Book Review: Family Blessings by Anna Schmidt

Her four stepchildren are thrilled when they learn an ice cream shop will be opening in their small Amish community. But widow Pleasant Obermeier isn't so pleased. Spending time with handsome shop owner Jeremiah Troyer is too much for a woman who's only ever been wounded by love. And now he wants to use her baking skills in his shop? Out of the question A harsh childhood left Jeremiah convinced that family life wasn't for him. Yet something about the Obermeiers moves his heart. If he can win Pleasant's trust and learn to trust himself, then he may gain the ultimate blessing--a lifetime of love. (Love Inspired, October 2011)

RATING: 3 out of 5 (Above Average)

This was a nice, easy read, but I didn't find it quite as compelling as the first book in the series. Part of my problem might just have been that I finished Love Comes to Paradise by Mary Ellis--which I absolutely adored--right before I started this book, and nothing really would have lived up to Love Comes to Paradise. I liked the unique details in the story, such as Jeremiah's ice-cream shop and the historical context of the depression and how it affected the Amish community. It was also interesting to find a book that acknowledged that abusive relationships can exist among Amish communities, even if it was sad that the community knew how Merle was treating his family and never had intervened. But ultimately, the romance itself wasn't as engaging as others I've come across in the Love Inspired Historical line, and I felt that the final conflict just stretched the story out rather than adding to it. I have enjoyed reading the Amish Brides of Celery Fields series and would quite like to find out what happens to Greta and Lydia, even if Pleasant's story wasn't as interesting as Hannah's. Ultimately, this wasn't the sort of book that gripped me, making it very easy to put down, but it was still a relaxing read and a solid addition to the LIH line.

Love on the Range - Jessica Nelson

GENRE: HISTORICAL ROMANCE 
PUBLISHER: LOVE INSPIRED/HARLEQUIN 
PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 03, 2012 
RATING: 8 OUT OF 10 – VERY GOOD 

PROS: Unique heroine; unusual subject matter for a historical novel 

CONS: Jumped point of view confusingly in the middle of scenes; action scenes were rushed 

As much as Gracelyn Riley hates to be separated from her best friend, Connie, she couldn’t be more excited about being shipped off to Oregon to stay with her Uncle Lou until the Spanish influenza epidemic calms down in Boston. Rumour has it that the infamous Agent Striker has been spotted not far from her uncle’s ranch, and if she can get an interview with him, this could be her big break into journalism. Gracie is tired of living under her parents’ control and a career as a journalist would allow her to avoid being married off to an unappealing society gentleman. 

Unfortunately her initial experiences at the ranch are unexciting, and Gracie spends more time scrubbing floors and helping to prepare meals than hunting for clues about Striker. The townsfolk in nearby Burns won’t say a word about Striker, and the only interesting aspect of life with Uncle Lou is his neighbour, Trevor. Gracie isn’t entirely sure what Trevor’s relationship to her uncle is, but the scar on his face certainly makes him intriguing. She’s convinced that if anyone knows anything about Striker, it must be Trevor. But as their horse-riding lessons progress into something far deeper, Gracie has to figure out where her heart truly lies. Up until she met Trevor, she was convinced that she’d leave Oregon as soon as the flu epidemic was over and she had an interview with Striker, but now she’s unsure. But her attraction to Trevor doesn’t stop her poking her head into places where it doesn’t belong, and sooner or later, she finds herself involved in a situation that’s far more dangerous than she ever expected to find on a ranch in Oregon... 

I’m particularly fond of strong heroines, but they’re not as easy to come by in historical romances as you might expect. Often the archetypal romance heroine is the kind that continually needs rescuing or is prone to fainting at the drop of a hat. I’d like to say that Gracelyn was sort of a mixture between a strong heroine and the typical romantic heroine, but she’s not quite that straight forward. She seemed very strong at times and was incredibly sure of herself and what she wanted to do in life, but at the same time she was only twenty, and still quite vulnerable and naive. While she wanted nothing more than to travel around Oregon on a horse, hunting for Striker, she didn’t realise what a dangerous position she was putting herself in. Headstrong, but not always wise in the ways of the world, Gracie was a very appealing heroine, the kind that I cared about but was also quite proud of in places. It’s not often that I find this mixture in historical novels, especially category romances such as the Love Inspired line that Love on the Range is part of. 

The characterisation in this novel isn’t the only thing that made it stand out for me. Love on the Range happens to be the second novel set in 1918 that I’ve read in 2012, and while the subject matter and plot of Jessica’s novel are very different from Murray Pura’s The Wings of Morning, both of them made me realise what a precarious time period it was to live in. Not only was the First World War on the verge of ending, but the country was being destroyed by a horrible Spanish flu which many of the returning soldiers caught when they returned home. Technological changes were taking place, some of which hadn’t yet reached Uncle Lou’s ranch in Oregon, such as a telephone, which separated Gracie from her friends and family in Boston. It was also a difficult period for women, who were starting to wear trousers and work in factories due to the necessities of contributing to the war effort, but other women were determined to put an end to this liberalisation once the war was over. Gracie struck me as a woman stuck between two worlds, protected by her conservative upbringing yet determined to embrace all of these new possibilities that were opening up for women, particularly by wearing trousers and writing articles for a newspaper. 

