At Morning’s Light is a heartwarming and inspirational story of overcoming grief and new beginnings on the Midwestern Frontier.

At Morning’s Light by Lauraine Snelling

Genre/Categories/Setting: Historical Fiction (1890), Immigrants, New Beginnings, Frontier Life, Iowa

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My Summary:

Thanks #NetGalley @Bethany_House @AustenProse for a complimentary eARC of #AtMorningsLight upon my request. All opinions are my own.

Newlyweds Maya and her husband live in Norway and are planning to sail to America and begin a new life when he dies unexpectedly on a fishing trip. Accompanied instead by her brother, grief-stricken Maya decides to follow through with her plans for the trip to America. When she arrives at her cousin’s boarding house, she struggles to find a way to fit in. As Maya deals with her grief and faces another tragedy, she meets a kind farmer. Will facing these trying times together bring healing and hope for the future?

My Thoughts:

Frontier Life

It must be a brave woman who can travel from Norway to America while grieving the loss of her young husband to start a new life. The author establishes a strong sense of place and provides many vivid details about the hardships and challenges of adapting to a new country and embracing frontier life. The immigrants are courageous, and the frontier women work hard!

New Beginnings and Overcoming Grief

I might not categorize this story as a romance even though the main character ultimately finds love. First, Maya has to acclimate to her new country, deal with both lingering and new grief. It takes time for the friendship between Maya and Eben to grow (no instalove). Maya has a lot to process and resolve before she can consider a new relationship. The author realistically deals with Maya’s grief and patiently lays the groundwork for a new relationship. The result is satisfying and believable in every way.

Inspirational

I haven’t yet mentioned Amalia, Maya’s cousin. The story is also about Amalia who is compassionate and a woman of faith. She expertly runs the boarding house, cares for orphan children as if they were her own, is wise and patient with Maya as she grieves and adjusts to life in America, and looks to God as the source of her strength.

Content Consideration: grief

Recommending At Morning’s Light:

At Morning’s Light is the second installment of the Home to Green Creek series and can be read as a standalone. This story is a continuation of Amalia’s story in book one, and I’m sure it is a more satisfying reading experience to read them in order. Fans of slow-burn, friends-tp-more romance will appreciate this compelling, inspirational story with its poignant themes. I’ll definitely read the next installment.

My Rating: 4 Stars

More Information Here

Meet the Author of At Morning’s Light, Lauraine Snelling

Award-winning and best selling author Lauraine Snelling began living her dream to be a writer with her first published book for young adult readers, Tragedy on the Toutle, in 1982. She has since continued writing more horse books for young girls, adding historical and contemporary fiction and nonfiction for adults and young readers to her repertoire. All told, she has over eighty books published with more than 4 million copies in print.

Shown in her contemporary romances and women’s fiction, a hallmark of Lauraine’s style is writing about real issues of forgiveness, loss, domestic violence, and cancer within a compelling story. Her work has been translated into Norwegian, Danish, and German, and she has won the Romantic Times Career Achievement award for Inspirational Fiction, the Silver Angel Award for An Untamed Land and a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart for Song of Laughter.

Lauraine and her husband, Wayne, have two grown sons, and live in the Tehachapi Mountains with a watchdog Basset named Winston. They love to travel, most especially in their forty-foot motor coach, which they affectionately deem “a work in progress”.

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QOTD:

Are you a fan of frontier fiction?

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