Rebellious Heart

Since I began reading this book, I couldn't wait to finish it so that I could review it. When I was in high school, I loved reading Irving Stone novelized biographies and Jody Hedlund writes in a very similar style. I absolutely LOVED her two previous novel-biographies--The Preacher's Bride and The Doctor's Lady.

When I first read The Preacher's Bride, I didn't find out until I finished it that it was a biographical novel of John Bunyan. I have a horrible (well, it's horrible to other readers) habit of reading the end of a book before I finish it. So this time I knew whom I was reading about--but, for the sake of those who like to be kept in suspense, I won't tell.

Susanna Smith first saw Benjamin Ross during a murder trial where he was defending a local man accused of murdering a young woman found dead in front of his shack. Ben knew without a doubt that the man was innocent but had no evidence to prove it. Ben pleads for mercy for the man after he is found guilty, stating that he will be under the constant care of the clergy and therefore capable of being reformed.

Susanna again runs into Ben at a party at her Grandmother Eve Quincy's home. His friend, Richard Cranch, meets Susanna's sister, Mary, and falls in love with her, and Ben is taken with Susanna. While at the party, Susanna and Ben both remember the first time she met: she was a child of five--stuck in a tree, and he was a strapping lad in his early teens who helped her out of the tree. This time Susanna has given away her shoes to a young woman who has been robbed her shoes and chased to the limits of her endurance.

Because of Susanna's generosity to the young woman, an escaped indentured servant, Susanna and Ben find themselves in each other's company often, writing letters to each other frequently, but denied the opportunity to court. Susanna's mother doesn't feel that Ben is suitable for a woman of Susanna's stature.

It takes the young indentured servant's capture by the English officer who murdered the one the local man was convicted of killing to finally bring Ben and Susanna together in a way that even her own mother approves of.

Now I am wondering whose love story will Jody tell next? I can't wait.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a letter to your best friend.