Belonging

As a girl, Felicia had asked God why her adoptive parents couldn't love her. Why had they taken her into their home if they hadn't really wanted her? She would never know the answer to that question, not in her lifetime anyway. But it was time to let go of the wound it had left on her heart. Now as Felicia Brennan Kristoffersen prepares to leave one life behind and begin another, she knows God will be by her side the whole way.

Boise, Idaho - 1887

Felicia's newest venture in life after leaving behind the life of caring for her adoptive parents, Britta and Lars Kristofferson who died hours within each other in their older years, is moving to Wyoming and taking on the job as the new school teacher for Frenchman's Bluff. It hadn't been an easy decision to make ever since learning that the only reason the Kristofferson's adopted her was because they had been childless, in their 60's and were looking for an older girl to help Britta in the kitchen with chores and to be a comfort to them in their old age.

After Felicia's mother died when she was a young girl and their father left them, she and her younger sister and older brother were placed in Dr. Clay's Asylum for Little Wanderers until they were each adopted and went their own separate ways. Now with the Kristofferson's deaths, Felicia is finally able to begin a path in her own life that doesn't have anyone telling her what to do. Her only desire is to pour forth her passion into teaching and forget all about love and romance.

Colin Murphy, proprietor of Murphy's Mercantile in Frenchman's Bluff isn't looking forward to the towns new teacher. He was one of two that voted against hiring Felicia Kristofferson and instead wanted a man to come and teach. The past teachers had been more concerned with finding husbands that they were in the welfare of the children they were teaching. Now he finds just caring for his young daughter, Charity and running the store will keep him from ever searching for love again. His wife Margaret died at an early age of 26 when Charity was only 3, so she really never knew her mother, but Colin couldn't forget her. But will God have different plans for Colin and Felicia?



In the novel Belonging by Robin Lee Hatcher, the reader is taken back to a simple time back in the 1800's and the story is here is one of belonging. For Felicia, it's trying to find not only her siblings that have been long separated through adoption, but also trying to find her own place in the world. For Colin, it's trying to find out what God's calling is in his own life, he faces being a single father that is often frowned upon by the wealthy Summerville family, who sees that Charity can use a mother's influence in her tom-boy like ways and they have the perfect person picked out for him, their own daughter, Kathleen, who also is widowed with two young girls.

As the story builds, you can see the town's people coming together in a variety of different ways and even using Felicia's own experience being adopted to help two boys that are being adopted by the Carpenter family that are being difficult at trying to fit in as well. Through it all, God's love always comes shining through and soon the town will see that each person is needed to make a body complete. This novel is part of the Where The Heart Lives Series and one I received compliments of Zondervan Publishers and Net Galley for my honest opinion. I absolutely LOVED this one and rate it a happily ever after, 5 out of 5 stars.

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Belonging by Robin Lee Hatcher

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