Review: A Promise to Love by Serena B. Miller

 

Publication: October 2012
Length: 336 pages
Source: borrowed a copy from the library
My Rating: *****--5 Stars

Blurb: Ingrid Larsen, a young Swedish immigrant, arrives in Michigan in 1871 to search for her brother who has disappeared into the woods to work the dangerous lumber camps. Destitute and barely hanging on to hope, she encounters a newly-widowed farmer who is struggling to raise five children on his own. Marriage would solve both of their problems, and so Ingrid proposes to a man she barely knows. She will fight to protect her new family--but the hardest battle of all will be winning the heart of her new husband.
Readers who loved "The Measure of Katie Calloway "will be pleased to find more of Miller's emotive and descriptive writing here--and to discover that love is more than words.

My Review: I'm not sure what it was about this book, but I loved it!!!! Ingrid came to Michigan from Sweden in 1871 and worked for a very spoiled (mean) lady as a servant. Joshua's wife suddenly died, leaving him a widower with 5 young children. His in-laws felt that he was responsible for his wife's death and there was an inquest. It was determined that he is innocent, but the kids will be given to his in-laws, since he can't care for them. Ingrid stands up and offers to marry him and a marriage of convenience begins. Life in the wilds of Michigan isn't easy, but Ingrid is determined to whip her family into good shape.

I love how loving and accepting Ingrid is. She loves unconditionally and works so tirelessly without complaint. Joshua is a stubborn man and I love how all the females in his household get after him for it. Agnus, the oldest daughter, is so old for her age and it's sweet to see her be a kid again. Mary, Joshua's mother...that whole relationship between Mary and Ingrid is just priceless.

Content: CLEAN with some Christian undertones, but is not overly preachy at all.

About the Author:
I live only a few miles from a flourishing Amish community and am blessed to count many Old Order Amish as friends. Love Finds You In Sugarcreek, Ohio is a natural outgrowth of my on-going fascination with these valiant, flawed people who struggle to live their lives according to their interpretation of the Bible. Once, when I apologized for asking so many questions while researching this book, an Amish father told me that I could ask anything I wanted. “Nothing is forbidden,” he said. He told me that he wanted my book to be accurate. I was thrilled when his family read it and gave me their enthusiastic nod of approval.

Our family, however, also lived for many years in Michigan. My father, a sawyer, told me stories he had heard from old timber men who had cut the fabled giant pine in the Saginaw Valley. Visiting museums and reading about the years directly after the Civil War, when Michigan became the lumber capitol of the world, became a hobby. I was delighted when Revell Publishing allowed me to revisit that era by writing The Measure Of Katie Calloway.

There are many other books on their way—both Amish and historical. Please know that each one is a labor of love from me to you.

To God be all the glory, forever.