phyllish
Written on Jun 24, 2018
As I was reading To Claim Her Heart and seeing how the homesteaders claimed their land and lived in such primitive conditions, I had a completely new picture of hospitality. When Elsie dropped by to visit the neighbor’s house and the husband offered to take care of her horse, that light bulb that you see in cartoons went off in my head. Having someone drop by on a horse leaving you to care for that horse while they visit is a LOT OF WORK! While this is not the first Western I have read by any stretch of the imagination, somehow that concept never got through this thick head of mine.
It was such a pleasure to feel so immersed in the process of making the land habitable. Building sod huts because wood was too expensive. Neighbors getting together to help with building. Fighting prairie fires together. Except for the achy muscles and benefit of the exercise, it was as if I was there.
Benjamin and Elsie were a great example of “opposites attract”. He was refined and well educated, which was evident in his speech and mannerisms. As a preacher, that is to be expected. His fiancé had been delicate, dainty and well mannered.
And then there was Elise who was the bane of her aunt’s existence, not acting like a lady and constantly getting into scrapes. Her speech was the simple language of the poorly educated. Having been raised mostly by her farmer father, she didn’t care about society’s expectations.
Elsie was a fun combination of independent and insecure. Throughout the story, I was able to watch her grow in confidence and humility. She had been cast aside by almost everyone except her Pa, so after he died, she felt she had no one, and especially not the Lord. The neighbors were so unexpected to her, the way they cared about her and helped with her needs, and Benjamin helped her to see that God cares for her even more.
There was an undercurrent of bitterness in the lives of several of the characters. Hebrews 12:15 (NASB) warns us
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;"
Elsie’s aunt had allowed bitterness to grow up to such an extent that it was choking the life out of her. Her speech and attitudes caused those around her to want to escape her presence. However, as in real life, God was so gracious and kind to her in showing her the folly of her ways and leading her to seek forgiveness as we should do when we allow bitterness to hurt our relationships with others.
I enjoyed the clever way that the author had quotes from Mrs. Wigglesworth’s Essential Guide to Proper Etiquette and Manners of Refined Society at the head of each chapter and then had Elsie break the rule in the ensuing pages.
The story was interesting and touching and sweet. I am so glad that I was able to be a part of this blog tour so I could be introduced to this author through the book.
This review was originally posted on Among the Reads
You can read a guest post from Jodie Wolfe and get a preview of To Claim Her Heart at amongTheReads.net
I would like to thank Celebrate Lit for giving me this copy of the book. This gift did not influence my opinion or review.