While I loved the plot and characterisation of Love on the Range, I did struggle when it came to some of the structural issues when it came to the story telling. As with many romance novels, Love on the Range was written in third-person point of view but did show the hero and heroine’s perspective on matters. I definitely prefer novels that show the hero’s point of view to those that don’t, but I felt that Jessica “head-hopped” between Gracie and Trevor a bit too much for my liking, it could become quite distracting when it occurred in the middle of a scene without me realising it. One minute Gracie would be talking and I’d get a snippet of her internal thoughts, but then three lines later I’d realise that the thoughts I were reading were actually Trevor’s, and that the perspective had changed without me noticing. Incidents like this jerked me out of my reading experience and I often had to reread the whole page before I got caught up in the story again. My other minor issue regarded the action scenes, which definitely broke the monotony of the typical historical romance, but sometimes sped by so fast and were resolved a bit too easily and conveniently for my liking. One of them went by in such a flash that I had to go back and check that I hadn’t missed anything vital. For the most part, my issues with the structuring of certain scenes didn’t affect my enjoyment of the novel too much, but they did occasionally interrupt the flow of reading. 

It’s incredibly encouraging to come across such an unusual storyline and protagonist in a debut novel, particularly one in the Love Inspired category romance line, where authors have a smaller number of pages in which to tell their story. Love on the Range will appeal to long-term fans of historical romance, particularly those who are looking for something a bit different that pushes the usual boundaries. While the scene progression of the novel didn’t always flow as well as it could have, I’m confident that this is something that Jessica will be able to improve on in her next novel, which I’ll be keeping my eye out for. 

Review title provided by author. 

Hannah's Journey - Anna Schmidt

Hannah's Journey by Anna Schmidt
#1 in Amish Brides of Celery Fields series

READ: JAN 17 - 21, 2012
RATING: 8 OUT OF 10

What could bring an Amish widow and a wealthy circus owner together? Though Hannah Goodloe knew she'd violated countless unwritten laws, she had to visit the only man who could help find her runaway son. But when the enigmatic Levi Harmon agreed to take her on his train, the results were utterly unpredictable.

Levi never expected to find the embodiment of all he wanted in a woman in the soft-spoken, plainly dressed Hannah. And for Hannah, to love an outsider was to be shunned. The simple pleasures of family, faith and place to belong seemed an impossible dream. Unless Levi unlocked his past and opened his heart to God's plan.

I was initially rather sceptical of the premise of a story based around an Amish woman and a circus owner but this book turned out to be very compelling and enlightening with regards to life in 1920s Florida. The circus details were fascinating, particularly to someone whose only knowledge of circuses comes from Enid Blyton books, as was the information about the new Amish settlements that formed in Sarasota in this period. 

All the members of Hannah's family were very engaging and I can't wait to read Pleasant's story and see her get her happy ending. There were a few details that made Hannah's community different from those I've read about in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky, although this may also be because some small changes have been made to the Amish way of life since 1920.

One thing that made this novel stand out from other historical or Amish romances was that the story didn't end with Hannah and Levi deciding to get married, but followed them past their wedding day to several months afterwards. I won't give anything away, but I will say that Hannah and Levi have some personal issues to overcome regarding concerns over infertility and starting a new family in a second marriage. Initially I was unsure as to whether I enjoyed reading a romance that continued after the couple have been happily married, but Hannah and Levi's struggles were genuine and I really felt for them as they tried to overcome them together. I had a big smile on my face when I finished this book!

I've read one of Anna Schmidt's Love Inspired Historical novels before, Seaside Cinderella, and I think I prefer this one because the characters seemed more fleshed out and all had very distinct personalities, even secondary characters such as Lily and Gunther. Her writing has definitely developed with time and I'll be looking out for more of her books in the future.

I read this book for Fans of Amish Fiction's January Group Read.

Seaside Cinderella - Anna Schmidt

The tranquility of Nantucket Island offered poor but proud Lucie McNeil refuge, a place to dream about a better life. Her quiet existence as companion to an elderly couple was a blessing for the tragedy-haunted Irish immigrant. But all that changed when her employers' handsome, elegantly attired son stepped ashore. For she recognized him instantly as the owner of the Boston factory where a terrible fire had scarred her forever. She knew she should hate Gabriel Hunter, yet she could not. She found herself drawn to the caring soul she sensed behind the ruthless facade he showed the world. And she could not help dreaming that such different people a poor servant girl and a wealthy merchant prince might somehow make a life together.

It took a while for me to truly get immersed in this story, but by the end I was glad that I'd read it. I think this is partly because the romance between the main characters didn't really start until halfway into the book, but once this happened the pace picked up and I began to enjoy it a lot more. This was a simple story, and I'll admit that while the characters didn't have a lot of depth I did come to relate to them on some level. I loved the setting of Nantucket, which sounds like a lovely place, and the secondary characters of Emma and Jonathan. In places Emma's romantic tales seemed a bit over-the-top, but they provided a nice background to the events in the story. I would have to say that the last two or three chapters of this book are what push it from a 6/10 to a 7/10, as at this stage the emotions between Lucie and Gabe finally seemed real and I could understand their difficulties. In some ways Gabe's actions at the end of the book were a bit predictable and slightly unrealistic, but I was pleased that the solution to their problems wasn't something that I'd expected. All in all, this was a sweet, uncomplicated little romance which provided me with much needed entertainment while relaxing after my exams. The characters weren't quite as fleshed out as I'd like, but I enjoyed the refreshing change of setting and plot from many romances I've read lately. I'll be looking out for more books from Anna Schmidt and more from the Love Inspired Historical line. 7/10