When Stone Wings Fly: A Smoky Mountains Novel

344 pages Publisher Kregel Publications Publication date June 14, 2022

ABOUT THE BOOK

Kieran Lucas’s grandmother is slipping into dementia, and when her memory is gone, Kieran’s last tie to the family she barely knows will be lost forever. Worse, flashbacks of her mother’s death torment Granny Mac and there’s precious little Kieran can do to help.
In 1931, the creation of the new Great Smoky Mountains National Park threatens Rosie McCauley’s home. Rosie vows the only way the commission will get her land is if they haul her off in a pine box. When a compromise offers her and her disabled sister the opportunity to stay for Rosie’s lifetime, her acceptance sets her apart from the other mountain folk. And the bond she’s forming with ornithologist and outsider Benton Fuller only broadens the rift.
Eighty-five years later, Kieran heads back to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to find answers to her great-grandmother’s mysterious death and bring peace to Granny Mac before it’s too late. Park Historian Zach Jensen may be the key to locating both the answers. But what Kieran needs clashes with the government regulations Zach is sworn to uphold. Can she trust God for a solution to heal this generations-old wound?

MY THOUGHTS

Absolutely wonderful storytelling. The author is a former park ranger, and it shows in her love of writing about nature and national parks.
A dual timeline, I enjoyed both time periods equally.
The Appalachian people are proud of who they came from, proud of their history.
The Great Smokey Mountains have a story to tell, you can hear it as the wind whistles through the trees, the foxes call to one another in the hollers and the bird’s caw as they lift off from the trees. There are also secrets, secrets held fast and strong.
Though this is an emotional book and sad in some parts you can see the redemption and the healing. Forgiveness and faith are important to these people and you’ll find it here.
This reminds me of another book I read several years ago about the Appalachian people. Both will stay with me for a long time.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

KAREN BARNETT is the author of ten novels, including Where Trees Touch the Sky, winner of the 2025 ACFW Carol Award for Historical Fiction. She writes historical romance inspired by the beauty and adventure of America’s national parks. A former park ranger and naturalist, she worked at Mount Rainier National Park, Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park, and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.

She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, two kids, and three mischievous dachshunds.

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