5 stars~*****
Reviewed by Diana Flowers
Unending Excitement!
In an Unending Devotion, author Jody Hedlund has penned an exciting, heart-rending novel set against the backdrop of the snow-covered, majestic white pine country of Michigan in the late 1800s.
Lily Young and her younger sister, Daisy, are left alone and destitute after the death of their parents and end up living in an orphanage. Thinking she is doing the right thing, Lily arranges for her sister to live on a farm with the Wretcham family until she can find a way to make a home for the both of them. She secures a position with Oren, a kind, elderly man and a photographer who travels from one lumber camp to another taking pictures. When she returns to the Wretcham's she finds Daisy has run away, leaving Lily to search the brothels in every town she and Oren find themselves in.
The town of Harrison is known for its wickedness and debauchery, and is virtually run by James Carr, an evil man known to prey upon young women and children, forcing them into a life of prostitution. While in Harrison, Lily meets Connell McCormick, the boss of a successful lumber camp, and they immediately butt heads in spite of their attraction to one another.
Connell doesn't like the evil goings on in Harrison, but feels there is nothing he can do about it, and is content to run his father's business and stay uninvolved. But as his attraction to Lily grows, he finds himself longing to help her and devises a plan to help her find her sister. Lily, however, decides to take matters into her own hands and ends up in terrible danger. In her search for Daisy will she find love as well?...and can the evils and injustices of Harrison ever be rectified? These answers can only be found as Lily learns to surrender her stubborn will to the Lord.
This fiction based on fact novel will haunt and fascinate the reader-not only with its heart pounding excitement, romantic tension, and realistic characters, but with the heartbreaking realities of childhood enslavement that still occur in this day and time. Jody Hedlund handles this tough subject with compassion and discretion, and I applaud her. A remarkable book in every sense of the word!
GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment and your email to be entered in this week's contest. Drawing will be late Saturday. Your choice of Jody's books, choice of format*. Void where prohibited by law. *International winners only receive the book in ebook format, not as a paperback.
