Love's Pursuit by Siri Mitchell

Summary: In the small Puritan community of Stoneybrooke, Massachusetts, Susannah Phillips stands out both for her character and beauty. She wants only a simple life but soon finds herself pursued by the town's wealthiest bachelor and by a roguish military captain sent to protect them. One is not what he seems and one is more than he seems.

In trying to discover true love's path, Susannah is helped by the most unlikely of allies, a wounded woman who lives invisible and ignored in their town. As the depth, passion, and sacrifice of love is revealed to Susannah, she begins to question the rules and regulations of her childhood faith. In a community where grace is unknown, what price will she pay for embracing love?

My review: There has only been one handful of authors I've emailed directly after reading their books to tell them how much I adored their story. The books and authors:

• Jennifer Donnelly, after reading A Northern Light
• Susan Meissner, after reading The Shape of Mercy
• Lisa Mantchev, after reading Eyes Like Stars
  

Now I can add Siri Mitchell to the list after reading Love's Pursuit. When I enjoy a book this much, I don't often say a lot about it -- I want you guys to read it and I want you to experience without a lot of opinions bumping around in your brains.

I will say this, though: While I was reading, my husband and I ran some errands and I brought it with me, because, as I told him, "It would cause me pain to put this book down."

Go. Read. Enjoy. Comment. :-D

The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner

Eliza's Review: I'm coming to Susan Meissner fresh, never having read any of her work before. THE SHAPE OF MERCY looked like one of my fantasy jobs: a college girl is hired to transcribe a journal of one of the Salem, Massachusetts, girls sentenced to death during the infamous witch trials.

There's a huge hook in that for bookish girls like me. I mean, it's a dream come true. But the hook isn't nearly as interesting as the themes, characters, and the stories surrounding them all. Lauren is a privileged California college student questioning her, and everyone else's, place in the world. As she deciphers the contents of Mercy's journal, her questions regarding her own life become more fundamental. Lauren realizes that the most important truths surpass race, social class, and even time, and her journey is not only enjoyable, but completely believable. THE SHAPE OF MERCY is a read anyone will benefit from. Seriously, guys, this is a must-read.

Synopsis:
Women of all ages will appreciate this highly-readable, layered, and fast-paced story about self-discovery at all stages of life. With rich undertones of intrigue and romance, this contemporary novel with a historical twist explores personal blinders and how upbringing and conditioning can shape people to judge others in ways that can lead to unhappy consequences.

Lauren Durough is a college student who finds herself on the road to self-discovery as she is hired by octogenarian Abigail Boyles to transcribe the journals of Mercy Hayworth, a seventeenth-century victim of the Massachusetts witch trials. Almost immediately, Lauren finds herself drawn to this girl who lived and died four centuries ago. The strength of her affinity with Mercy forces Lauren to take a startling new look at her own life, including her relationships with Abigail, her college roommate, and a young man named Raul. But on the way to the truth, will Lauren find herself playing the helpless defendant or the misguided judge? Can she break free from her own perceptions and see who she really is?

Readers will identify with Lauren’s struggle to break away from society’s expectations and her attempt to strike out on her own while figuring out what parts of her own story to hold on to.

Review: A Bride Most Begrudging by Deeanne Gist

A Bride Most Begrudging won a Christy Award last year in the romance category. I’ll be honest: I picked the book because it had killer cover art. A woman in a Colonial wedding dress, her fingers crossed behind her back. Perfect. The scene on the cover doesn’t actually happen like so in the book, but man, what a great hook — and visual, too!

Reading it with an ubercritical eye, I found some storytelling problems: POV shifts mid-scene (a habit I’m trying to break - something I get called out for it on a weekly basis, so I’m sensitive to it in other people’s work), some anachronistic speech and sentiments (both very common in historicals, really), and inconsitency in dialogue (example: a character would say a few sentences in the same manner that we would, today, and then follow it up with “God ye go den.” I found it jarring — but I know firsthand how difficult it is to integrate historically authentic speech with phrasing and tones that a contemporary audience would understand.

The thing that really frustrated me, however, was the AsYouKnowBobbing. For the uninitiated, Wikipedia explains As You Know, Bob as this:

While giving readers information through dialogue can be an excellent way to slide in necessary information, writers can also attempt to give information through implausible dialogue. Most commonly, this occurs in the form of As You Know, Bob dialogue. This consists of characters giving each other –without motivation– long lectures about things the other characters know but the reader does not.

It slammed me in the face from the start, because I was Bobbed on page two. No kidding. Two characters told the entire setup to the opening scene to each other.

You see this a lot on soaps.

“Ever since your mother drove her Eddie Bauer Limited Edition SUV into our house, therefore destroying the only photograph of my sister who died mysteriously–but I think it was your father who killed her by pulling her hair out, strand by strand, the beast–and then stole my great uncle Wilbur’s ashes because the urn would fit her Rococo inspired living room, I haven’t been able to get along with her.”

All right, a minor exaggeration, but you get the point. Lots of backstory thrown in without a lot of grace. Even if the Rococo decor mattered to the plot, this is not how I’d want to find out about it.

The book wasn’t Bobbed continuously, though, but it popped up enough times (mostly to give character backstory or historical information about the Powahatan massacres) for me to mention it.

One more thing I have to say: I’m tired of heroines who flounce around for any portion of the book, their nose in the air, their prideful tongue their sword, their self-esteem their shield. You get a whole lot of this in girly books. Head. Desk. I don’t care how sensible and good and Mary Sue-riffic she is in her normal surroundings, if she’s not sensible when she’s faced with trouble, I’m gonna wanna smack her. Make your girl smart from the get-go. Not perfect, but give her some dynamic social graces, at least.
Okay, so I’ve ranted plenty.

Getting down and dirty: I enjoyed this book.

About midway through I found myself really rooting for all the characters, which is good enough for me. It’s a good story, and I really liked Constance’s growth — and yes, Drew was crush-worthy.
I think this is my longest critique yet.