08/26/2019
Connealy (Kincaid Brides) skillfully blends a wilderness setting, faithful characters, and strangers in dire need of rescuing in this enjoyable start to her Brides of Hope Mountain series. In 1873 Colorado, Josephine Nordegren and her two sisters, Ursula and Ilsa, have been on secluded Hope Mountain all their lives. Because of their grandmother’s warnings and irrational fears, they live in constant fear of danger and disease from the outside world. Their sanctuary is disrupted when Dave Warden brings his cattle up the mountain looking for new pastures. During their time together, Dave and Josephine bond over Bible stories and debate their very separate views of life, informed by Dave’s life as a rancher and Josephine’s life of seclusion. The sisters also share their hunting and healing talents with the Wardens, bringing both families closer. Connealy’s vivid prose nicely captures the atmosphere and beauty of the 19th-century American West, a natural world that brings the Nordegrens and Wardens together to expel the irrationality of the sisters’ fears. The numerous unresolved threads will no doubt be picked up as the series continues; this is a moving tale of the meeting of two faith-filled frontier families. (Oct.)
