Abigail Durham and Justin Girard meet just a few minutes before an EF5 tornado hits their small Midwest town of Rawston. As they walk through the rubbish after they emerge from the restaurant refrigerator where they sought refuge, Abigail is looking for anything salvageable. She begins picking up small pieces of fabrics from dresses, window curtains, jackets, etc. and puts them into a bag.

Selma Tally is Abigail's aunt and only relative in Rawston. Selma's house came through the tornado without a scratch. She and a friend drive toward town in search of Abigail, her friend's daughter who was at her high school prom when the tornado hit, and anyone else who is in need. Selma ends up with Abigail, Justin, a young couple and their baby and her friend and her daughter at her home. All have lost their homes and everything they own. Aunt Selma has plenty of room and loves the company.

When Abigail shows Aunt Selma the bag of fabric scraps, Selma gets the idea to make them into a quilt. The group at Selma's house starts piecing together a quilt to honor a beloved friend who did not make it through the storm. This group activity causes them to ask some of the tough questions in life about why some die so young when they are such good, loving people. In the process of making the quilt, answers come to life for some of these questions. Abigail and Justin develop a bond of friendship through this trial, but could there be a spark of romance here too? What does Abigail have left in Rawston? She has no home, no business, no worldly possessions. Should she move on?

BEYOND THE STORM is a touching story about shredded hope and shattered dreams. Can the pieces of these people's lives be put back together as easily as fashioning a quilt from tattered pieces of cloth? This is the first story in a series where each book in the series is by a different author and there are different genres within the series. This one is a keeper.

Book Summary

After a tornado rips through her town, store owner Abigail comes across a piece of fabric from a wedding dress among the devastation. Abigail is moved to start collecting other swatches of fabric she finds – her neighbor’s kitchen curtains, a man’s necktie, a dog’s bed – which she stashes in shopping bags. As she pursues her seemingly absurd quest, horrible realities spark the question, “What kind of a God would allow such tragedy?”

As she struggles to reconcile her right to happiness amidst the destruction, Abigail begins piecing together a patchwork quilt from the salvaged fabric in hopes it will bring some peace. But a new relationship with Justin, a contractor, may require too much of her fragile heart. Will her pain and questions of faith give way to the courage to love?