Carol Moncado

Current Facebook Status: Such a perfect day to curl up under the covers and sleep in. Guess what I’m not doing? 😉

Currently playing in the background: Random radio at the painting/pottery place where my sister is painting a picture frame.

This is my review of the recently released book Deeply Devoted by Maggie Brendan.

From the back cover:

She is staking her future on a man she’s never met. Can she learn to love him?

When Catharine Olsen leaves Holland for Wyoming as a mail-order bride, she brings some extra baggage with her: two sisters, her mother’s set of Blue Willow china, and a tragic past. As she steps off the train, Peter Andersen is glad to see that she is everything her letters showed her to be. But he is a bit perturbed by her unexpected companions. How will he support them all? And what other secrets might Catharine be keeping from him?

Filled with sweet romance and vivid characters, Deeply Devoted highlights a clash of cultures as a highborn European and a simple wheat farmer learn to love one another and trust God with the past–and the future.

“Maggie Brendan has done it again. As gentle as a prairie breeze and as delicate as the Blue Willow china for which the series is named, Deeply Devoted is a tender and haunting tale that stirs heart and soul deeply–well beyond the last page.”–Julie Lessman, author of the Daughters of Boston series and the Winds of Change series

First – we know I adore Julie so her endorsement is a bonus :D. Look for more Julie reviews coming soon, btw.

I love the mail-order bride premise. I won’t buy any mail-order bride book, but I’ll definitely take a closer look at them. I loved Catharine and her devotion to her sisters and later to Peter. The impatient side of me wanted more answers sooner. The writer in me admired the way she kept me turning pages ;).

I don’t want to give spoilers but I loved the redemptive aspects of the book. Not just the characters I most wanted to have redeemed but others as well.

There were a few places where the dialogue bugged me, but not enough to put it down.

Overall: 8 out of 10 stars