I need to re-read some of Snelling’s earlier books. If I’m recalling correctly, her Red River of the North series was excellent, and that was what got me hooked on reading her books. Since then, every book has been a disappointment, and I’m wondering if the Red River series wasn’t as good as I thought.

The Brushstroke Legacy tries to weave together the stories of 2 women. Ragni is a single, burned out career woman, who happens to stumble across the perfect man, and rediscover her long lost painting talent. Nilda was Ragni’s great-grandmother, who struggled to care for her young daughter and find love on the frontier. Somehow, as Ragni cleans out Nilda’s old cabin, Nilda’s story inspires Ragni to greatness. What really happens is that two nauseating plots are combined into one mess with too many ridiculous scenes to count.

I first discovered Snelling’s books when I read her series Red River of the North. This was classic “pioneer fiction” and I absolutely loved it. It fell under the genre of Inspirational Fiction, but there was no cheesy, fake, “inspirational” atmosphere in the series. Unfortunately, as Snelling began to delve further into the genre, and began to crank out books at an unbelievable speed, her books took on the typical “All of us Christians love each other, get along and have great lives serving the Lord in a meaningful, yet unusual way, in spite of our quickly solved problems” tone. This book was no exception. I won’t even summarize the plot, as I don’t recommend you read it.