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A thoughtful story that handles a difficult topic with a deft touch and enjoyable characters. My rating: ★★★★☆
Content warnings: romance (moderate), mentions of marital intimacy, violence (mild), death and grief, ethnic tension | Click here to read full post
This was a sweet story that dealt with hard things in a way that left me thinking but not depressed. Ethnic tension is a difficult subject for a number of reasons, but Clark simply showed individual people struggling with individual choices in their own circumstances. There was no “us versus them” mentality, which was refreshing. (I only regret the publishing house style guide that evidently enforced modern racial capitalization choices in the historical narrative, which jarred me every single time.) Although the jumping-around of the historical chronology was a bit hard for me to follow at times, I found myself equally invested in both timelines, eager to keep going in whichever era I was in at the time.
And the characters—Millie was a gem. I’m a sucker for a good hat, and the one on the cover is a perfect match to Millie’s as described in the book. I loved that the historical connection was between her and the contemporary male lead rather than with the contemporary female lead. Most women’s fiction I read focuses almost exclusively on the women (I suppose that’s to be expected), but I really liked Peter and was glad he had a starring role. His work was just as fascinating as Harper’s, although I could relate to her love for vintage dresses more than to his love for estate sales (not her love of sewing though). The combination made for a fun and interesting setting.
Romance is seldom my favorite part of a book, so I’m not going to dive deep into the fact that it wasn’t my favorite part of this one either. Overall, the contemporary romance was nice, with an emphasis on more than just physical attraction, although that certainly played a major role as well. I was less comfortable with the sham marriage in the historical timeline. I’m not a fan of couples pretending they’re married and spending four months sharing a room. But I did appreciate that the references to marital intimacy or the lack thereof were fairly tasteful.
Parts of this story are very sad, yet the book as a whole does not feel unbearably so. It’s the sort of book where you start to feel far too invested in the characters for your own good, and that’s a compliment to the author. I also really enjoyed Harper’s relationship with her father—their give-and-take and her seeking of his counsel were especially refreshing since I recently finished a book where the heroine’s rudeness to her father was apparently supposed to be a sign of strength. The sweet relationships between so many different characters really made this book shine. The writing style was also enjoyable for me—a bit winding, perhaps, with a lyrical style not as pronounced as Amanda Dykes or Jan Karon but still with a gently dramatic rhythm.
This is a story of hope and courage in the face of circumstances that demand impossible choices. It’s a story of looking to the light, of recognizing God’s redirection instead of losing hope. The message is not always obvious, as much of the story lies more along the lines of pursuing one’s dreams than pursuing him, but the theme is still clearly there: God is the mender of all that’s tattered.
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Jayna Baas is the author of Preacher on the Run. She is a member of ACFW and The Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network. Sign up for her newsletter and receive a free short story here.