A Hopeful Heart

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

A Hopeful Heart Bethany House (June 1, 2010)

byKim 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 Review:

Barnett, Kansas

May 1888

Curling her fingers around a leather handle of the battered carpetbag that held her carefully selected belongings, Tressa Neill fell in line behind the tittering row of young women disembarking the train. She didn't mind being last. In the homespun dress and outdated straw hat acquired by Aunt Gretchen, she felt dowdy and conspicuous. No matter that her attire matched closely that of her traveling companions - with the exception of Evelyn. She still harbored an intense desire to hide.

She peered out one of the trains car's dusty windows. A solitary thick-waisted woman wearing a calico bonnet and matching apron over a pale blue dress stood at the edge of the white-painted depot's wooden walkway. The woman cupped her hand above the bonnet's brim and stared at the train, obviously seeking someone. In the telegram that outlines Tressa's travel itinerary, her benefactor indicated she would meet her pupil's at the train station, so Tressa surmised this woman must be the school's founder, Mrs. Hattie Wyatt.

Then Tressa's gaze drifted over to a small crowd gathered in the slash of shade offered by the depot's overhanging porch roof. All men. All gawking with obvious interest. A bead of sweat trickled down her back. In the acceptance letter Tressa had received from the Wyatt Herdman School, Mrs. Wyatt had vowed the men of Barnett desired wives, but Tressa hadn't anticipated a welcoming band of prospective suitors. The sight of those sunburnt, cowboy-hat-topped-men sent Tressa's stomach into spasms of nervousness...(excerpt from pg 7-8)

In the book, A Hopeful Heart by Kim Vogel Sawyer, Tressa Neill arrives in Barnett Kansas after applying to the Wyatt Herdsman School. 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. But will Tressa have what it takes to survive Hattie Wyatt's hands-on instruction in skills such as milking cows, branding a calf, and cooking up a mess of grub for hungry ranch hands?

In the same token, Abel Samms wants nothing to do with the passel of potential brides his neighbor brought to town. He was smitten with an eastern girl once and got his heart broken. But there's something about quiet Tressa and her bumbling ways that makes him take notice. When trouble strikes, will Abel risk his life and his heart to help this eastern girl?

I received complimentary book from Christian Fiction Blog Alliance in return for my honest review. Being a lover of historical western fiction, this book rates a permanent home in my library and I would again rate this one a 10 out of 10. I stayed up til the wee hours of the early morning because I had to know how it ended once I started it. It keeps the reader immersed in the story from the first page to the last. I would love to see a sequel to this book from Kim Vogel Sawyer. This book is a definite must have!