This novel is a last in a trilogy, though the first I have read by these authors, so I was not familiar with the background of the story or the characters or with their writing style. Reading it also represented something of a new experience for me, as I generally opt for books of this genre set in Europe or in the medieval period. I am British, and a medievalist in training, so I prefer these and I am not really familiar with American history, the period when this story is set in general

This said, I have to say I was not greatly impressed by this story. I have read quite a few Historical romances in my time, and this one seemed about the average, run of the mill type of story in this genre. It was enjoyable enough, but I would say nothing special. Even the hint of ‘forbidden love’ in the sense of Lily falling for her master in spite of herself when she knows she shouldn’t and him doing the same has been ‘done before’, and felt perhaps felt a little clichéd.
So Lily and John’s love story is sweet, but rather predictable. In spite of both parties trying to supress and quash their feelings for one another, in spite of them being separated by war and hardship, in spite of everything was almost inevitable that they would eventually get their happy ending.

The religious content seemed to be woven into the story well, and there was nothing that seemed objectionable or questionable in a theological sense. Without intending to be irreverent or disrespectful, I would say the theme and subject matter was about standard fare for inspirational historical novels of this kind. Not that I suggest or expect that Christian authors should change the Christian content or write anything ‘new’ to pander to readers, the point as that this, like the novel is just about the same as a lot of others of this type.
The one aspect that did stand out for me was the question of why God does not always seem to answer prayer and sometimes seems to let bad things happen. If felt this was addressed sensitively, decisively and rather well.

Romance aside, the rest of the story did seem rather slow and repetitive at times perhaps this just reflected the state of the conflict and political conditions in 1700s rural Pennsylvania. Most of the action was focused around the lives of the inhabitants of a small town, and some of their men serving in the militia. Apart from facing attacks by Native Americans, or travelling outside the region to try to escape from this, not much really happened that was not related to their lives in some way.

Another aspect which seemed to be a reflection of the time period was the depiction of the Native Americans as barbarian savages. People now might find this objectionable, but I did not personally as it seemed a plausible enough presentation of the way that people living in the environment and circumstances of the characters might have viewed them. If the only contact they had with Native Americans was when they saw or heard of them raiding and burning settlements, killing people, or kidnapping their children, it did not seem surprising that they would view them in such a way.

Then there was the setting itself. It seemed to me a very idealised and romanticised version of good old fashioned rural American life, with characters who could have stepped off the set of Little House on the Prairie. The honest, decent, robust, hard workin’ folk of Beaver Cove might have been pleasant enough, but they seemed to lack depth and be a little too perfect and sweet to be real.
Yes they faced hardships but they all muscled in together to help each other out, and everythin’ came alright in the end. Not like wealthy them city who are almost all presented as living in luxury and as being too concerned with trivial things like clothes and balls and their social status or elegant wives to worry about much else that is important.

The British almost universally seemed to be depicted as cowards, weaklings or bungling fools whose Commanders could or would not defend the their territory or help each other, and seemed to do little except sit in their fortresses and surrender at the first hint of an attack, and who literally had to be forced to take any kind of decisive action in the war. It was of course the tough rugged ‘colonials’ in other words the Americans who did most of the real fighting and the ones who seemed to make the real difference.
The stereotyping went further when the Brits (like the city folk) were almost all depicted as genteel types from rich or affluent backgrounds who never did much tough physical labour like the Waldons of Beaver cove. Lily is presented as having been thus before she came to America and adopted the good life. Eye - roll inducing stereotyping once again where I had hoped the depiction of non-American people might be more informed or objective.

Then there were the accents. As stated before, I am not American, I am British, so I am not familiar with the nuances of regional American accents. Yet I could not help questioning whether there really would have been such a pronounced difference between the accents of Americans and British people at this time as there was in the story. Somehow, the accents of the American characters seemed a little too modern, and their use of some anachronistic terms and phrases which did not exist in the mid-1700s seemed to confirm this. The only two major non-American characters, as stated before were Lily, and Scotsman, who served as the preacher or pastor in Beaver Cove, he spoke with what seemed to be a ridiculously exaggerated accent, and Lily’s was little better.

Overall, this novel was enjoyable enough, but it was really not my proverbial ‘cup of tea’. There did not seem to be anything much to set it apart from other novels in this genre, but it is passable enough a light, clean and moderately enjoyable read. I am interested in perhaps reading the preceding two novels, though I don’t think I would buy them. If you like these authors, and novels set in this period, it might be for you.
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