Now eight months into a global blackout, the residents of Oak Hollow are trying to cope with the deep winter nights and a gnawing hunger from a food shortage. The struggle to survive can bring out the worst in anyone.

A teenage friend of the Brannings' has been found shot while hunting, and his slain deer is gone. Suspicions immediately fall on Mark Green, the son of a convicted murderer. Before he can prove his innocence, vigilantes force the sheriff to arrest him.

Deni Branning is growing closer to Mark, and she sees him as a hero, not a traitor. She and her family set out to find the person who really pulled the trigger. But clearing Mark's reputation is only part of the battle. Protecting him from the neighbors who ostracized him is just as difficult.

New York Times bestselling suspense author Terri Blackstock weaves a masterful what-if novel in which global catastrophe reveals the darkness in human hearts―and lights the way to restoration for a self-centered world.

"Blackstock is absolutely masterful at bringing spiritual dilemmas to the surface and allowing readers to wrestle with them alongside her characters." ―RT Book Reviews, 4.5 stars (of Dawn's Light)

From Publishers Weekly
Blackstock's third novel in the Restoration series is slow-moving in the first half, but the pace picks up considerably in the second. The Branning family and their neighbors are now eight months into a worldwide blackout, trying to make ends meet and survive one crisis after another as violence rips their community apart. With the sheriff and his deputies desperately overworked and earning only a tiny fraction of their former pay, they can no longer keep their overcrowded, disease-ridden county jail under control. That means that it's up to Deni Branning to help clear the name of boy-next-door love interest Mark Green when he's wrongly accused of attempted murder. The novel reveals a heavy hand with religion, but Blackstock's overt sermonizing does offer some strong and wise thoughts on forgiveness: "Forgiveness was not an emotion," one character reflects. "You didn't have to feel it. You just had to do it." (July)
Copyright ' Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
Blackstock's third novel in the Restoration series is slow-moving in the first half, but the pace picks up considerably in the second. The Branning family and their neighbors are now eight months into a worldwide blackout, trying to make ends meet and survive one crisis after another as violence rips their community apart. With the sheriff and his deputies desperately overworked and earning only a tiny fraction of their former pay, they can no longer keep their overcrowded, disease-ridden county jail under control. That means that it's up to Deni Branning to help clear the name of boy-next-door love interest Mark Green when he's wrongly accused of attempted murder. The novel reveals a heavy hand with religion, but Blackstock's overt sermonizing does offer some strong and wise thoughts on forgiveness: 'Forgiveness was not an emotion,' one character reflects. 'You didn't have to feel it. You just had to do it.'(July) -- Publisher's Weekly

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.