I really enjoyed Crook’s first book – The Hungry Year. 12 year old Kate, her 4 year old twin brothers and her father have moved north to Canada after the Revolutionary War. When they arrive, it is almost winter and they have little time to prepare. Kate must shoulder all of the responsibility for keeping up their home and raising the boys, with little respect or appreciation from her father for her hard work. When her father fails to come home with much-needed food, Kate becomes responsible for keeping her brothers alive.

The first book was a well-written, believable juvenile fiction novel. Its sequel, The Perilous Year, was not. The sequel spent too much time re-hashing events from the first book, and the “adventures” in the second book seemed contrived rather than based in reality.

I read this book when my son was a few weeks old. One of the main themes of the book is that one’s children grow and change so quickly, and that they “belong” to you for such a short time before they become independent. In the midst of the haze of caring for a newborn, this was a good reminder for me to hold my son a little closer and to “enjoy this time,” as many well-meaning people have told me to do.

Two women’s stories are intertwined in this book. Cerise and Anna both became pregnant at a very young age. Anna decided to get an abortion and struggled with guilt and loss, while Cerise kept her daughter and struggled through as a single mom. The two women meet years later and are able to help each other heal. I loved reading both women’s stories, and appreciated especially the honest look at the pain that abortion causes. I don’t think that Hegland is writing from a Christian perspective, but she did seem to discuss the subject quite openly. My one complaint (and I had this complaint also with regards to Hegland’s other book Into the Forest) is that there are long paragraphs of spiritual inner-reflection that seem contrived to make the book “deeper” and “thought-provoking.” All they do for me is to make the plot drag.

Although it had a slow start and a slow end, overall this book was very entertaining. Jo Becker is a minister’s wife with an interesting past. When she happens upon a former roommate, her past comes back with a vengeance. As Jo tries to deal with the long-ago unsolved murder of a close friend, she inadvertently solves the mystery.

The one strange thing about this book that didn’t ring true was Jo as a minister’s wife. Jo is very obviously not a believer, yet this doesn’t seem to be an issue for her husband, her marriage or the church. I had a very hard time reconciling this with what I know about pastor’s wives. For some, this might not be a big flaw in the book, but it was very distracting for me.

I’ve read more books set around World War II than I can count. This is probably the first book that I’ve read about World War I. The book is written in diary form, and centers around Jim Hay, a young teenager who thinks that war is a glorious thing, until he gets to the front lines himself.

A romance, set in the mid 1600’s in England. Susanna is a young Quaker, and Will is the son of a wealthy businessman. The two meet and fall in love. However, Quakers are being persecuted horribly during this time, and Will’s family is vehemently opposed to the match, especially when Will turns to the Quaker faith. The young couple must decide what to do, while respecting their family’s wishes and their own beliefs. This book is begging for a sequel.

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