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