Broken Ground

I can't imagine trying to find a way to start all over again. To pick up the shattered pieces of your life and move forward. To know that while your parents might mean well, they don't know what it means to you to put your grief aside and make a fresh start even though you don't know the outcome. That is the thoughts and emotions of twenty-one-year old Ruth Warren who married the absolute love of her life, Charlie and settled in for a life despite the hardships of the Texas Dust bowl. Charlie works for the oil company and when an accident one day robs her of any future and family, Ruth falls into despair.

Most of the men living in the small town have also been a victim of that explosion and now all the families are packing up and headed west for new promises that they have heard of in California. All Ruth has even wanted beside love, is to learn. Learn things she has been told a woman shouldn't learn or told they don't pertain to her. So when she moves back home at the insistence of her parents, she takes up venturing back to her favorite place the library. She is immediately consoled by her favorite librarian who offers her a chance at a fresh start when the college applications she and Charlie had filled out, come back with full scholarships and a chance at a new future in Pasadena, California. The only issue is telling her parents.

As Ruth heads out to Pasadena she has her first experience in Union Station at discrimination and the way Mexicans are being placed on a train to be deported back to Mexico. It is when she takes her education to an entirely new level the more she learns about what is happening to those around her who have little say in what is happening and she finds a likely ally in Thomas Everly who will inspire her to new heights of hope not only in the lives of those she is helping but in her own life as well.

I received Broken Ground by Karen Halvorsen Schreck compliments of Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation aside from a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and personal evaluation. I love it when you find a great novel that tackles subjects from history that may have been briefly touched on, but are missing from our history books as of late. The author note at the end of the novel shares Karen's personal journey of how this novel evolved from one thing and arrived at the novel it is today. I would rate this one a 4 out of 5 stars.

For more information about Broken Ground, Karen Halvorsen Schreck or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below;

Broken Ground by Karen Halvorsen Schreck

You can find Karen Halvorsen Schreck on Facebook to stay up to date with all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on Broken Ground, please visit Howard Book's website.