The Brushstroke Legacy [Paperback]

Lauraine Snelling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2006

Forbidden. Hidden. Denied. Can art be powerful enough to endure?

Ragni Clauson’s work, relationships, and body all seem to be falling apart. And she isn’t convinced that spending her vacation fixing up her great-grandmother’s cabin and supervising her rebellious teenage niece, Erika, will offer any much-needed rejuvenation.

As Ragni and Erika clean, they begin to uncover the secret paintings and life of Nilda, Ragni’s ancestor who lived in the cabin in the early 1900s. Ragni doesn’t know how much she has in common with her great-grandmother, but it becomes clear Nilda faced her own struggles. Taking care of home and menfolk, fighting off locusts, raising her daughter, and finding time to paint in the midst of it all were not easy tasks. Will Nilda’s passion for enduring art re-ignite Ragni’s artistic soul a century later?

Weaving together the stories of three generations of women, The Brushstroke Legacy stirs us to believe that no matter the circumstances, we are called to use our gifts–never knowing when they might bring a stranger to a new place of hope.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Snelling (Saturday Morning; The Healing Quilt), known for her inspirational romance novels, sets this story largely in North Dakota. Ragni, a single woman who is struggling with her job and her father's Alzheimer's disease, agrees against her will to fix up her great-grandmother's cabin. She's accompanied by her teenage niece, Erika, who has taken to wearing all black and rarely talks to Ragni anymore. Snelling takes this opportunity to weave together Ragni's story with the story of Nilda, her great-grandmother, who traveled out by train in the early 1900s to be a frontier housekeeper. Both women encounter hardships—like the plague of grasshoppers that strips the crops in Nilda's time or Ragni's more humorous attempts to get Erika to adjust to life without modern conveniences. Both of them paint; when Ragni and Erika discover some of Nilda's paintings, they begin to feel close to her and are inspired to continue their own artistic pursuits. And both Ragni and Nilda enjoy romance with interesting men. The story has its sweet moments, but is largely tedious: the dialogue plods, the characters have little emotional depth, the historical details are sparse and the conclusions are not believable. And while the main character is a modern-day 30-something, the book is written in a style that will appeal most to older readers. (Sept. 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for The Brushstroke Legacy

“The Brushstroke Legacy is Lauraine Snelling at her best. Snelling paints a rich tapestry of setting and characters that pull the reader into the story immediately. An engrossing story!”
–Colleen Coble, author of Fire Dancer

“With deft strokes, Lauraine Snelling pens a story of one woman’s discovery of self...and the ties that bind generations of women together. The characters of The Brushstroke Legacy will live on in your heart long after you reach the final page.”
–Carol Cox, author of Ticket to Tomorrow

“Lauraine Snelling has once again proven why she is the beloved author of so many wonderful works of fiction. She has woven the past with the present in a heartstirring fashion.”
–Eva Marie Everson, co-author of The Potluck Club Series

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578567890
• ISBN-13: 978-1578567898
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lauraine Snelling, an award-winning author of fifty-plus books with sales of over 2 million copies, also writes for a wide range of magazines and teaches at writers' conferences across the country. She and her husband make their home in Tehachapi, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warm, encouraging, September 23, 2006

By 

Jeanne Zornes (Wenatchee, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Brushstroke Legacy (Paperback)

Lauraine has offered us another warm novel about women overcoming odds--this time a stigmatized pioneer woman and a modern corporate woman, who both found thier outlet in art. Especially if you're from North Dakota, enjoy the setting for this novel, inspired when Lauraine noticed an old cabin on the banks of the little Missouri River. The book ends with a fictional "extreme makeover" of the cabin, but that parallels the "makeover" experienced by her two main characters and a sub character, a sullen teen into the black Goth look. If you know someone desiring a "second virginity" after moral failure, or who feels a drawing away from material success, or who (like the fictional teen) is expressing rejection in inappropriate ways, consider sharing this book with them.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paintbrush Connection, December 18, 2006

By 

Deborah "Books, Movies and Chinese Food" (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Brushstroke Legacy (Paperback)

Ragni is fed up with her advertising job in Chicago. She's also frustrated that her dad has Alzheimer's making life for her mother extremely difficult. She also has to put up with her older sister complaining about her teenage niece going through a rebellious period. When her spa vacation is cut short due her mother wanting her to look at some old family property in North Dakota, Ragni and her niece Erika set out on a road trip. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start due their differences as they grew apart. When they get to the house, it's in shambles and they have to work together to try to fix out. Out of their normal elements, the two soon find remnants of their ancestor Nilda who left her artistic touch around the house and in both of them. The story flips between Ragni's story and Nilda's, who was a housekeeper who came with her daughter to work for a man out west.

This was good compelling story. I love all of Lauraine Snelling books and this one disappoint. Ragni is your everday career woman who needs to take a break from work. Erika is the rebellious teenager who wants everyone to leave her alone. The two are forced to get along and it is interesting to see how their relationship changes throughout the story. I liked the going back and forth between Ragni's and Nilda's stories. Nilda's story reminded me Janette Oke's Love Come Softly. Very sweet and frontier-like. The only thing I wondered was it didn't seem like Ragni knew about Nilda's story. I didn't see her reading a diary or hearing old stories from her mother. So I dont' know if Ragni and Erika knew the whole story about why she lived in the house. The two though are reconnected with each other and their own selves after seeing their ancestor's paintings. It was cool to read about Ragni's inspirations and urges to want to paint. I really enjoyed this book. Who knew North Dakota could be such a scenic and adventurous place?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars warm character study, September 24, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Brushstroke Legacy (Paperback)

In Chicago, Ragni Clausen feels her life is a lie as she has failed at everything important. At her job at Advantage Advertising Inc, she feels like screaming AAI as someone modified her dog biscuit ad campaign.. Her love life just ended unceremoniously. Her dad suffers form dementia. Now her mom has a note from a Paul Heidelberg claiming the family cabin on the Little Missouri is in need of repair after two harsh winters. Her sister Susan and their mom want Ragni to go the Badlands to fix the cabin while on vacation, but Susan demands she also take her niece Erika with her by calling in a sisterly favor.

Not only is Erika irate over having to tag along, she detests the need for a baby sitter as she is a teen though her mom explained she will be busy much of the summer. In the Dakotas, the two females find the cabin devastated and consider persuading mom to sell to Heidelberg. However, they find several paintings by Ragni's great-grandmother Nilda that inspire the two women to make a go at restoring the family cabin and Paul as a surprisingly young neighbor willing to help.

THE BRUSHSTROKE LEGACY is a warm character study that enables readers to compare life between 2002 and 1906 Badlands. The strong realistic evolving relationship between the aunt and her niece is delightfully portrayed though the same cannot be said of the seemingly rushed love between Paul and Ragni. Still the thrust of this fine moving story is the three generations of women finding their respective niche.

Harriet Klausner