REVIEW of WHERE THE HEART IS, Romance Collection: Love Is a Journey in Nine Historical Novellas  (a 2016 publication from Barbour Books)

These charming frontier love stories take place on the American frontier in the 1860’s, just before, during, and after the Civil War. Men who have tired of war and its horrors have moved west to make a fresh start and a better life, and those men need brides. Each of these stories is about a couple who meet for the first time when the bride from back east arrives in her new western home just in time to marry a stranger, with whom she has only exchanged a few letters.

Each story is unique in its premise and in the obstacles its characters must overcome, but all of these novellas end happily with a loving couple and a marriage grounded in faith in Christ.   Scripture and faith are woven into each story in a natural, flowing manner just as they would occur in the conversations of people living in that time and place. But these characters are real people with faults, prejudices, strengths and weaknesses. They sin and require forgiveness; they misunderstand and must learn to communicate; they act before they think and then deal with the inevitable regrets.

Christian ladies will enjoy these fascinating people, times, and settings as well as nine sweetly romantic stories without foul language or immoral behavior being treated as normal.   Fans of Janette Oke will love this collection of well written and entertaining

novellas.

Novellas included:

Where the Heart Is, Sally Laity

The Midwife’s Apprentice, Rhonda Gibson

Murder or Matrimony, Pamela Kaye Tracey

Bride in the Valley, Andrea Boeshaar

New Garden’s Inspiration, Claire Sanders

A Tender Branch, Jane LaMunyon

Knight and Day, Erica Vetsch

On a White Charger, Erica Vetsch

The Wonder of Spring, Carol Cox