The Heart's Charge

 

I will read anything Karen Witemeyer writes, because she does her craft so well.  In her newest offering of the Hanger's Horsemen, she writes of a love lost and found again; of unexpected love; of greed, abuse, and exploitation of children; and of heroes and damsels in distress, or maybe heroic damsels and heroes in distress. The characters in The Heart's Charge are strong, noble, and loving--and those are the female characters. 

This is book two of the Hanger's Horsemen series, and after this book there is one more horseman to marry off.  I can't wait to read his story. 

Mark and Jonah are traveling home after delivering a horse that Matthew had sold when they come across a woman in the throes of labor.  She was also in the depths of grief and not wanting to continue living after delivering the baby.  When Jonah comes back with the doctor, he helps the mother and then gets Mark and Jonah to take the baby to a foundling home not far away.  At the foundling home, Mark meets his past in the person of Kate Palmer--the love of his teens whom he has never forgotten--and both of them meet their future.  When Jonah and Eliza deliver the baby to a wet nurse, a child asks Jonah to help find the kiddy-snatchers.  The era of this book is close to the turn of the twentieth century, and a recent stock market crash had the country in a depression.  Many children were homeless and got around the country riding in box cars on trains.  These are this children who were targeted for exploitation and were the prey of the kiddy-snatchers, because they wouldn't be missed by anyone.  

Karen has kept the plot moving at a steady pace to keep the reader involved.  Often I am tempted to skip ahead to the end of the book and see how things end up, but this time I read straight through and was entirely satisfied at the conclusion of the story.  Karen consistently writes five star books and this one is no exception. 

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and white knight on a gallant steed to rescue your day. 

Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.