Hearts Awakening
This story begins in August 1840 on a 100-acre island in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Dillon Island was the dream child of James Gladson, who purchased the island several years earlier and planted an orchard. Jackson Smith had been on his own for quite some time when James took him in and gave him a good home and promising future. Jackson repays this kindness by marrying Rebecca, James’s only daughter, and giving him the grandsons he desires to carry on the island legacy.
When the story opens, Jackson is struggling to maintain the orchards and raise his two sons alone. James has been dead for some time and Rebecca has tragically drowned a year earlier. Enter Ellie Kilmer, a plain spinster without prospects of her own, who comes to the island to keep house for him and care for his sons. When the handsome widower offers his hand in marriage, it’s in the form of a contract, legal and binding, that requires her to stay until the youngest son comes of age in exchange for a roof over her head. She is sad at the prospect of a loveless marriage, but believes God has given her the gift of family and is determined to succeed. She soon falls in love with this bitter man and his grieving children. When she learns that his bitterness is caused by an unrequited love and when Dorothea comes to the island to reclaim that love, Ellie’s faith is tested in ways she never knew possible.
This is the first book by Delia Parr that I have read, and although she has been favorably compared to Janette Oke, I found the writing to be stilted and the storyline too predictable. Those readers more familiar with this genre may not agree with me.
