The Promise of Dawn

America. The great melting pot. So many have left their countries to search for a better life on this beautiful country we call home. In The Promise of Dawn by Lauraine Snelling, Gunlaug's eldest son, Rune and his wife Signe, and their three sons are brought from Norway at the behest of relatives Einar and Gerd Strand. They have offered to pay their passage to come work in Minnesota, with the understanding that over time those funds would be paid back. Gerd and Einar had never been blessed with sons and they need help in the new land that they have purchased from a homesteader that is covered with huge pine trees that they log and send to the mills in Minneapolis. The money had from those trees has made it possible to build a home large enough to house a family. They farm the land they have cleared, but need help. Gerd is not well and they desperately need the family to come and help.

Living near a small town called Benson's Corner, and the nearest town being Blackduck, Minnesota, there is a school for the younger ones in the winter. Once the trees are felled and shipped on the local railroad spur to the northern mills, we will clear the stumps and plant crops. With only one cow now, the family hopes to increase the number to have a dairy herd once the land is cleared. This is indeed the land of opportunity. So Rune and Signe Carlson along with their three sons leave Norway and head to America. Signe hopes that the baby she is carrying will live after so many miscarriages. When the family arrives at the Strand home, they are immediately surprised by what needs to be done. It seems that their need for help is drastically understated, and Gerd is completely bed-ridden due to a heart issue. The house is barely what you would call livable and is infested with rats. This will completely test the stamina of the Carlson family as Einar puts them all to work immediately treating them more like slaves than family. The younger boys help Signe try and get the house in order along with helping to care for Gerd who is a bitter older woman who screams to get anyone to help her use the chamber pot and demands food whenever she wants it.

For Rune and his oldest son Bjorn at fifteen take to logging in the woods felling trees that Einar hopes to sell to support his family. His unrealistic goals soon render an accident during a thunder storm that render Bjorn with a broken arm and not being able to hear. When the family tries to keep Bjorn at home, Einar insists that one of the other boys step up and bear the weight of Bjorn's absence in the woods. If they refuse, Einar threatens to deport them all back to Norway unless they serve the time that they have agreed to work to pay for their passage to America. It will take the patience of a saint to work with these two who call themselves family.

I received The Promise of Dawn by Lauraine Snelling 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 a great historical novel that really conveys the hardships that faced many families who came to America in search of a new life. Many of their skills no longer suited them and they had to acclimate and learn new ones if they hoped to have a home of their own. It would take working together in order for any of them to make it during any time of the year. Each season had its own challenges and it seems like Gerd and Einar have found themselves slaves that will do as they are told without argument. I found myself exhausted at all the work Signe had to do along with caring for Gerd while being pregnant. Life on the frontier was hard work and this clearly comes across in this first novel of the Under Northern Skies series. Can't wait for more and for that reason, I give this novel a 5 out of 5 stars.

For more information about The Promise of Dawn, Lauraine Snelling or where you can pre-order a copy of this book due in August of 2017, please click on the links below:

The Promise of Dawn by Lauraine Snelling 

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To read more reviews on The Promise of Dawn, please visit Baker Publishing Group's website. 

The Dressmaker's Dowry

If only this novel has been written differently, my review rating my be more favorable. The overall content of the story was simply amazing but what really devalued it for me, was the sexual content and profanity. Unfortunately that didn't happen til more than half way through the book. Oh how I wish I could give it more but based on the standards and review ratings I established, I can't and still remain true to my reviews as well as my own personal ethics and integrity.

The Dressmaker's Dowry by Meredith Jaeger is a duality novel meaning that it revolves around two very different characters and each chapter toggles between both time frames, past and present and those characters point of views which we find out much later on, tie in quite uniquely to one another in a unusual manner I didn't see coming.

The setting for the novel is both San Francisco, both in the early 1870's as well as present day. For Sarah Havensworth, who is married but hiding a long dark secret from her husband Hunter, she hopes to some day have her novel published and one her husband whole-heartily supports. She now uncovers some details while researching ideas for her writers block which open up the investigative side of her journalists heart. So she switches gears to follow up on the missing dressmakers who lived in the same part of town she lives in, who apparently people believed might have been murdered. As she begins to unravel the lives of Hannalore Schaeffer and Margaret O'Brien, the missing dressmakers, she begins to uncover a more sinister secret that someone wants to be keep buried at all costs and will stop at nothing to ensure that Sarah gives up any further pursuit.

