Beloved Hope

A man can't live without hope. Nor can a woman and in Beloved Hope by Tracie Peterson, Hope Flanagan comes face to face with her past she longed to forget that happened two years ago. The Whitman Massacre had led to the deaths of more than just Dr. Whitman and his wife, but also the only man Hope wanted to marry and loved with all her heart. Watching him being killed in front of her while she watched the life seep out of him was hard for her, but not before being taken captive by the Cayuse Indians who staged this. She was raped and left with an unborn child of the man who had taken more than just her innocence. She wanted nothing more out of life including her own. But after giving birth and placing that child into the hands of a couple who wanted a baby, Hope could not seem to find her way back to any normal sense of life. Even two years later, she built up such a wall around her, that all she wanted was to be left alone and far away from friends or even finding another man to love.

Now that she has been asked to testify in the trial of the five Cayuse Indians responsible for the murders of those at the Whitman Mission, she knows she can never let the possibility of the one man who took more than just her life away, walk away if they found him not guilty. In fact there was fear of that in light of those in the US government who wanted to grant peace between the white men and the Indians, even if it meant letting them go free. Hope was going to make sure the last thing this Indian did was to walk free. Perhaps that is why she managed to sneak past the armed guards and found her way into the jail cell that held the man who had taken everything from her. Now she was going to ensure he never lived another day, when she pulled the gun from her pocket. She just needed to find a way to pull the trigger and then it would all be over.

Lieutenant Lance Kenner wasn't about to let Hope make a mistake and when he saw her holding the gun on one of his prisoners, he assured her that this man's life wasn't worth her time. He knew that her and most of the women in Oregon City were trying to come to terms with what had happened and Hope was so sure that no man would want her ever again. But Lance Kenner was not like the men she had met before. Being from New Orleans and having lost his own family, all he was looking for when he met Hope was simply a friend to help get him through this trial so he could be done with serving his time and get back to running the plantation his family had left him. But it seems that they both might just need the right friend in order to gain more than just their hope back, but also to learn to trust God and understand that forgiveness isn't about letting someone off the hook, it's about letting go of the hurt they have caused you that you continue to carry with you every single day.

I received Beloved Hope by Tracie Peterson compliments of Baker Publishing Group and Net Galley. In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, you should assume that every book reviewed here at Reviews From The Heart was provided to the reviewer by the publisher, media group or the author for free and were received, unless specified otherwise.  This is the second novel in the Heart of the Frontier Series which picks up two years later after the Whitman Massacre that Treasured Grace covered in the first novel. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to face your accusers and I understood the feelings of hatred and anger that Hope must have felt. You would hope there would be a release of those feelings once the guilty have been punished but as most of us know, it doesn't happen like we would want to believe it would. Unless we choose to let go of those past feelings and let God handle it, we will continue to drag around that chain until it grows too heavy for us and life simply continues to pass us by. I give this a 4.5 out of 5 stars and can't wait for the third novel that must revolve around Mercy's life, the youngest of the Flanagan sisters.

For more information about Beloved Hope, Tracie Peterson or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

Beloved Hope by Tracie Peterson

You can find Tracie Peterson on Facebook to stay up to date on all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on Beloved Hope, please visit Baker Publishing Group's website.