Axel's business partner, William Stanton, has no head for business and would much rather be a doctor. When his friend's mail-order bride arrives in town with no money and no groom in sight, he feels responsible and lets her help around the store--where she quickly proves she's much more adept at business than he ever will be.
The sparks that fly between Will and Eliza as they work together in close quarters are hard to ignore, but Eliza is meant for Axel and a future with the store, while Will is biding his time until he can afford medical school. However, their troubles are far from over when Axel finally returns, and soon both Will and Eliza must decide what they're willing to sacrifice to chase their dreams--or if God has a new dream in store for them both.
My thoughts: Initially it took me a while to get into this book. I'm not sure why, because the beginning scene was a train hold up...and very exciting. I guess once our main character, Eliza, got off the train the action slowed down quite a bit. As I continued to read on, however, the story became more engaging as there were some nice plot twists and unexpected events. Eliza also took a journey of self-discovery that I was able to relate to.
Some Facebook comments on an author friend's page that I read recently pointed out that when you pick up a Christian fiction romance novel...you should expect a romance! : ) So I expected there to be a romantic interest for Eliza. The fun part about reading this genre is the journey that a character goes on. What twists and turns will be in the story that will affect the outcome? Who will the hero/heroine end up with? What will the character learn through developing a relationship with someone? There are going to be a few predictable elements, but I found this novel to have just the right amount of interesting characters, plot twists, and romantic moments to keep my interest throughout.
Eliza was so confident in some things, like her abilities as a store manager, and yet so insecure about others, like her appearance. Her past caused her to struggle with a need to depend only on herself, striving at all costs to get what she wanted and felt she deserved. Don't we all struggle with that to a degree? Entitlement. I know I do. Throughout the novel we see how she deals with this and how it affects her relationship with two men...Axel and Will.
Will is definitely the hero in this story, but he also struggles with insecurity. It is almost crippling for him. He makes bad business decisions, trusts someone who shouldn't be trusted, and helps people to a degree that it's harmful to his own welfare. It can be a little frustrating at times, and hard to read. But Will is also very kind and endearing, which made me believe that he was the kind of guy that Eliza could like.
Overall, by the time I finished this novel I really enjoyed it. There were times when the pace lagged a little bit for me, but it would always pick back up and a new, unexpected thing would happen.
My rating:
****
4 stars
Happy reading!
*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in order to give an unbiased review*
*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in order to give an unbiased review*
2 comments:
I had the same struggles as you did while reading the book. I felt like the author focused quite a bit on Will's flaws and his lack of confidence was really off-putting. I didn't feel like there was much chemistry between the main characters either. I ended up giving it three stars.
Yeah...I really struggled with how to rate this book. Maybe I should do away with my ratings system because I have a hard time going below 4 stars : ). Like I said on facebook, I think the end redeemed it for me, and a few plot twists (Axel) made it interesting, but it was definitely a close one! Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Heidi!
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