I love novels that so completely fill my heart, overflowing
story, characters and the romance of love…love of faith in Christ and the
romantic love that promises more than just a happy ending for characters I’ve
fallen in love with.
What’s
the first word we think of when we want to describe a book we’ve adored? Love.
It seems too simple, too cliché a description for when I think of Eden and
Silas upon the page.
There
is a rhythm, a cadence to their story, the words sweeping me into eighteenth
century America. When I started reading their story, I thought the beginning a
bit slow, but read much further than one hundred pages and you’ll find two well-crafted
characters rise from the ashes of their circumstances. Circumstances that made
me want to leap through the pages and fight for them together.
The
novel takes a heart rending turn almost three quarters of the way through the
story and I ached for the time lost in the romance between these two
characters. There is a passion to their story, not romantically, but in their
faith, in how they live life.
Eden
and Silas are larger than life, filling the pages, my mind with glorious
word-painted images and my heart with the purity of their romance. My only
wish? The novel hadn’t ended with their beginning. But I can’t wait to see them
together again in book two of the Ballantyne Legacy.
This
review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers for my copy to review.
**Available
September 2012 from Revell, a division of Baker Publishers**
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
More about the novel...
On a bitter December day in 1785, Silas Ballantyne arrives at the door of master blacksmith Liege Lee in York, Pennsylvania. Just months from becoming a master blacksmith himself, Silas is determined to finish his apprenticeship and move west. But Liege soon discovers that Silas is a prodigious worker and craftsman and endeavors to keep him in Lancaster. Silas becomes interested in both of Liege's daughters, the gentle and faith-filled Eden and the clever and high-spirited Elspeth. When he chooses one, will the other's jealousy destroy their love?
In this sweeping family saga set in western Pennsylvania, one man's choices in love and work, in friends and enemies, set the stage for generations to come. "Love's Reckoning" is the first entry in The Ballantyne Legacy, a rich, multi-layered historical quartet from talented writer Laura Frantz, beginning in the late 1700s and following the Ballantyne family through the end of the Civil War.
Oh, Case, this is one of my ALL-TIME favorites and one of the BEST books I have ever read in the CBA ... or ABA. Absolutely LOVED it, which was no surprise because I love EVERYTHING Laura Frantz writes -- she is a pinnacle author in the CBA, in my humble opinion. What did surprise me, however, was how this book took my breath away -- and I do mean that literally. Toward the end of the book, my chest was tight and my heart pounding and I suppose it could have been my atrial fibrillation acting up, but I suspect -- no, I KNOW -- it was Laura Frantz's truly amazing skill that wreaked havoc with my heart -- AND my sleep!!
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, Laura Frantz is one of the kindest and most gentle people I know and a soul friend -- like you! -- for whom I thank God over and over.
Hugs,
Julie
When I saw your endorsement, I knew that one would NOT have come lightly! Laura IS one of the dearest ladies I've met--including yourself. ;-)
DeleteBeautiful review, Casey!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Beth! Something about Laura's writing draws it out of me. :)
DeleteWonderful review, Casey! I know what you mean about aching for the time lost, as I felt the same way. I totally wasn't expecting that.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't either! So hard to read that section.
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