PUBLISHER: HARVEST HOUSE
PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 01, 2012
RATING: 8 OUT OF 10 – VERY GOOD
PROS: Unusual blend of Amish culture in
a wild-west historical setting; unconventional ending; amusing secondary characters
CONS: Romance is fairly predictable;
heroine constantly gets into trouble and needs rescuing
Emma Switzer
never wanted to leave Apple Grove to live with her aunt, but she wouldn’t have
wished having their wagon stolen by thieves partway into their journey in order
to prevent her from leaving. Stranded in the prairie with her father,
grandmother and younger sister, Emma struggles to have the faith to believe
that they will find a way out of this situation. When her family stumbles
across a trading settlement and finds a rugged cowboy thrown at their feet, her
father is convinced that God has sent this man to help them. Emma can’t help
but think, “The Lord might have cleaned
him up first.” But first impressions can be deceiving, and as Emma and her
family travel along side Luke Carson’s cattle drive to the nearest town she
finds herself increasingly drawn to the young cowboy. Her father disapproves of
their growing relationship and is keen to get her back to their Amish
settlement, where there are no such temptations. Could an Amish woman and a
trail boss ever set aside their differences for the sake of love? Or are there
too many aspects of their disparate lifestyles keeping them apart?
Sometimes,
you just need a book that puts a smile on your face and makes you feel relaxed
and content. The Heart’s Frontier was such a book. The novel also had the
added bonus of being a mixture of Amish and historical fiction, two of my
favourite genres, and a blend that is slowly becoming more popular. Anna Schmidt has written about an Amish boy
who runs away with the circus in the 1920s, while Murray Pura has tackled the treatment of the
Amish as conscientious objectors during WWI. Joining this sub-genre of Amish
fiction, The Heart’s Frontier features an Amish family who are robbed of
all their belongings while travelling across Kansas to stay with relatives, and
end up relying on the help of a cowboy leading a cattle drive across the
country. I wasn’t so much sceptical of a wild-west Amish novel, but rather intrigued.
I do enjoy western historicals, but the difficulty with writing about the Amish
in the late nineteenth century is that they don’t have the barriers of
electricity and technology to set them apart from those around them. It was
interesting to see how the authors tackled the less overt differences that made
them stand out; namely, the modesty of the women’s clothing, their temperance
and non-violence, and obviously, their commitment to God in all things.
Unlike some
romance novels, I didn’t feel that The Heart’s Frontier had a plot with
a distinct start, middle and end. As Emma’s family travelled across Kansas with
the cattle drive the characters and their relationships with each other also
went on a journey, and the novel depicted how their attitudes towards each
other changed over the course of the novel. While there were a few distinct
incidents throughout the novel that moved the plot in one way or another, it
felt more character-driven than plot-driven. The secondary characters provided
a lot of amusement, particularly with the clash of Amish culture against the
attitudes of the men on the cattle drive. There were plenty of moments that
almost made me laugh out loud, from Emma’s grandmother’s constant stream of
proverbs to Emma learning to lasso a cow. All in all, it was a gentle, relaxing
read, and although Emma and Luke didn’t have a lot of personal hurdles to
overcome, I enjoyed witnessing how their friendship developed. Because of the
conditions under which their romance blossomed – chaperoned by Emma’s father,
grandmother and the entire cattle drive, as well as Emma being Amish and used
to strict courtship traditions – the focus was more on the two of them getting
to know each other and included far more wistful glances and gentle touches
than passion and chemistry.
I did feel
that their romance bordered on being of the “love at first sight” sort, which
is not a favourite of mine. However, considering the circumstances in which the
story is set and the genre nature of the romance, it did suit the novel. There
are many variations of Christian romance novels, and there are some that are
definitely aimed at more mature, married women. This is not one of those, and I
wouldn’t hesitate to recommend The Heart’s Frontier to a young
teenage girl. It’s a very sweet romance and ridiculously squeaky clean; the
hero and heroine don’t even kiss until the last chapter. And while I do prefer
the edgier romances that dare to show the passion a couple can feel for each
other, there are times when a sweet romance is entirely satisfying. Yes, The
Heart’s Frontier was rather predictable, but the mesh of historical and
Amish elements definitely made the well-used “forbidden love” storyline into
something original. I didn’t mind the predictability of the romance so much as
I did the fact that Emma was continually getting into trouble – being kidnapped
or dragged away by a rampaging cow or trampled by a herd of cows – and needing
to be rescued by Luke. Each time something happened to her, Luke would rescue
her and they’d realise how much they cared about each other. I wouldn’t mind
this so much, but it was used at least three times throughout the novel and I
kind of wished the authors had used different ways of bringing Emma and Luke
together. But the unexpected ending more than made up for the predictable
elements in the story. Amish romances involving outsiders have a tendency to
end the same way, so I was pleasantly surprised at the way Lori and Virginia
chose to conclude The Heart’s Frontier.
The
Heart’s Frontier takes a
well-used romance of forbidden love and turns it into something new by having
its Amish heroine fall for a rugged cowboy. The predictability of the plot is
made up for in the unique period and setting of the story, as well as the
amusing antics of various secondary characters. While I wouldn’t place the
first book in the Amish of Apple Grove
series among my favourite Amish or historical novels, it was a very enjoyable
reading experience and I would definitely consider reading the next book in the
series. I imagine that those who are fans of Amish fiction and western
historicals would enjoy this mesh of the two genres.
Review
title provided by Harvest House Publishers.
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