Customer Reviews

Prairie Wife (Harlequin Historical)

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

 

 

This was such a tenderly written story about heartbreak and healing. The story is about Amy and Jesse who have one of the only "stage stops" around where folks can get a meal and spend the night. The book opens where they are burying their 2 year old son, Tim. Amy blames herself and totally shuts down emotionally from everyone and becomes very status quo. She doesn't want to talk about "it" or anything else that reminds her of losing Tim. Jesse is very loving to Amy and wants nothing more than to grieve together but he can't seem to reach her. It finally hurts too much to remain sleeping with her in their room so he moves to the boarding house and begins to turn to whiskey. Though Amy is hurt by that she says nothing. She feels she deserves it because it was her fault and she just couldn't seem to feel.

I don't want to say much more because I don't want to give it away...but you journey with them on trying to become whole again as persons as well as a couple. Cheryl, in my opinion, did a fabulous job in creating real characters with real hurts.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book. It is a keeper on my shelf!

Amy Shelby has been lost in her grief since her baby boy died a year ago. Her husband, Jesse, doesn't know what to do for the cold, quiet woman Amy has become. Each passing day brings more distance between them--distance neither seems able to bridge. Can Amy find her way back to the family that loves her...the family she loves?

Cheryl St. John writes stories so full of real human emotion. Amy's grief is palpable, just as the love between Jesse and Amy is. Your heart will twist as you watch them try to find their way back to love.

Amy is devastated by the accidental death of her young child and locks herself into a cold internal prison of self-loathing. Unable to cope with her emotions, she decides not to feel at all.

Jesse is equally distraught by the death of his son, but wants to deal with his loss. Every attempt to approach Amy is met with ice, driving him over the edge to take comfort in alcohol.

The story is not maudlin or sentimental. The death of the little son is at the root of the issues, but the focus is on the actual emotional turmoil in Amy and Jesse.

Events and new people in their lives encourage and even force change, breaking down the walls and allowing a new beginning.

The book is a slow melting of the ice in their lives, but the writing kept me turning the pages without ever skipping a line.

This book does not quite reach the emotional intensity of His Secondhand Wife and The Tenderfoot Bride, but it has depth and is a rewarding story.

Cheryl St. John is one of my favorite authors. I never miss one of her books. This was a very pleasant read.

I'd read other reviews elsewhere praising this book as true-to-life depiction of Western Life with all its hardship, and was looking forward to reading it. But instead I found it very disappointing and hard to finish. While the writer's research was accurate, the town and home did not seem real. The story is dull and predictable, and it is hard to worry or care about these characters, they've been done so many times in other books. Pass.