7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Refreshing Change from the Typical Christian Historical Romance, August 28, 2010
Once again, I am reading a romance, only in this case, a historical one instead of a suspense one. I will volunteer to be the first to mock myself, in a light-hearted manner. I realize that some people with whom I am acquainted will smirk at the fact that I offered to receive and read this book for review. Okay now, are we done with the mocking, smirking, and eye-rolling? Good, let's go on to the review. ;)
In Tamera Alexander's book, *Within My Heart*, the plot begins in a traditional manner for the typical genre of historical romances. There is a young woman, in this case widowed, who is a genius, and much better-educated than most women of the time. She has a fiery temperament, and is willing to stand her line with *any* man. This is great for me, up to a point, because I really enjoy strong female characters. Not the "I am woman, hear me roar" silly feminist type, but a strong, realistic woman. The problem is that I also enjoy characters and settings that are at least *somewhat* historically accurate. The typical historical romance seems not to be accurate in this regard at all.
The other element that annoyed me was the ending. The typical "deep, dark" secret was in presence. Also, in the great culmination of the book, there is the typical "danger" to the characters. There are a limited number of dangers used (or, I should say, over-used) in historical romances that anyone who has read them, or read the jokes about them, would recognize. One of these is actually used near the end of the book. Finally, the author tries too hard to be stirring with her flowery rhetoric. The last paragraphs sounded like the end to an English epic from literature class in high school. The flowery language was a bit over-the-top, as it were.
Despite all of this, I truly did enjoy the book, and rate it quite highly. For one thing, despite the over-use of literary conventions typical to such novels, the author pretty much limited her use of these to the above-listed items. In fact, historically the somewhat "modern" temperament of the women out west was in evidence. They had no choice *but* to dispense with traditional cultural understandings of the sexes, and learn to hunt, shoot, chop wood, haul wood, farm, and so forth, just as well as any man. The historical records, including the diaries of frontier women, showed this remarkable independent streak. The problem is that most authors do not portray the situation in a realistic enough manner to show why these women were like they were. Tamera Alexander does do this. Granted, not all were the geniuses that these books portray, but that is forgivable given the broader pluses in the book.
The "deep, dark" secret seemed quite out of place, and not necessary to the plot. It really did seem as if Alexander only put it in there to make the book more like the other books in the genre. Other than this, the story was remarkably realistic. The main characters had a bad past, but these were well-known in the case of the heroine, Rachel Boyd, and hidden for a reason in the case of the hero, Dr. Rand Brookston. Rachel's husband was killed a few years prior to the book by a wild animal, and she is afraid to love again. Still no deep, dark secret. Brookston was injured and had a frightening experience of nearly being horribly misdiagnosed by the battle surgeon. Again, this was in his past, prior to the novel. During the time frame that it occurred in the Civil War, such happenings could occasionally happen.
The book seems to be divided into three roughly equal parts. These parts are not officially listed, indeed, there are no larger "sections" to the novel, beyond chapter headings. This is only my own observation.
In part one, the characters are introduced, and Brookston is clearly in love with Rachel, which she knows, but doesn't reciprocate. She has a negative view of medical doctors, for her own reasons. Brookston proves to her he is not like her misconception of doctors, so her feelings begin to thaw towards him. Part two is the story of how their friendship develops and she falls in love with him, and part three details how she gets over her fears and they become engaged.
The typical, tired story elements of the novel may have caused me to become so irritated that I ignored the enormous good in the book, but not quite. There was another saving grace to the novel, and that is how they portrayed Brookston's symptoms that today would be classified as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from the war. The realism, largely absent from much period fiction, was a breath of fresh air. Even though I did not have the same personal injury horrors in the same manner as Brookston did, I can empathize with his plight, as I have PTSD, and so it struck a chord with me.
Trust me, this book may have some faults, typical of such romances, but it is not the typical book of this genre. It has realism, believability, sheds most of the more annoying tropes, and is extremely well-written. The prose is easily readable (though a bit overly, purposefully, poetic at times), and the characters were ones I truly cared about. This book, despite its problems, was well worth the read. Recommended.
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I received this novel from Bethany House Publishers for the purposes of writing a review for them. I must emphasize that they do not ask for a particular type of review, whether positive or negative. I truly appreciate the chance to review this book, and the above opinions are my honest viewpoint. I also want to give my sincere thanks to Bethany House Publishers for the opportunity to review this book, and thank you all for reading this review.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A refreshing change in historical Christian Fiction, May 4, 2011
This review is from: Within My Heart (Timber Ridge Reflections, Book 3) (Kindle Edition)
Historicals are very popular right now. I've been reading a lot of them lately and sadly, I grew weary of them. It seemed that I kept selecting historicals with similar plotlines. So when I picked up Within My Heart by Tamara Alexander, I groaned and said "Another historical." Thankfully, that sentiment didn't last long. Within five pages, I realized that this was not just another historical.
Alexander masterfully creates the world of Rachel Boyd and Dr. Rand Brookston. Rachel is a widower raising two boys and trying to run her and her late husband's ranch. Dr. Rand Brookston is the doctor for the small town of Timber Ridge but has dreams of being more.
This book was full of unique twists and turns that it sets it in a different category than other historicals. Most books I've read focus more a specific time period, but Within My Heart presents wonderful characters and engaging storylines. Alexander portrays death in dying in a way I don't think I've ever seen in Christian fiction. She tells the story of loss that presents a perfect balance between sadness and hope.
Rand and Rachel's romance draws you in, but Alexander does a great job of also creating meaningful secondary characters. Also, there are just some amazing plot twists that had my jaw dropped. I can't say enough about this book. If you like historicals, you'll love this book.
*This book was provided to me for free through the Bethany House Reviewers Program.
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