Hearts Awakening by Delia Parr
Reviewed by Darlene ‘Dee’ Bishop, Radiant Lit
Genre: Christian Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Bethany House
Publication Dates: March 1, 2010

Hearts Awakening follows Elvira (Ellie) Kilmer, a spinster forced to live with a cousin who resents her, as she takes a job as housekeeper for Jackson Smith and his two young sons. Set in a time when the conveniences of “modern life” are few, Ellie finds herself struggling to accomplish the simplest of her daily tasks for the attractive widower’s family.

Amid days filled with her attempts to adjust to cooking on an indoor cast iron stove, which she detests, Ellie longs for the comfort of her own hearth so that she can show these fellows just what a good cook she really is, and that it’s not her way to burn everything—it’s just that infernal stove!

Despite her seeming inadequacies in the kitchen, and although he considers her “the plainest woman” he has ever seen with common features and a face full of freckles, Jackson Smith stuns the unsuspecting Ellie by asking her to marry him just when she expects to be fired. His proposal is not based on love, however, but simply to provide a mother for his children, and in return, a home for her.

Out of desperation for a place to live, and rather than return to her cousin’s home, Ellie agrees to marry this man who has made it clear he wants only a parent for his sons… sons who have also made it clear they don’t want a new mother!
As she slowly learns her way around the Smith kitchen with its eternally aggravating cookstove, Ellie proves her worth as a hard-working, dependable and faithful wife… though not without trials and misunderstandings on the part of her new spouse.

Hearts Awakening is a comfortable period romance filled with light-hearted struggles, as well as heart-wrenching trials as Ellie and the Smiths learn to trust one another and their new found ties while allowing allow God to turn them into a real family and not just one in name only.
The book is well-written, though not without the occasional author “interference” which is so annoying. But all in all, it’s a good read, especially for those who enjoy stories set in another era.

Rated: G — Nothing inappropriate.