society’s criteria are placed to the attempt and a Northern Appalachian city comes jointly to avoid wasting a missed baby in Ruth Logan Herne’s new romance, the 1st reward. This poignant novel tells the tale of five-year-old Cassie Carruthers, who lives in a bug-infested shack within the hills of Western New York’s Southern Tier. Her mom has died and Cassie spends her days fending for herself whereas her alcoholic father beverages himself right into a stupor. yet Cassie’s isolation has no longer long past overlooked within the tightknit group of Phillipsburg. while a involved neighbor signals the county, the neighborhood units a plan in movement to rescue the overlooked little woman. via fundraising efforts, Cassie is tucked into the kindergarten school room of autonomous, attractive Kerry McHenry. Kerry has her paintings reduce out for her in facing Cassie’s depressed father, yet regardless of the child’s loveless commence in existence, she quickly finds herself to be an clever, keen pupil. additionally, she possesses a resourcefulness that has stored her existence greater than once—and could be known as upon back. Kerry McHenry is nobody’s idiot. She sees her personal tricky upbringing in Cassie’s dire state of affairs, so she works tirelessly to steer the younger lady, attempting to aid her develop into every little thing that God desires her to be. even as, she unearths herself torn among a commitment-phobic pediatric oncologist from a close-by city and Phillipsburg’s widowed deputy sheriff, a classy guy who's nonetheless offended with God. because the stakes develop ever better and the characters’ lives intersect in unforeseen methods, every one will face a real try out of faith—and come head to head with undeniable facts of God’s love.