Jill B. reviewed on 6/8/2011 + 9 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This review is part of the Litfuse Blog Tour for the book which started yesterday.

This book is different than any that I have read lately. When reading I enjoy breaking off in different areas to keep things fresh. At the beginning of the book I wasn't sure if I liked Susannah or not. She has agreed to come to the Dakota territory to meet a husband she married by proxy. While this man is the brother of her pastor, she had never herself met him and has only exchanged a few letters with him. Her mother had very strict ideas of what a lady does and does not do, so going to live in a sod house with a stranger was a big leap of faith for her. Her parents have passed away and a banker has been hounding her for money he claims her father owed him.

Jesse ends up doing all the taking in the beginning, owing to the fact that Susannah believes that women should not be spending too much time talking about themselves along with her shyness and reticence about sharing details about her past. Slowly they get to know each other and pieces of the real Susannah start to peek through.

The beginning of each chapter started with a prayer from Jesse to God, just a short sentence that then set the tone for the chapter that followed. Susannah had lost her faith in God, feeling that he did not answer her prayers, but Jesse helps her to see that even though God hears us sometimes the answer is still "no" because of reasons unknown beyond our sphere. Slowly Susannah not only finds herself and allows herself to be herself, but she also comes to have faith in God and to pray for guidance when she is feeling lost.

Something happens that tests them both in a very big way, and how they deal with the challenge they are dealt speaks volumes for their characters. It made me wonder, how many of us today put our faith in a higher power when things get tough? How many of us remember to pray or ask for guidance, not just what is is we think we want? We can't know the plan and when things get tough is it a way for us to change and find a new path or is it a chance for us to show our true character and what we are really made of? Do we have the faith that Susannah had in herself by the end of the novel and her faith that things are going to work out?

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