This one tugged at my heart.

 

All of the ingredients did: the hard life on new countries, the stubbornness of immigrants, the strong girl and all the quirky people you may find around her, the small town tragedies.

 

Most of all this love for the land, and the strange, difficult to explain ties one develops to it when you fight it and work it and live it.

This second chapter of part two was the height of sweetness and nostalgia. I mean, I laughed, sure, but not so much for the idiosyncratic customs, which can always be picturesque to say the least, as for how much they reminded me of my my great-great aunts and theirs stories about immigration, life on the farm and reactions to advancements, and being part of the weird family that pushed even the girls to get as much education as they could manage and wanted (hell, my favourite one was an accountant)

She missed the fish diet of her own country, and twice every summer she sent the boys to the river, twenty miles to the southward, to fish for channel cat. When the children were little she used to load them all into the wagon, the baby in its crib, and go fishing herself.
Alexandra often said that if her mother were cast upon a desert island, she would thank God for her deliverance, make a garden, and find something to preserve.

 

Interesting start setting and interesting characters.

This is a sweet novella, a clean romance, and what’s more, it’s FREE. I was intrigued by the historical setting (as I had read about the Oregon Trail years back) and by the description of the book. I wondered how the girl pretending to be a boy would work out in such circumstances. The novella moves at a good pace and has all the elements fans of the genre would expect: a man a and woman destined for each other who try to resist the evident attraction between them (it’s complicated), a love rival (well, two, one each), setbacks, misunderstandings, past difficulties that get in the way, and family matters (that at times help and at others hinder the path of true love). The setting works well for the novella, and we get a good sample of the difficulties of the Trail and how hard it must have been for the pioneers, although the amount of detail would not satisfy a keen reader of historical novels. The characters are likeable and relatable, and although it is a short book (it includes two chapters of the next book in the series as well, so it is shorter than it seems), we get to care for them and want to see them settled and happy, especially after the hard times they have to live through. Both of the main characters, Phoebe and Colton, carry a weight of guilt because they feel they have not protected their families as they should and although they might play tough and pretend to be hard, they have hearts of gold and are loyal to a fault. Although Phoebe is hard-working and determined, she does not subvert the boundaries of her gender, and at times is in need of rescue (although she does a fair amount of rescuing herself, mostly emotionally). Colton is not a flawless hero, but rises up to the challenge, and beyond, when is needed. The author is particularly skilled at managing to make readers connect emotionally with the characters and the events, without going over the top pulling at our heartstrings. There are sad moments, but there are also joyful and light moments and, overall, this is an uplifting read. An easy read, with likeable characters, a romantic couple we root for from the beginning, and an interesting background. Although it is not full of surprises, it will satisfy fans of the genre. I became fond of the characters and enjoyed the sample of the next novel, so I might visit again.

Alexandra is incredible. She was strong, and suffered at the hands of all of her brothers. The story was beautiful, even in it's sadness. The writing was poetic and kept me reading.

I loved the ending. The scene where Alexandra realizes it was Jesus who she had been dreaming about for much of her life. I loved it. I was still happy when Carl came back and they agreed to get married, but I also liked the idea of Alexandra becoming a nun (it was implied that was what she was considering this.)

The one thing that I didn't like was the victim blaming. Frank Shabata hurt his wife, not physically, but emotionally, for years and years. It was wrong of her and Emil to commit adultry, but two wrongs make more wrong, and I didn't like that first Frank, and then Alexandra essentially blamed Emil and Marie for Frank's murdering them. Besides the fact that this action was a mortal sin for Frank, it also prevented the two of them from repenting their own. Whether he had a temper or not, Frank should not have kept saying that it was her fault for letting him catch them. It was his fault for letting himself become bitter and suspicious. It was his fault for trying to make Marie as bitter as he. It was his fault for taking the gun with him to the orchard when he did not truly think that there were any intruders. And it was his fault for raising the gun to his shoulder and firing. The murder may not have been premeditated, but it was murder none the less. Ivar believes that the Emil and Marie are in Hell for their actions. I don't know whether they are (or whether non-fictional people in their place would be,) but they didn't deserve to die so quickly and without the chance to ask for God's forgiveness.

So, basically I really enjoyed the book, but I didn't like the fact that Marie and Emil were blamed for their own murders. They were to blame for the sins they committed, yes, but not for the sins Frank committed. I do think I will be reading more Willa Cather in the future.