Every book by Katie Powner makes you laugh and cry and gives you lots to think about well after the closing sentence. Her newest novel, The Wind Blows in Sleeping Grass, does not disappoint. From the antics of Pearl, the potbellied pig rescued from the landfill by Pete, to the wrongs done to Wilma, Lily, and Dani. My heart went out to Pete and Wilma throughout the entire story. I wanted to reach into their world, give them both a hug, and tell them everything will be okay, but that is something they needed to work through themselves together and separately.

As in all of Katie Powner’s awesome stories, one character always stands out. For me, this was Windy Ray, an elderly Indian man, and his three-legged dog, Apisi. What a sight they made together riding around Sleeping Grass on a red tricycle with an oxygen tank in tow! The faith that Windy Ray had in the Creator was astounding, and I loved the way he shared his faith with the other characters in the story. The story behind the rocks brought tears to my eyes.

Maybe I have a soft spot for stories like this one that take really hard subjects that happen to people around the world which open your eyes and heart. Katie Powner gives you a real-life ending, which is fitting for this story. I highly recommend reading not only The Wind Blows in Sleeping Grass but all of Katie Powner’s heartfelt books.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided by Bethany House through Interviews & Reviews. I was not required to post a favorable review. All opinions are my own.

I was fascinated by the complexity of the characters and their predicament. As elderly widow Wilma Jacobsen meets Pete Ryman, a young man from her past, there is tension in the air. If only Wilma had been granted a second chance to turn things around for Pete and Dani, his sister. Could Wilma muster the courage to tell them both their stories and share her soul?

Every character has a place in my heart, but Ray, an Indian-Widower, and his three-legged dog Apisi, made me laugh the most. I enjoyed his discussions on the Creator and life. One of the aspects of this author's works I love and look forward to is how she incorporates animals into her stories. In this book readers meet a sweet pig named Pearl. When I read about how Pete saved Pearl, I smiled. When Pete explained why he gave her the name Pearl, I was quite impacted. I adored Pete and Pearl's unique relationship.

The author expertly creates a lovely tapestry of life out of the strands of four different personalities. The weave is made of laughter and hope, and the thread that runs through it is made of forgiveness and healing. Readers who have made major blunders in their life will identify with Wilma and Pete. And those who have regrets will relate to Lily and Windy Ray.


I appreciated how the author respectively illustrated the struggle injured individuals had with their faith and the foreboding memories of the past. Things change in a big way when Wilma, Lily, Dani, and Braedon come into Pete's life, he has been living alone for so long he was unaware of what he has been missing. He cherishes the positive qualities in his friends and family and would do whatever it takes to keep them safe.

I liked how the author showed ordinary people confronting difficult circumstances. These individuals who had been ignored, made fun of, and abandoned by family. Finally, the characters realize how they have been abused has nothing to do with how precious they are. They weren't trash, despite what they had previously been told. I liked seeing the characters grow as a group, find the strength to pursue their dreams, and have the guts to live their lives facing their fears, not running from them. I enjoyed how the author took the cast on new adventures while letting you draw your own conclusions at the end. This is a good book for your book club. It’s one you won't soon forget.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I requested and received a copy of this book from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Nora St. Laurent
TBCN Where Book Fun Begins!
The Book Club Network blog https://psalm516.blogspot.com/

I love the way Katie Powner brings her characters to life. Whether it's a human or an animal you feel fully invested in their story. I will post some of my favorite lines from the book once it has been published. This book is hopeful, heartbreaking and entertaining. Katie has this amazing way of animating animals in a story. Pearl the potbellied pig is my favorite character in the book :)

Thank you #NetGalley and Katie Powner for the advance copy of The Wind Blows in Sleeping Grass. I will definitely encourage others to read this book. I have already preordered the books for our bookclub! Katie does a great way to spreading faith in heart tugging times.

This book was so refreshing and fills your heart with hope. I loved the characters, especially Pearl who you just want to hug while you laugh at her antics. She has the best personality! This is a story about redemption, choices, and family. This book is a keeper.

