and community meant something. I loved this story because of the well developed characters and how everything came together.
It showed me what hope, forgiveness and reconciliation look like. I didn’t want to put it down and I highly recommend it.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and really loved Pilar Witherspoon narrating this. She brought something really special to this story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Thanks Recorded Books via NetGalley.