Customer Reviews

Prairie Rose

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rosenbloom Cotton Mills is ana unusual name for an unusual girl. Brought up in an orphange, Rosie is no stranger to hardship. But when she impulsively leaves the orphange for the Kansas praire, she takes on more hardship than she originally anticipated, including a dour widower, his young son who has never gotten to know his father, and a homestead desperately in need of a woman's touch. Rosie faces each challenge with a smile and with the knowledge that God is her father and his love in her heart. The humor in this book is expertly balanced with the hard praire life that Rosie comes to love. In the midst of her hardships, Rosie comes to understand the true meaning of not only God's love for her, but her love for Seth. Palmer is a great Christian romance writer in the tradition of Oke and Glover, and I recommend her highly.

I love romance stories but as a Christian always felt guilty when reading the "dirty" ones. When I purchased this book I did not even realize it was a Christian romance and had never read a Christian romance novel. I just thought it was a western/romance type of book. When I started reading and realized it was a Christian romance, to tell you the truth, I thought it would be boring as I was used to the steamy scenes in mainstream romance. Boy was I wrong! I laughed and cried with Rosie as I finished this book in only one day and immediatley ordered the other books in the series and not one has been a disappointment. I will never go back to mainstream romance books with their filthy scenes. I now can read about people falling in love in a Godly way. God Bless everyone who reads this.

Sometimes with series books, the characters are so perfect and predictable, I really don't care enough about them to read any of their further adventures. Not so with Rosie and the other residents of A Town Called Hope. I gobbled this story up as fast as I could and then waited anxiously for the sequels to arrive at my library. As soon as the Prairie Trilogy was in print--with Prairie Fire and Prairie Storm--I bought it for my friend for Christmas. She fell in love immediately with Catherine Palmer's characters, just like I did. Now she has bought Prairie Christmas and is a huge Catherine Palmer fan.

Catherine Palmer has created a cast of characters that will live on in the reader's mind long after the pleasure of reading Prairie Rose and its successors are over.

This book is one of the few I read in one sitting. I couldn't bear to put it down!!! From the opening scene when Rosie is sitting in the tree to the time she boarded the stagecoach on her way back to the orphanage, I was captivated. I am hopeful of writing my own books someday, so I study the writing style of each book I read. And I loved Mrs. Palmer's writing style! Truly, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys quality fiction. And the message of Jesus Christ and His love was woven in so skillfully, it was truly wonderful. PLEASE, keep on writing Mrs. Palmer!!!! If you are thinking about this book but have not read it as of yet, I would recommend it STRONGLY!!!! stick it in your shopping cart and wait anxiously for it to arrive at your home! Or, run to your nearest Christian Bookstore and buy a copy TODAY! I will warn you, though, the third book in the series is not yet published. You will want to get the sequel, 'Prairie Fire' immediately,(Which was JUST as good as Prairie Rose) and then wait for TWO...LONG...MONTHS until the third is published. Beg, Borrow, or Buy a copy TODAY!!!!!!!!!!

Rose Mills, thinking she was lovingly placed in a stocking with her name on a piece of paper when her parents could not provide for her learns later that her name is simply the label of the stocking mill that made the sock! Rosie did not mind the orphanage so much, but she missed having a home to call her own. However, the methodology she chose to find it was quite outlandish in her day.....that of simply declaring herself an employee and jumping on a wagon heading to the Kansas prairie. Talented and witty, Rose quickly makes friends, but cannot even dent the hard shell of the man she works for in spite of the fact his 5 yr. old son adores Rose. Seth's wife is dead, and he did not even know he had a son until after the civil war was over....then when he claimed him, his dead wife's family set out to recapture the boy and/or kill Seth. Seth himself had not had a loving father, so he had no idea how to be one! The boy did not even know his Pa, so he gave him a hard time! Rosie was the only one the boy related to and Seth wanted no part of it! Rosie made her home in the crude barn with the animals, tilled the land, cooked the meals, cared for the boy and after the floating bridge was built....collected "tolls" from travelers without her employer's knowledge.....but saved him and his 2 closest friends from certain ruin by her ingenuity. A neighbor, a large German man courted Rosie and proposed marriage....as good an offer as she was likely to get and a promise of a home of her own for the very first time in her life. But something was not right....something was missing. When her 6 month "job" was finished, 20 yr. old Rosie put herself on a stagecoach bound for the return trip to the orphanage as a paid worker when the unimaginable happened. I can hardly wait for the sequel!

What a sweet romance !!!

It has an excellent plot and the characters are lovely!!

I really enjoyed this book. I like the way the faith of her characters was expressed. I also liked that these characters weren't afraid to addmit they spoke to God and listened to him as well.

Even after reading the reviews, I waited to start reading the book until after dinner. I had lots of things to do and can usually put any book down at any time...even if it's in the middle of a gripping, suspenseful part. For some reason, I couldn't put this one down until I finished it at 3am! It was an enjoyable light read....but I still found myself not wanting to put it down until I reached the end.
Even though I consider myself a devout Christian, I was torn between the Christian message being laid on a little too thickly and it just being who the character was. I lean towards it being the character. I, like the other reviewing before me, am thrilled to have a romance novel that had zero smut. The "dance" between the characters, in my opinion, is much more interesting than the smut that I would rather be left to the imagination.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone looking for a heart-warming Christian historical romance that will be fresh in your mind for days to come. Prarie Rose is a beautifully and carefully written story that had me cheering for the characters' victories, weeping at their losses, and understanding their mistakes. It was funny, it was suspenseful, but it was realistic. There was no rushed dialogue or forced relationships, everything played out gradually. The principle of accepting both God's love and romantic love is portrayed perfectly, as well. I read this book in one night, staying up very late to finally have my happy ending. And I'm greatly looking forward to reading the other two in this series.

I must applaud the author in a splendid job well done. You have to choose carefully when reading books by Catherine Palmer. Some of her stories are forced, badly written and ridiculously cliched (like Affectionate Adversary or Love's Haven) while others are absolute gems (like Bachelor's Bargain or Victorian Rose). This book shines along side the great ones. I have yet to read Palmer's "Treasures of the Heart" series, but I look forward to it, and only hope that she keeps these fine traits and writing skills with her in the books to come.

This was one of the best books I have read in a long time! I loved Rosie's personality. I would definitely recomend this book to anyone.