I loved everything about this book, from the wonderful cast of characters to the heartwarming theme that everyone is valued by the Creator. Katie Power has penned a story that centers around an eclectic cast of characters, hard on their luck, struggling to find hope. Skillfully switching points-of-view between Pete, a fifty year old man, who has returned to the town where his troubles began and Wilma, an eighty something year old woman, who has been burdened by decisions made in the past. I absolutely loved Pete's poet heart and his potbellied pig, Pearl.

Powner expertly infuses humor in a story that has depth, not afraid to focus on the consequences of poor choices, but giving hope that one can change. Delightful story of the power of hope and second chances.

A favorite quote" Everything God makes has value, whether we choose to see it or not."

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author/publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Katie Powner is one of my favorite authors! She has done it again with her touches of humor and tugging of heart strings in the book! Pete finally puts together a hodge podge family in Sleeping Grass after a lot of years of drifting and having a not great childhood. It is great to see his maturity and thought processes through the whole book. His friendships and his sister along with his pet help with this. This is just such a down to earth read! I love it!

A wonderful book of family, friends and forgiveness!

It's the second book by Katie Powner I've read and I've so enjoyed both of them. This is set in Montana, a beautiful, bitter cold setting. The characters are a wonderful misfit family of friends = Pete and Pearl are great main characters. The supporting characters are well written and so important to the story. The story is one of self incrimination and faith with humor.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book. But then I immediately fell in love with the characters. I mean, how can you not love a main character with a pet pig he rescued from the garbage!?

Yes, you read that correctly. Pete found Pearl at the dump and brought her home and she has made his life interesting ever since. Pete is really a loveable guy. He is a champion for the underdog. He wants to help anyone and everyone. And while he may not always believe the best of everyone he does his best to try.

Pete did make some mistakes in his life and he’s vowed not to make them again. One of his biggest mistakes was accidentally killing a man in a fight. He’s vowed never to use his fists again. But is that a vow he can keep? And should he when circumstances are dire?

OTHER CHARACTERS YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE THAT ARE INTERWOVEN INTO THE STORY WILMA, LILY, AND WINDY RAY.
Wilma is a widow with a bad habit of trusting the wrong people. She also has a secret that she needs to confess to Pete but can’t bring herself to do it. Lily is a wonderful and sweet girl in a hard and bad situation. Can she trust Wilma and Pete to help her? And Windy Ray is a hoot! He’s a funny and sweet character that you’re going to love and pray for.

I don’t want to tell you too much about the book, but it’s a wonderful one. You need to read it. A few disclaimers, there is abuse within the pages of this novel, there are hard times, and there are scams against the elderly, plus a bit of violence.

That said, it’s a wonderful book and I would read it again.

I have voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from Netgalley. All views expressed are only my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC regulations.

This is an interesting book. It is slower paced but has a lot of depth in the characterization. Pete took stock of his life. “He had a steady, if smelly, job, a pig, and one friend. It wasn’t much to show for 50 years” (location 286). Soon little things happen and his world begins to expand. Soon he has several people he cares for and that just increases the problems.

Having a pot-bellied pig who gets into mischief adds some levity to a thought-provoking book. There’s a strong message of everything the Creator makes having value. It’s beautiful watching several characters come to realize this.

Thank you to Bethany House for providing me with a free e-copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was a very unusual story. It's a Christian genre but not at all preachy. In fact, it's Christian in an unusual way. The story deals with the subjects of abandonment and self-incrimination. I could relate as my father left when I was barely more than a toddler.

This story kept my attention and flowed fairly well. The characters were also fairly well fleshed out. As well as the two issues already mentioned there was also two more that I don't want to reveal and spoil the story.

The editing was not bad but could have been better. My other problem with the story was that it didn't end well. I wish there had been an epilogue instead of leaving me dangling.

