To Love a Stranger by Colleen Coble is a historical western romance set in 1868. It's the story of Bessie Randall, a mail order bride from Boston, and Jasper Mendenhall, a soldier who is to be stationed in Fort Bowie, Arizona Territory. The initial conflict is that Jasper unwittingly and legally marries Bessie by proxy, thinking that she is actually her sister, Lenore, with whom Jasper had been corresponding for six months. In addition, Bessie doesn't know that she has legally married Jasper, because Lenore had impersonated her sister by using Bessie's name, even though she had mailed her own picture to Jasper. Lenore no longer wishes to join Jasper because she has met another man whom she has become interested in, and begs Bessie to take her place so that her deception will not be exposed to their parents and to society. Lenore asks her sister to make this sacrifice in order to save Lenore's reputation, which would be in ruins if word gets out about what she has done.
Bessie is the homelier sister. She has always longed for a man to love her and to have a family of her own. Compared to her pretty and vivacious sister who is surrounded by beaus, Bessie has been frequently overlooked by men. Even though she initially balks at participating in the deception, Bessie agrees to go west to join Jasper, partly because of her own desires and dreams. She hopes that he will forgive her, accept her as his wife, and eventually come to love her.
Jasper is pretty angry about the deception when Bessie arrives in Lenore's place. He can't understand why Bessie and Lenore didn't tell him the truth before Bessie travelled out west to meet him. When he discovers that Bessie had also been deceived by Lenore, he still wonders why she didn't write to clear up the mess, and wonders at her motivation in following through with the deception. It is difficult for him to trust her, even though he senses integrity in her character. He is also uncertain that Bessie's frail appearance will make it easy for her to survive on the trail and at Fort Bowie once they arrive there. He plans to consult an attorney to see what their options are after they travel to his new posting. Will Bessie be able to win Jasper's love so that he won't seek a divorce?
The plot seemed to allude to a Leah/Rachel/Jacob triangle. Bessie is the unattractive older sister who finds it hopeless to win the love of her husband because she fears that he loves the younger more attractive sister. She has issues with self acceptance because of her looks, which leave her vulnerable to doubts about whether Jasper could ever come to love her.
Jasper, on the other hand, begins to find that who he thought he wanted might not be the best for him as he gets to know Bessie better with each passing day. However, various circumstances arise which threaten their fledgling marriage.
When I saw To Love a Stranger on NetGalley, I snapped it up because it was written by Colleen Coble. I really enjoyed her contemporary novel, Tidewater Inn, but I didn't recall reading any of her historicals, so I was looking forward to reading this western romance. However, while I was going through To Love a Stranger, I kept thinking that it didn't seem to match my memories of what I expected a Colleen Coble novel to deliver, and after some digging on the internet, I found out that To Love a Stranger is being re-released by Thomas Nelson in 2016. It had originally been published by Heartsong Presents in 2000. Basically, I would say that To Love a Stranger is a decent story, but Tidewater Inn, released in 2012, is an even better written novel. You can tell the difference in Ms. Coble's storytelling over the years when you compare the two. If I had not known that Ms. Coble had written To Love a Stranger, I would have said that it was a fairly good story. I must confess that my opinion of To Love a Stranger is biased because of my previous experience with Ms. Coble's later book.
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of "To Love a Stranger" by Colleen Coble from NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
Friday 22 April 2016
Thursday 14 April 2016
Review: Parting Secrets by Becky Melby and Cathy Wienke
I found Parting Secrets by Becky Melby and Cathy Wienke to be a surprise. I picked up the book as a freebie on Amazon yesterday. The title is from Heartsong Presents, an imprint that used to belong to Barbour Publishing. The imprint was purchased by Harlequin in 2012. Unfortunately, Heartsong Presents has since ceased being a published line, but many of its books are now appearing in e-book form as Truly Yours Digital Editions.
Parting Secrets has some interesting, uncomfortable, and complicated plot developments for a short Christian novel. For starters, the two protagonists, Jeanie Cholewinski and Steven Vandenburg, have a past, which resulted with Jeanie getting pregnant out of wedlock. That was challenging in itself, but the uncomfortable complication was that at the time, Jeanie was a seventeen year old high school student, and Steven was a 22 year old student teacher. When Jeanie realized that she was pregnant, she ran away to keep the pregnancy a secret from her family, and to protect Steven from being charged with statutory rape. She also left without telling Steven about the baby, and they do not see each other for almost thirty years.
Through what Jeanie and her mother would call "Godcidences," coincidences orchestrated by the Lord, Jeanie and Steven have been reunited at the wedding of their daughter. It is here where Steven finds out that Angel is his daughter and it's a bit much for Steven to take in. He struggles with the anger that he feels over Jeanie's abandonment and neglect in not telling him that he had a daughter. However, he still carries a torch in his heart for Jeanie after all these years, and now as a widower, he is free to finally pursue a much longed for relationship with her.
Jeanie, a baker, has had a hard life as a single mother. Her dream of becoming a teacher may be finally within her grasp when she enters a baking/pastry competition where the grand prize includes a nine month apprenticeship in France with a renown pastry chef. Now that her secret about Angel is finally out, she is ready to pursue this dream. She isn't ready to drop this in order to have Steven in her life. In addition, a dangerous man from her past is trying to pull her back into a dark lifestyle, one in which she had been trapped in for three years after she had left Steven. She cannot bear the thought of the exposure of this secret life being made known to her friends and family, especially to Angel and Steven.
