Adventure Between the Pages: The Quilted Heart

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Age Appropriate For: 13 and up for mild romance
Best for Ages: 15 and up

Description: Like a beautiful patchwork quilt, the three novellas in The Quilted Heart tell stories of lives stitched together with love and God’s unending grace. Once a week, Elsa Brantenberghosts the Saint Charles Quilting Circle at her farmhouse on the outskirts of the riverside town of St. Charles, Missouri. The ladies who gather there have all experienced heartache related to the intense hardships of the Civil War, and together, they are facing their painful circumstances with friendship and prayer. Can the tattered pieces of their hearts be stitched together by God’s grace?

I seem to be trying a lot of new authors this year. This novella collection is my first book by Mona Hodgson. I have seen her books around, and I was glad to finally get a chance to finally read not just one, but three of her stories.

There was one thing that I felt detracted from the stories. Often in the short pages of the novella, we would break from the main story and have a chapter about someone else. This was irritating as a novella really doesn’t have space for a lot of points-of-view.

Dandelions on the Wind
This tale about a Maren Jensen, a mail-order bride who was rejected because she is going blind, was so sweet. The tension and the themes of redemption woven through the short pages of this story, showcased Hodgson’s talent. It is hard sometimes to show changing hearts within a novella, but she manages to do it.
Maren was a wonderful heroine that captured my heart. Her faith and her vulnerability made her feel real and lovable.
Bending Toward the Sun
This story was my favorite of the collection. In a time when honoring your parents is laughed at, this story is refreshing. It was so nice to see a hero who does the hard thing, and stays away from the girl he loves to honor her father. It doesn’t stop him from praying and trying to change the fathers mind, but he honors the father’s request.
Emily was a very likable heroine. She is caught between what her father wants for her, an what she wants. She too wants to honor her father, but struggles. I loved that she struggled and wasn’t a push over, it made the story more believable.
Ripples Along the Shore
We have heard a bit about Carolina in the other novella’s, but now she gets one all to herself. To be honest, I really didn’t think that there was a very good transition between her not trusting Garrett, and liking him.
This story also doesn’t have the ending I had hoped for, probably since the author intends to continue their story in her next book.

Overall, this collection was enjoyable. It was nice to curl up and read three novella’s that were connected to each other.

I received this book from WaterBrook Press in exchange for my honest review. I was under no obligation to write a positive review. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

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1 comments

  1. I awarded you with the Sunflower award on my blog: http://steppingtowardtheson.blogspot.com/2014/02/ive-been-awarded.html

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