Over all I'll give this a 3 out of 5. The ending was the reason for the lower score. I received this book through Libraything giveaway. I am not required to give a review of any kind but they recommend a review of your own thoughts, good or bad. These are my own thoughts, freely given.

Friendship. Forgiveness. Reconciliation. These are just a few of the themes that Powner explores in this pivotal read. Widowed Ms. Wilma is that friend in your life that you need. She is the strength for everyone in her life, but has a secret that she is holding on to. Pete, the garbage man, and his potbellied pig strike up a friendship with Ms. Wilma. Mrs. Powner does a fabulous job of helping us get to know each character and learn from each of their life lessons.
Some of the topics are tough to discuss such as abandonment from a parent and domestic abuse, but Powner writes in such a way that your heart goes out to these people and you want them in your life. I believe that many readers are going to relate to these characters.
I would recommend this book. I was given an ARC of this book and these are my own opinions.

Pete Ryman never aspired to a career as a garbage collector as a child. Nor did he ever think he’d end up back in Sleeping Grass, the tiny Montana town nestled between Shelby and nowhere. The place where his life fell apart at age eleven. But at the ripe old age of 50, Pete and his potbellied pig, Pearl, collect garbage each weekday morning. They have exactly two friends—Windy Ray and his three-legged dog Apisi.

Pete has changed over the years. He no longer goes to bars and doesn’t fight (he hopes). Pete has no family that claims him, but he can live with that. He plays dominoes with his friend every Monday night, and they go out for ice cream on Fridays. Folks generally act friendly in Sleeping Grass, and no one seems to remember how Pete, his sister, and his mom used to live there decades ago. Some might call it a meager existence. Pete calls it safe.

And then his sister show up on his doorstep with a nephew he didn’t know he had.

Wilma Jacobson can’t seem to move closer to her adult children and grandchildren. Especially now that Pete Ryman has moved to town. For three years, she has left small gifts for him on her garbage can but hasn’t mustered up the courage to have a conversation with him. The guilt holds her hostage. If she could just confess to him how selfish she’d been all those years ago, she’d feel a lot better.

While she awaits a bright idea on how to talk to Pete, Wilma despairs over her financial mess. She doesn’t want to let her sons know she’s gone into debt. Her late husband, Herb, had taken care of the family business, and those pesky bills threaten to overwhelm her.

A lucky fall brings Pete inside her home and provides another opportunity to help her best friend.

What I Loved About This Book

Powner skillfully weaves the threads of four disparate residents of Sleeping Grass into a beautiful tapestry of life. Hope and humor make up the warp, while grace and restoration create the weft.

Readers who’ve made life-altering mistakes will relate to Wilma and Pete. And anyone who has regrets will identify with Lily and Windy Ray. This multi-generational, heart-warming story has a romance all its own, proving you don’t need two protagonists to fall in love in order to craft a successful rom-com.

A quick read, I finished it in a day. I give it 3 stars for not being the sappy Christian fiction of the past. That being said, the author uses too many similes in the beginning of the book, it was painful to get through. I became invested in the characters of the book because they were likable and real, however all their stories were left hanging at the end. I won't look for more of this author's books. Too simple and pedantic.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Pete Ryman considers himself barely above the refuse he collects every day. A mother who left him, a sister he's disappointed, a string of rash choices made from emotions he didn't know how to handle. At least being a trash collector allows him some self-sufficiency in his middle age without having to interact much with the public. All he needs is his potbellied pig Pearl and Windy Ray, his one friend.

There's something inside Pete that I don't think he even realizes. He has the ability to see the things others overlook or even discard and find the value and beauty in them. Whether that was rescuing Pearl after she was dumped at the landfill, nabbing what someone has put out with their trash and restoring it to give to someone in need, or even the way he looks at the people in the town of Sleeping Grass. He sees a part of them that no one else sees.

So it is with Windy Ray, with Wilma, with Lily and Dani and Braedon. As each one enters his life, Pete sees the good and is willing to give his all to promote the safety and well-being of each vulnerable one.

