This is a good read about three very strong characters right on the edge of adulthood. It has a great first line too.

1. Libby loves to write, but takes the easy way for money. I enjoyed reading about her growth and literal search for God.
2. Pete has had a peg leg since childhood but doesn’t let it slow him down. He gets wise counsel and stands for the right. I can’t tell you more about him without ruining the story.
3. Bennett is the partying athlete that does care for his friends, but doesn’t always show it the right way. I’m guessing he’s a main character in another book because of the way it ends. [Read more...]

Elements of this book that I liked:

• semi-mail order bride,
• not promised before hand,
• teaching and learning,
• a bit of mystery – and cattle rustlers,
• salvation,
• God’s love,
• reaping what you sow,
• how hard the wives of ranchers worked,
• lesson on not lumping a group of people into the same category.

It was easy to follow and relaxing to read without being boring. There were a couple unexpected twists that helped with that. The characters were real and I related to aspects of each one of them – except the villian.

Here is the backcover copy: [Read more...]

I’ve always found stories of immigrants interesting. In Fields of Grace by Kim Vogel Sawyer the family leaves Russia in the 1870s and heads to Kansas, America, so that their sons will not be forced to enter the army. I know that stories like this happened in real life and I wonder how the people did it. What kind of vision did they have to leave everything they knew and loved and start over from scratch?

The heroine of this book, Lillian, goes through tremendous physical changes as well as emotional and spiritual. She changes modes of travel, countries, husbands, houses, types of food, and much more. Being raised in the Mennonite faith and married to a faithful Mennonite man she had just gone on living the faith she knew and was surrounded with. When times get rough she remembers the hymns first. Then she turns to the Bible. Lillian has one more major trial that causes her to reject God’s teachings before she once again embraces the idea that the Lord is her friend. [Read more...]