A Hopeful Heart

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
A Hopeful Heart Bethany House (June 1, 2010)
by
Kim Vogel Sawyer


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kim Vogel Sawyer is the author of fifteen novels, including several CBA and ECPA bestsellers. Her books have won the ACFW Book of the Year Award, the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, and the Inspirational Readers Choice Award. Kim is active in her church, where she leads women's fellowship and participates in both voice and bell choirs. In her spare time, she enjoys drama, quilting, and calligraphy. Kim and her husband, Don, reside in central Kansas, and have three daughters and six grandchildren.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Dowryless and desperate, Tressa Neill applies to the inaugural class of Wyatt Herdsman School in Barnett, Kansas, in 1888. The school's one-of-a-kind program teaches young women from the East the skills needed to become a rancher--or the wife of one.

Shy and small for her twenty-two years, Tressa is convinced she'll never have what it takes to survive Hattie Wyatt's hands-on instruction in skills such as milking a cow, branding a calf, riding a horse, and cooking up a mess of grub for hungry ranch hands. But what other options does she have?

Abel Samms wants nothing to do with the group of potential brides his neighbor brought to town. He was smitten with an eastern girl once--and he got his heart broken. But there's something about quiet Tressa and her bumbling ways that makes him take notice.

When Tressa's life is endangered, will Abel risk his own life--and his heart--to help this eastern girl?

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Hopeful Heart, go HERE

MY THOUGHTS:
The concept of mail-order brides takes on a new twist in this fun novel as "Aunt" Hattie Wyatt sets up a ranching school to teach newly arrived Eastern girls all the ins and outs of ranching. Milking a cow and branding calves are just two of the skills the girls must learn before the area ranchers come a-courting. Hard work, friendship, and new faith combine with mystery, "mean girl" drama, and romance to make this a satisfying read.

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