This novel invites you into Sleeping Grass and quickly grabs hold of your heart. Real world griefs, regrets, and hope spill out over the pages for Pete and his friends. People whom others overlook and even reject hold great value. Just like life, things in this story are not tied up in a neat bow, but I think that stirs my heart even more.

I highly recommend this and all of Katie Powner's other novels. They'll make you laugh, make you cry, and leave you thinking long after you turn the last page.

I received my copy of the book from the author. All thoughts in this review are my own.

I read my advance copy of this book in a single weekend, and...as amazing as all of Katie's books have been...this one might just be the best one yet. It is a beautifully crafted tale of regret and redemption and all the tangles that God patiently unwinds between the two. I laughed, I cried, and I learned. And I researched where I could find a potbellied pig for a pet. (You'll understand when you read the book.)

Basically...if you only read one book this year...read this one.

The kind of unflinchingly real and unfailingly hopeful tales that Katie creates so beautifully are the same sort of stories that I want to be telling...reflections of familiar and flawed characters, living in a world both wondrous and broken, walking through hard choices and difficult decisions and messy relationships not with canned Sunday-school answers but with honest and unrelenting grace.

I loved this book. All of Katie Powner's books hit the heart a little differently. This is a fresh story that breaks your heart and heals it by the end. Pete's story is wonderful. I think we can all see a little bit of ourselves in the amazing characters that Powner shares in this book. I hated to see the last page! I highly recommend this wonderful book.

I received a copy of this book from Baker Book House. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Set in the northern plains of Montana, this is a beautiful, poignant story of regrets, reconciliation, family, and friendship. The heart-touching, soul-stirring narrative ran the gamut of my emotions as it kept me captivated from the beginning to the wonderfully satisfying ending. Expertly crafted unique, realistic characters, who I quickly and easily connected with, came to life touching my heart and lingering in my memory. I greatly appreciate the valuable faith lessons concerning trusting God for real peace which results from His all sufficient grace. I also enjoyed the apropos literary references scattered throughout the story. Plus, who would have guessed that lessons on the worth of every individual could be taught using a delightful potbelly pig? Another powerful Katie Powner story added to my all-time favorites list. I recommend this book as a must read for Contemporary Christian fiction fans.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley with no obligation to write a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is such a powerful book! There were so many characters to love in this story. My favorites were definitely Wilma, Braedon and Windy Ray. Windy Ray and Wilma had such wisdom and faith throughout the book which I really enjoyed. It gave me another insight into the foster care system as well.



Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. The opinions are my own.

Katie Powner’s books never fail to move me. This book is a powerful and somewhat heavy read with it’s themes of foster care, addiction, and abuse. She does an excellent job of demonstrating how powerful the choices we make are and how they effect not only us, but those around us and our future.

Full of lovable characters like Wilma, Pete, and Windy Ray, you are quickly drawn in and impressed in their stories. Each character has a unique story and we can learn so much from them, the heartache they have faced, and forgiveness.

This is a definite must read that will change you if you allow it to. You will find yourself feeling all the emotions from laughing to crying and be sad to see it end.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

A terrific story full of flawed characters, friendship and hope. A book that lingers long after finishing. Set in rural northern Montana, the little town of Sleeping Grass holds the promise of second chances for a cast of unique characters.

"Anyone who wants to tell the truth must be brave."

Wow, this was a page turner, with its masterful storytelling and characters that seem to come to life. I loved Pete 'the Poet' and his sidekick Pearl, the pig. He was a great underdog hero. His musings were so heartfelt along with his care for others. Touching on deep themes of abandonment, bullying, domestic violence and growing old, this book makes you think about how to truly love your neighbor. It was convicting. I liked how Windy Ray's quiet wisdom, loyal friendship and simple faith is contagious, lending others the spark of belief and hope.

"Everything God makes has value, whether we choose to see it or not."
A wonderful story from start to finish! Instant add to my favorites list.
Solid 5 stars!