Will Steven be able to convince Jeanie to give them a second chance? If Jeanie does choose Steven over the French apprenticeship, will Steven still want her after finding out what she did to survive in those mysterious three years? Will she also be able to protect Angel from the threats that the dangerous man is making?
SPOILER ALERT
At 176 pages, the authors have packed a lot into the plot with such limited room. There is plenty of foreshadowing about Jeanie's secret past, and although it wasn't exactly what I thought that it was going to be, her entrapment into and involvement in sexual exploitation added to the list of heavy topics that were touched on in this novel. Much of the emotional angst was centred on the fear that Steven would reject Jeanie once he finds out what she did during those three years. There was also Steven's turmoil over Jeanie's removal of his freedom to choose whether to go to jail for having sex with an under-aged female (and being reunited after his incarceration), or to have a life without Jeanie and Angel, a life that he always felt was second best.
If the novel were longer, I think that the story could have delved more into the guilt that our protagonists may have felt over their respective choices and actions. With a longer novel, I think that the issue of forgiveness could have also been developed further; Steven's anger over Jeanie's disappearance and withholding of Angel's existence seemed to be minimalized. Any anger or bitterness that the girls who were hurt by Jeanie during those dark three years seemed to be easily glossed over with the explanation that they knew and understood why she did what she did. Maybe, truly, people can be that gracious and forgiving, but it would interesting to think about what might have been if things were not that neat and tidy in the execution of this plot.
SPOILER ALERT OVER
As I mentioned before, Parting Secrets tackled quite a few taboo topics, making it a meatier novel than what I anticipated from such a short novel. The novel wasn't terribly heavy, but it had more substance in it than what I would have expected. I also found it intriguing that the protagonists were an older couple, rather the young'uns that appear in the majority of romances that are out in the market today.
Parting Secrets has some interesting, uncomfortable, and complicated plot developments for a short Christian novel. For starters, the two protagonists, Jeanie Cholewinski and Steven Vandenburg, have a past, which resulted with Jeanie getting pregnant out of wedlock. That was challenging in itself, but the uncomfortable complication was that at the time, Jeanie was a seventeen year old high school student, and Steven was a 22 year old student teacher. When Jeanie realized that she was pregnant, she ran away to keep the pregnancy a secret from her family, and to protect Steven from being charged with statutory rape. She also left without telling Steven about the baby, and they do not see each other for almost thirty years.
Through what Jeanie and her mother would call "Godcidences," coincidences orchestrated by the Lord, Jeanie and Steven have been reunited at the wedding of their daughter. It is here where Steven finds out that Angel is his daughter and it's a bit much for Steven to take in. He struggles with the anger that he feels over Jeanie's abandonment and neglect in not telling him that he had a daughter. However, he still carries a torch in his heart for Jeanie after all these years, and now as a widower, he is free to finally pursue a much longed for relationship with her.
Jeanie, a baker, has had a hard life as a single mother. Her dream of becoming a teacher may be finally within her grasp when she enters a baking/pastry competition where the grand prize includes a nine month apprenticeship in France with a renown pastry chef. Now that her secret about Angel is finally out, she is ready to pursue this dream. She isn't ready to drop this in order to have Steven in her life. In addition, a dangerous man from her past is trying to pull her back into a dark lifestyle, one in which she had been trapped in for three years after she had left Steven. She cannot bear the thought of the exposure of this secret life being made known to her friends and family, especially to Angel and Steven.
Will Steven be able to convince Jeanie to give them a second chance? If Jeanie does choose Steven over the French apprenticeship, will Steven still want her after finding out what she did to survive in those mysterious three years? Will she also be able to protect Angel from the threats that the dangerous man is making?
SPOILER ALERT
At 176 pages, the authors have packed a lot into the plot with such limited room. There is plenty of foreshadowing about Jeanie's secret past, and although it wasn't exactly what I thought that it was going to be, her entrapment into and involvement in sexual exploitation added to the list of heavy topics that were touched on in this novel. Much of the emotional angst was centred on the fear that Steven would reject Jeanie once he finds out what she did during those three years. There was also Steven's turmoil over Jeanie's removal of his freedom to choose whether to go to jail for having sex with an under-aged female (and being reunited after his incarceration), or to have a life without Jeanie and Angel, a life that he always felt was second best.
If the novel were longer, I think that the story could have delved more into the guilt that our protagonists may have felt over their respective choices and actions. With a longer novel, I think that the issue of forgiveness could have also been developed further; Steven's anger over Jeanie's disappearance and withholding of Angel's existence seemed to be minimalized. Any anger or bitterness that the girls who were hurt by Jeanie during those dark three years seemed to be easily glossed over with the explanation that they knew and understood why she did what she did. Maybe, truly, people can be that gracious and forgiving, but it would interesting to think about what might have been if things were not that neat and tidy in the execution of this plot.
SPOILER ALERT OVER
As I mentioned before, Parting Secrets tackled quite a few taboo topics, making it a meatier novel than what I anticipated from such a short novel. The novel wasn't terribly heavy, but it had more substance in it than what I would have expected. I also found it intriguing that the protagonists were an older couple, rather the young'uns that appear in the majority of romances that are out in the market today.
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