For Hannalore or Hanna, as she is referred to in the novel finds that working in the dressmaker's shop helps her meet a deeper goal. To escape an abusive father who believes that Hanna is holding out her money so he can spend it on alcohol and gambling. Now she knows she will do whatever it takes to rescue herself and her 3 siblings leave home and find a new life someplace else. For now she will simply do all she can to endure the abuse and keep whatever food she can on the table, even it if means she does without. But her life is about to change with Lucas Havensworth shows up to get his suits mended and runs quite literally into Hanna. From that point on, their lives will be forever changed in remarkable and sinister ways.

I received The Dressmaker's Dowry by Meredith Jaeger compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers. For me this was so well written about both women searching for something more than what their providential lives offered not realizing that in time they would be somehow connected. I love the passion that Sarah has to uncover the truth about what happened to Hanna and Margaret and to solve a century old cold case in the process. I just wish profanity and sexual content was eliminated because it would have made for a much better well received novel across a broader audience. The fact that these two elements exist call for me to give this a 3 out of 5 stars based on my own reviewers rating scale. If those items were removed, it would be a 5 out of 5 star novel!

For more information about The Dressmaker's Dowry, Meredith Jaeger, or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

The Dressmaker's Dowry by Meredith Jaeger

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To read more reviews on The Dressmaker's Dowry, please visit Harper Collins Publisher's website. 

No Turning Back

Before we all became believers we all made mistakes in which we needed to find God in order to gain an understanding of who He is and about the forgiveness of sin. When we struggle in the darkness, it is hard for us to see what believers see so clearly. The hallmarks of a sin-filled life. They watch us struggle to come to terms with our sin, our anger, our pain and hurts before we find such a freedom and release in learning to hand all that over to God and find redemption and forgiveness in its place. Such is the case for Katy Thannen, an Austrian born sixteen-year-old who is struggling with just that very issue. While she has some basis for a faith in God, she becomes resentful when others point out what God is doing in their lives and how it can help her as well.

Growing up for Katy hasn't been easy. Her mother has worked hard to give Katy what she can, offering her schooling in a local convent but soon Katy realizes the value of hard work and obtains a job working for a wealthy family as a maid. There she finds herself the center of attention from the son of a wealthy Austrian bureaucrat, Alex Meissen, who sees nothing wrong with falling in love with Katy. That is, until he confesses his intentions and feelings to his parents which are met with less than expected results. They send Alex off to the small town Egg to gain a better understanding of the business world and in the hopes, he'll give up marrying Katy.

But like all great love stories, love is the greatest thing in life, and no matter the distance, Katy and Alex defy all the odds when they make a plan to leave Austria and head to America to leave their families behind. However since they remain distanced, Alex provides Katy the money and directions to meet him at the dock to board a ship bond for America, but they never find one another. Alex's train is derailed and since he can't get a message to Katy, she believes that Alex may have changed his mind and she heads to America without him. Now arriving in New York City alone, Katy realizes that a chance encounter with Alex has left her pregnant. She finds a place to stay with a local convent who helps immigrant women arriving in America find a job and a place to stay but once again Katy meets an unlikely adversary with another immigrant who finds her work in a laundry facility and offers to share rent in flat in town.

Through a series of truly unfortunate events, Katy makes a series of bad decisions which alter how she views Alex and her life in general. When Alex finds comfort in learning more of God's provision, Katy only rebels further away from him. It seems the closer Alex moves to God, the further Katy moves away and soon it will take a miracle of sorts to get Katy to view the circumstances in her life as something that can be redeemed no matter how great she believes they are. It may in fact take her to the brink of death before she can see what has been in front of her all along. But will she see it before it's too late?

I received No Turning Back by Joanne Wilson Meusburger compliments of Ambassador International Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions expressed are strictly my own. My first impression upon reading this book was I did not believe it to be a Christian novel at first based on the series of events that happen to both Alex and Katy and the decisions they make. But like all of us, we have all found ourselves like sheep being led astray til we discover the truth about life and how God can redeem and forgive us once we establish that relationship with Him. This is just what happens with Katy and Alex, it's the struggle between unbelievers finding hope and love in the midst of some of the most difficult situations life has to offer. We don't always make the right decisions, but in the end it enables us to be able to use those for the good of others and I think that is precisely the message the author provides in this novel. That nothing is too great to keep us separated from God. I give this novel a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion.

For more information about No Turning Back, Joanne Wilson Meusburger or where to pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

No Turning Back by Joanne Wilson Meusburger

You can also find Joanne Wilson Meusburger on Facebook to stay up to date with all her latest novels.

For more information on No Turning Back, visit Ambassador International Publisher's website.