About this book:
“Indentured
servant Fanny Beck has been forced to sing for riverboat passengers since she
was a girl. All she wants is to live a quiet, humble life with her family as soon
as her seven-year contract is over. However, when she discovers that the
captain has no intention of releasing her, she seizes a sudden opportunity to
escape--an impulse that leads Fanny to a group of enslaved people who are on
their own dangerous quest for liberty. . . .
Widower Walter Kuhn is overwhelmed by
his responsibilities to his farm and young daughter, and now his mail-order
bride hasn't arrived. Could a beautiful stranger seeking work be the answer to
his prayers? . . .
After the star performer of the River Peacock is presumed drowned,
Sloan Kirkpatrick, the riverboat's captain, sets off to find her replacement.
However, his journey will bring him face to face with his own past--and a
deeper understanding of what it truly means to be free. . . .”
Series: As of now, no, a stand-alone book.
Spiritual Content- John 8:36 at the beginning; Scriptures are mentioned,
quoted, & remembered; Many Prayers; Church Going; Hymns; Talks about God,
trusting Him, blessings, & freedom in Christ; ‘H’s are capitalized when
referring to God; Walter wonders if God listens to him and when prayers are
answered, he wonders if God is listening to him more than he thought; Sloan’s
father is a preacher and many things he’s said to him are bought to Sloan’s
mind (including that he could never comprehend why his father had abandoned
monetary wealth to store up treasures in Heaven); Sloan says he gave up praying
a long time ago, but starts to become less closed-off during the book; Many mentions
of God & freedom in Christ; Many mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings
over food; Many mentions of hymns & praise; Mentions of those & events
in the Bible (including Sloan calling Gideon a big sissy and that you can only
depend on yourself); Mentions of Sundays, churches, church going, services, sermons,
& pastors/reverends; Mentions of sins & Jesus dying for you; Mentions
of Heaven; Mentions of Fanny being a Godsend; Mentions of being blessed &
blessings; A few mentions of Bibles; A few mentions of angels (most references
to Fanny’s singing, but also a mention of her saying that God must have sent
angels to save her); A few mentions of denominations; A couple mentions of miracles;
A mention of a Mormon family; A mention of being named after a saint;
*Note: Sloan says he never liked
the cross at the top of his father’s church as it always seemed to mock him; Fanny
says Sloan isn’t evil nor a saint; A couple mentions of a mythical elf.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘sissy’ and two ‘stupid’s; Some sarcasm;
Being tossed overboard, nearly drowning, & pain (up to semi-detailed); Trauma
from a thunderstorm (up to semi-detailed); Assuming that someone has drowned
& looking for the body (barely-above-not-detailed, nothing detailed or
graphic, but it’s assumed that the body is at the bottom of the river); Sloan
aims a gun towards people as a threat; Sloan says he never drinks (even though he
sells it on the boat), but gets “rip-roarin’ drunk” and has a hangover (once); Walter
feels very guilty over how his wife died & blames himself; Fanny has to lie
(tell falsehoods) to protect her new friends from harm (she does not want to
and prays to not have to, but does to keep them safe from salve hunters though
she prays that God won’t strike her dead because of telling lies); Mentions of
fires, smoke, & a death of a women and horse (barely-above-not-detailed, including
a woman trying to save a horse from a burning barn and neither of them making
it out); Mentions of deaths & fevers; Mentions of slavery, slaves, bounty
hunters/slave hunters, & families being separated; Mentions of guns,
shooting, aiming at/threating people, robbing someone at gunpoint, fighting
& fights; Mentions of bullies & young Walter being picked on and his
pocket money stolen; Mentions of lying & lies; Mentions of gambling &
betting; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, drunks, & saloons; Mentions of cigars
& smoking; Mentions of plucking chickens & trapping rabbits (no
details); A few mentions of a corpse; A few mentions of prejudices; A couple
mentions of throwing up; A couple mentions of hunters; A couple mentions of rumors;
A mention of a near drowning; A mention of being sent to prison in a game; A mention
of manure;
*Note: A mention of a child
possibly getting a smack on their behind for a temper tantrum.
