Brianna and Colleen O’Leary know their father expects them to marry well. Yet despite his wishes, Brianna, the quieter sister, dreams of attending college. Vivacious Colleen, meanwhile, is happy to marry–as long as her father’s choice meets her exacting standards. When stable hand Gilbert Whelan returns from college and distant family member Rylan Montgomery stops in on his way to the seminary in Boston, the two men quickly complicate everyone’s plans. It will take every ounce of courage for both sisters to follow their hearts. And even if they do, will they inevitably find their dreams too distant to reach?
I have mixed feelings with this book. In some ways I absolutely loved it but I had quite a few problems with it too. Overall, the enjoyable things outnumbered my problems with the book and that helped me to not give the book a lower rating.
The thing that I disliked most was the characters. They all seemed to have no backbone and just went along with whatever Mr. O'Leary wanted them to do. It just about ruined quite a few of the characters lifes by making them marry people they didn't want to. Luckily it all got straightened out, or else my rating might have been even lower. Also I really did not like Colleen. She was so stuck-up and shallow. I'm just glad that by the end of the book she realized it and changed with help from the orphans that she helped.
I had no issues with the plot. It moved smoothly and I never got bored with it. For that reason I finished it fairly quickly and I feel like I didn't miss anything. It's a quick read even though it might look a little longer.
Rylan was probably my favorite character out of all of them with Brianna being a close second. They seemed to not listen to Mr. O'Leary as much as Gil and Colleen did and I liked that about them.
There was a fair amount of romance, but it wasn't anything over PG-13 since this is Christian fiction. Brianna and Gil's relationship was very complicated, what with her father making him court someone else so that he could try and get a loan from her father. Overall I liked their relationship much more than Colleen and Rylan's, only because I didn't like Colleen in general. I can see why people might like them together though.
I would recommend this to anyone who wants some historical fiction as a nice change of pace or to anyone who wants to read some good Christian fiction.
***I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This did not influence my rating or review in any way.***
Thanks for reading!
~Bri
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