It's Lark's turn to find happiness, but she seems bound and determined to push it away. She wants to seem content to find her happiness in loving her sisters' families and working her farm. Isaac McTavish has fallen in love with Miss Lark, but she doesn't feel she can depend on him and pushes him away.
In the meantime, Lilac has gone back to Ohio to see their brothers, help her oldest brother reopen his store after the fire, and possibly bring Jonas back with her to help with the harvest on the farm. While there, she reconnects with Sam, an old school mate. He lost his arm in the War Between the States, but he has a teaching credential, so Lilac convinces Sam to apply for the teaching job in her town in Nebraska. Sam sees the opportunity as a godsend and a way to get some distance from his mother's hovering. She means well, but Sam feels suffocated by her ministrations.
There is one anachronism in the book that kind of took me aback. When Sam begins his new school year, he begins his day by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. That wasn't written until about twenty years later. That is the only thing I feel I can criticize about the book. I THINK it was customary in those days to recite the Lord's Prayer, or possibly a Psalm to open the school day. The book reads as a slice of life for the frontier farmer. There is a bit of excitement here and there in the plot of the book, but it reads more as a narrative of daily life--almost like a journal. This doesn't mean that the plot is too slow, it means that there is more time to delve into the thoughts of the characters and get to know them even better. It's a fitting wrap up to the series. Lauraine Snelling and Kiersti Giron have done a masterful job with the series and I look forward to see what they come up with next.
Four Strong Stars.
Bethany House provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are solely my own
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