When Catharine Olsen ventures to Wyoming in 1887 to become a
mail-order bride, she brings along more than her future husband, Peter Andersen,
ever bargained for: two sisters and a
past that still haunts her.
Wanting a new start in the booming town of Cheyenne,
Catharine puts all of herself into becoming the wife of a wheat farmer while
still remaining devoted to her sisters, who have no one else in the world to
care for them. Peter is patient with his new bride and committed to supporting
this new family of his, odd though it may be.
When Peter’s mother, Clara, begins to interfere in the
marriage, Catharine is afraid that her secrets will lead them into ruin. Will
Peter and Catharine be able to remain devoted to each other, or will mistrust
and past fears win out?
Deeply Devoted is
the first in a new series, “The Blue Willow Brides,” by Maggie Brendan.
I’m a sucker for novels about mail-order brides, most likely
because the book that really made me fall in love with Christian fiction was Janette
Oke’s A Bride for Donnigan, which is
still one of my favorites. So when I discovered that Deeply Devoted was also a mail-order bride tale, I was excited to
start reading it.
One thing that I really liked about this particular
mail-order bride story was that the two characters had corresponded with each
other (how many letters could have crossed the Atlantic in six months time in
1887, I do not know…) prior to their face-to-face meeting. While I know that
many people who found their mates this way knew virtually nothing about the
other before they married, I still liked the fact that Peter and Catharine
weren’t necessarily going into this relationship totally blind. There are
things that come out later that reveal that they were not totally truthful in this
correspondence, but that’s another part of the story.
I also enjoyed the fact that Catharine and her sisters were
from Holland. Being Dutch lent another element to the story that was
interesting, since not only was Catharine getting used to being a mail-order
bride, she was also adjusting to life in America and in Wyoming.
As for the characters, I’m not sure I completely connected
with either Catharine or Peter. This is probably because I was a bit frustrated
with them for not coming clean about everything in the beginning. I also
thought that they were very childish at times. I kept wanting Peter to just
stand up and be a man. Insert a prickly mother-in-law into the mix (Praise the
Lord that I don’t have one of those!), and my irritation grew. Especially when
that mother-in-law acted like a lovesick teenager throughout the novel.
While the story in this novel was interesting, if
predictable, I thought the writing style was a little distracting. I never got
bored with the story or bogged down with details, but the prose was not always
smooth. There were several times where the sentences felt awkward, and I had to
go back and reread them to get the point of what was going on. I also thought
that there were a lot of superfluous exclamation points!
The spiritual side of the story brought on mixed feelings
for me as well. I loved that Catharine and Peter often prayed and looked to the
Bible for their guidance and hope, but they also seemed to rely on feelings
quite frequently. This is the second Christian fiction book I have read this
month that has mentioned dreams as a source of direction from God, and I just
think that is a slippery slope to be on.
I also feel that I have to mention the physical side of this
book. While I believe that physical intimacy between a man and woman in
marriage is a beautiful, God-honoring thing, I just appreciate a novel much
more when it implies this relationship rather than focuses on it. There were so
many mentions of them being in bed and their physical characteristics that it
was really distracting. They seemed to be more in love with each other’s bodies
and how they made each other feel rather than being in love with the other
person. There are no explicit descriptions, but there is talk of making love
and of silhouettes underneath nightgowns. Again, I do not think sex in marriage
is something that people should avoid talking about if done in the right
context. I just thought the physical situations often overshadowed the rest of
the story.
The story in Deeply
Devoted captured my attention; I just wish the execution of that story had
been a bit better.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Revell Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this is accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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