Sexual Content- A semi-detailed kiss;
A few Touches & Embraces (Walter mentions (in his point of view) that he
imagined what it would be like to hold Fanny); Blushes (mostly from embarrassment
because of society norms at this time period); Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed,
Fanny noticed Walter’s muscles once); A man offers Fanny five dollars to be
with him (it’s implied sexually because of his lecherous gaze, she quickly
tells him no and that she is a lady); Walter is waiting on news about a
mail-order bride to help him; A few mentions of a husband and wife that want
children but have not been blessed with any (the wife cries over this to
Fanny); A few mentions of tunes of a bawdy nature (Sloan had Fanny sing songs
about enticing a man with rose-tinted lips and other suggestive nature, saying
that “her innocent appearance combined with the sultry songs were irresistible”);
A mention of that the crew has been told to keep their hands off of Fanny; A mention
of Sloan visiting a brothel to try to find a new singer; A mention of flirting;
A mention of a married couple kissing; Love, falling in love, & the
emotions;
*Note: Fanny does not like her
performance dresses as they have plunging necklines and make her feel exposed,
indecent, and like a strumpet; A mention of two babies born-too-soon passing
away; A mention of a mother dying in childbirth.
-Fainche “Fanny” Beck, age 21 (?)
-Walter Kuhn
P.O.V.
switches between them & Sloan
Set in
1860
352 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Ahh, that epilogue has me sniffing
back tears. I wish it would have been just a bit longer in that regard, but the
ending was well done.
I’m not typically one for
mail-order bride stories, but because this one looked different with the woman
not being sent for but happened upon, I decided to try it out. I’d like to say how
clean it was: so clean. Sure, there were a handful of moments that were
a bit awkward/embarrassing for Fanny and Walter because of the time period and its
society norms (such as him not wanting to bathe in the same water/tub she just
bathed in, blushing when discussing under garments or baring limbs to show an injury,
etc.), but honestly, nothing above that. It was so nice and refreshing.
Speaking of refreshing…ah, wait, no, let me go back to the beginning of the
book first.
The first 20% of this book was
much more intense than I was expecting with Fanny’s events in the river boat to
meeting a group of runaway slaves and helping them. (My heart was pounding like
it was a suspense book because of those parts—I was so afraid something bad
might happen.) The back-cover plot of Fanny taking care of Walter’s daughter
doesn’t start until 30% in, which I was a little shocked about when reading,
but I was honestly enjoying the other part, so it didn’t matter much to me.
But, the original plot begins and the book becomes a lot slower (though this
maybe because it’s more intense at the beginning then goes to farm life) which
took me a bit to get used to, but it was still interesting.
We do see the Point of View of
Sloan, who by all means could be considered the villain of this story, but as
Fanny put it so perfectly, he’s not really evil nor a saint. I never felt great
animosity for him, but I won’t admit fondness for him either. His parts added
to the story at least, though, and didn’t distract from the main plot.
Now, back to the refreshing
point: Fanny and Walter. Fanny was a sweetheart and Walter was very different
from the average hero we see in the Christian Fiction Historical Romance genre.
At first, I wasn’t a big fan of him because of the whole mail-order bride ordering
shortly after his wife died, but others convinced him it would be good. However,
the more we saw his point of view, the more I noticed that he was different—in his
thoughts, treating Fanny respectably and also not lusting over her in a physical
way (thank you!), but mainly how he was very worried and insecure. He’s
not the typical big, manly male lead we see so often in these books. He was
bullied as a child for being different and because of recent events, he’s
worried about a lot of things. I just liked the difference in that male lead character,
even though I wasn’t really his fan at first. I think he was realistic and that
added to my enjoyment of the latter half of the book.
Fanny was very sweet and was such
a blessing to many people we see in this book. I loved seeing her faith and
how much importance she placed on praying and listening to what God would have
her do next and trusting Him. It was inspiring and she was just a lovely
character.
One more thing I really liked and
honestly found adorable was when Fanny (who grew up in Scotland) and Walter
(who is very German) had a couple parts of not understanding what the other was
saying or the item they were wanting. I think this may have been my first time
really seeing this in Christian Fiction…sure there’s lots of half of the couple
is very proud of their home county or native languages, but it was so
refreshing to see both of them this way and sharing with the other culture or
language differences. It was pretty cute, but also realistic for the beginnings
of many families here in the states during this time.
Overall, this book was an easy
four-star read and once again, I really appreciate how clean it was on faith
and how much faith content there was. Another good one by this author! :)
See y’all on Friday with a new
review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this
author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this (uncorrected advance
reader copy version) book for free from the Publisher (Revell) for this honest
review. (Due to it being an ARC, there may be some differences in the final
copy compared to the version I reviewed. If you happen to notice any important content
differences, please let me know in the comments below with the page number(s)
referenced. Thank you!)
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