Customer Reviews

Across the Years (Desert Roses #2)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the second volume in the Desert Roses series. Ashley Reynolds was a "Harvey Girl," working in a Harvey's restaurant in Arizona. She lived with her grandfather and little daughter. She enjoyed her work and was regarded as one of Harvey's best. Her husband had been killed in WWI. She felt she could never find anyone who would measure up to the man she lost. Her daughter met an architect working on a Harvey project who was willing to share his interest in architecture with the little girl. Natalie encouraged this friendship. About the same time Ashley's grandfather was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.

Throughout the story another struggle was raging - Grandfather and Natalie felt a firm faith in God but Ashley had questions which kept her from faith and church. How could God take her husband as he did? How could God let her grandfather have cancer? The mystery of the bearded architect was solved in an interesting and surprising way. This is a really good story and it shows a small section of history in the west as the Great Depression was spreading over the country. It also shares the struggle several people in the story experienced in finding faith in God.

Tracie Peterson has captured the era just before the beginning of the great depression, circa 1930. A young widowed mom is working - supporting her 10 yr. old daughter while sharing a home with a grandfather who is estranged from the rest of his family.

When hurt and bitterness have built up a wall, it is very unlikely that a newcomer to town, a construction worker, will have a chance to court her, even though her daughter is playing matchmaker.

The central figure is a young, independent but sad woman who has decided that fate and God have chosen her lot of single mom. In spite of the faith of both her daugher and her grandfather, she will not attend church or believe. Her family has turned their backs on her, never even knowing that she has a child, so she determines to be single, sad and alone. Her daughter is determined to change all that.

Lies, deception, danger and tremendous intrigue are played out it this second book of Peterson's "Desert Roses" series.

Including lots of other people and circumstances, Tracie builds a tremendous plot that will hold a reader spellbound and unable to lay the book down.

This one started a little slowly but picked up momentum as it went on. I went through many emotions as you read this story of lovers kept apart by parents who didn't understand that love goes past social standing.

This book for me started a little slow but the more I read, the more it captivated me. I cried, laughed, and was on the edge of my seat several times.
Your heart aches when you hear of the troubles that have befallen Ashley and you are so happy for her when things start to come together. I was enraged when her mother comes back into her life and tries to take over and I cheered when she wouldn't let her.
This book shows us that God is always looking out for us and that He always has a plan. If you believe in happy endings, this is the book for you.

Great story - I always enjoy Tracie Petterson's books. This is #2 in the Desert Roses series, but could also be read as a stand-alone book.

Tracie Peterson gives us the fascinating history of the Harvey chain of railway hotels and restaurants along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

She has written two historical romance series with Harvey Girls as the heroines. This Desert Roses one and The Westward Chronicles series.
I highly recommend all 6 books to lovers of historical fiction.