I can’t remember the last time I’ve said this, but I recommend that you read the first one of this series first. This book jumps right into the story of the Kincaid brides. I think I like this one better than the first one. One reason is that I related to Audra more than I did to Julia; maybe it’s because there’s things I’m making myself be brave and do in my life lately. I like that the hero, Ethan, uses a Bible promise to help him through a really tough time.

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An easy, relaxing read, but a bit slow. It has good characters, and  a good variety of them. Jeremy was one of my favorites; and Esau was just plain fun. A good plot that hasn’t been done a million and one times. An undercurrent of religious faith is felt more than read throughout the story. Reading over what I just read – it’s an all around good book.

For this one I have to mention the cover. Doesn’t she just look so happy?

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[Psst - book giveaway info at bottom of this post]

Another good read from Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey! The story line is interesting and fresh with some great twists and turns along the way. Gabi and Eric seem almost too good to be true, but that’s how the best heroines and heroes are. The bad guys are the perfect guys to hate, the subplot with Colette and Bernard is intermingled very well and the supporting characters come in at just the right times. There is historical information mixed in with the fiction. The bad part is that now I would really like to see the Mona Lisa in real life.

I would have classified this as Christian fiction because of knowing Tricia Goyer’s other writings, But when I started to write this I realized that there are next to no spiritual references. It’s a good, clean, interesting, historical fiction book.

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My 7 year old daughter wanted to read it as soon as she saw this book. The illustrations are fun in the bright colors that she loves; they make the reader smile right along with Poppy. The lesson in the story applies to young and old alike. My favorite phrase is, “A smile is the same in any language.”

It definitely continues on after the first one, but is fine to read out of order. I think if you fall in love with one book you’ll want to get the other one.

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I’m not sure what to think about this book. I read it all – straight through; it kept my interest that way. I did not like the way it constantly jumped back and forth between the past and present. The italics made it easy to remember what time period the story was in, but they often did not tie in together and I wish that it would have been in chronological order. I felt like I was just starting to figure out the characters and then it stopped. It didn’t feel like it ended; I’m left with a lot of unanswered questions. The spiritual references are really vague. The time period is very well portrayed with interesting details. I would rather have the story focused on one or two main people instead of trying to tell about the whole town.

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