Review by Booklist Review
Despite her husband's faults, the last thing that young wife Annalisa expected to face was his untimely death. Annalisa's father, in an effort to help his now-widowed daughter keep her farm, writes to his brother in the old country asking that he find a husband for Annalisa. Meanwhile, in Germany, fate steps in and exchanges the hangman's noose reserved for the wrongly convicted aristocrat Carl von Reichert for an escape route to the same small Germanic Michigan settlement that Annalisa calls home. As their lives and hearts begin to intertwine, it is only by discovering their own genuine identities that Annalisa and Carl can find their true homes. Swiftly becoming a well-known contender in the world of Christian historical fiction, Hedlund skillfully taps into her own German heritage to develop this tale of Old World romance and masked identity set against the backdrop of a nineteenth-century German American community.--Ponder, Elizabeth Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Hedlund (Unending Devotion) crafts a historical romance set in the 1880s farmlands of Michigan. Her cast of German immigrants has come to America in search of a life free from the serfdom of their native country. Heroine Annalisa Werner toils under the cruelty of a foolhardy husband, but, when he dies and Annalisa discovers she is pregnant with her second child, a bad situation suddenly becomes exponentially worse. Her family's swift and sole solution is to marry her off. With no suitable candidates in the immigrant community, her father beseeches his brother in Germany to send a potential husband. Carl von Reichart arrives in response to this request, but only to provide temporary assistance to Annalisa until the intended groom can secure passage. While Annalisa suspects Carl is hiding a dark secret, she is helpless to do anything but accept his assistance. Her circumstances grow more complicated as financial woes and devastating illness strike. Hedlund's love story may be simple and predictable, but her characters and their situations are anything but, as they deal with the timeless issues of love, faith, and self-worth. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
