cherryblossommj's Review of Collision of The Heart

by Laurie Alice Eakes

Mia Roper isn’t a typical nineteenth-century woman. Refusing to pass up the hard-won opportunity to prove herself as a journalist, she left Hillsdale, Michigan, hoping in vain that Ayden Goswell would follow her to Boston.

When the train bringing her back for her first major story crashes in a snowstorm outside town, Mia is stranded. Not even the survival of a fellow passenger, a toddler, can ease her heart’s sudden ache at seeing Ayden, now a history professor at the local college, courting someone else.

Ayden’s never gotten over the fact that the most fascinating woman he ever met chose her career over marriage…and he let her go. But marrying the department director’s daughter could at least guarantee him a permanent job. It’s a satisfactory arrangement, yet his kind, pretty bride-to-be has one simple flaw: she’s not Mia.

As soon as the trains are running, Mia will be leaving again, unless she and Ayden can reconcile ambition and love—and take a leap of faith together.

Revised edition: Previously published as The Professor's Heart, this edition of Collision of the Heart includes editorial revisions.

Originally posted on Creative Madness Mama.Originally published as The Professor's Heart from the Love Inspired Heartsong Presents line, this story has been updated and renamed appropriately Collision of the Heart.

I stumbled across this novel last week when I was looking for an eARC to download before a road trip. I know that I have always enjoyed Laurie Alice Eakes stories and thus I decided I would give this one a try. From my understanding, another author friend had recommended the circumstances of a train wreck in Laurie Alice's home state and this was her story creation of possible events. I was enchanted from page one.

While I may be the rarity and do not see myself as much of a feminist, I appreciated the desire for independence from our heroine as she struggles with her passion for research and journalism and her love for a local boy now man that she has grown to love over many years and their lives intertwined. The story did well for our hero's perspective as well in his own struggles of moving on from the past and forward into his own new life.

The love triangle introduced was intriguing and for a minute or two, no matter how you would like the story to complete it was interesting to imagine it another way as the plot did leave it open for a while and for possible heartbreak for a least one, if not three (or more!) characters.

This is my first story from Waterfall Press, and now I've discovered many other favorite authors of mine have books published there as well! I will have to continue to check out their future publications as they come.
This review was originally posted on Creative Madness Mama.

Collision of The Heart

by Laurie Alice Eakes

Reviewed by cherryblossommj on Aug 15, 2016

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