Hearts Awakening...Review

About the book:
With no means to support herself, Ellie Kilmer agrees to work as a housekeeper for the young widower who lives on Dillon Island, hopeful she can obtain a proper reference. But Jackson Smith quickly realizes that Ellie's presence may solve his own problems--both the rearing of his young boys and the scandal that surrounds his first marriage. When a marriage of convenience is offered, Ellie is initially humiliated. Though she is past the age most women marry, she has more pride than to agree to his outlandish suggestion. Yet what options does she have? To marry would mean a home and stability. So despite the rumors circling Jackson and his first wife, Ellie accepts this unlikely proposal...

An unconventional heroine and an unusual setting make for an interesting novel.

I enjoyed the island/orchard setting. I'm not familiar with Pennsylvania and the Susquehanna River, and the setting was curious, but easily pictured. As far as characterization goes, I loved that Ellie wasn't a beautiful young woman, but a plain spinster with no prospects. What a refreshing heroine. However, I found Jackson too angry and often mean to Ellie as he jumped to erroneous conclusion after conclusion. Yes, both had their baggage, and I see the point of each needing to work through their issues so they could fall in love, but there were several times when I just wanted to shake some sense into them both.

Ellie is the one with the common sense, wisdom and compassion for others and her inner beauty shines through and is what draws others to her. She struggles a bit with her own faith, but still moves forward, never giving up on God.

I thought that the issues of adultery and death of a spouse were well handled, nothing heavy handed. Overall, an easy book to read. I enjoyed it, I didn't absolutely love it. It's light Christian fiction with some life lessons thrown in for good measure.

Thanks to Bethany House for the opportunity to review this book.  You can learn more about Delia Parr here. You can purchase your own copy here.

Read 6/10

* * *
3/5 Stars


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