Running for Water and Sky: A Novel - Softcover

2016 USA Best Book Awards: Cross Genre Fiction, Finalist
"Sandra Kring's characters are at once unique and familiar, vulnerable and troubling, ordinary and exquisite. We fall in love with them from the beginning, and end with a new measure of mercy for ourselves and those around us." --Sara Gruen, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Water For Elephants
"Richly realized storytelling, setting, and detailed characters paint a vivid picture of Bless' experiences in Nebraska . . . a sustained melodrama with no letdown from an intense plotline . . . to satisfy many readers" --Kirkus Reviews
"Kring has created a powerful story that proves while we may have a past that has shown us anything but love, it can be the same past that teaches what love really means." --Jessica Stevens, author of Within Reach
Past Praise for Sandra Kring For Carry Me Home "Sandra Kring weaves an intricate and heartwarming tale of family, love, and forgiveness in her sensational debut novel ... Kring's passionate voice is reminiscent of Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck ... She will make you laugh, have you in tears, and take you back to the days of good friends, good times, millponds, and bonfires. This is a piece destined to become a classic and a must-read for devotees of the historical fiction or the literary fiction genre." --Midwest Book Review (five stars)
"Touching...surprisingly poignant ... builds to an emotional crescendo ... The book becomes so engrossing that it's tough to see it end." --Washington Post
"Sandra Kring writes with such passion and immediacy, spinning us back in time, making us feel the characters' hope, desire, laughter, sorrow, and redemption. I read this novel straight through and never wanted it to end." --Luanne Rice, New York Times best-selling author of Last Kiss
For Thank You For All Things "A beautiful, witty story that rings with heartbreak, hope and laughter ... Kring's brilliance lies in her powerful reversals and revelations, taking readers and characters on a dramatic, emotional roller coaster." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
" ... A surprising and insightful story about families, love, and the complexity of human beings. Excellent storytelling ..." --Feast

They say that right before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. But what they don’t say is that the same thing can happen when your soul mate is dying.
After spending most of her 17 years being shuffled between families that don’t want her, Bless Adler has no intention of opening her heart to anyone. And then she falls in love with Liam Reid.
The closer Bless lets Liam get, the more fearful she becomes. Then her new friend, Maylee, convinces her to go see a local psychic—and the woman’s glimpse into the future is anything but reassuring: Bless’s absent father, drunk and bitter. A frantic crowd gathered at the beach. Liam lying in a pool of blood, a gun at his side.
Now Bless has 14 blocks to reach Liam on the shores of Lake Michigan. If he’s still alive, she’ll beg for him to fight for his life. If he’s not, she’ll say good-bye to the first person who made her want to fight for her own. Edgy, intense, and emotional, Running for Water and Sky is a story of the elation and angst that comes with love, and the challenge of learning to trust when betrayal is all you’ve ever known.