August 26, 2019
Connealy (Kincaid Brides) skillfully blends a wilderness setting, faithful characters, and strangers in dire need of rescuing in this enjoyable start to her Brides of Hope Mountain series. In 1873 Colorado, Josephine Nordegren and her two sisters, Ursula and Ilsa, have been on secluded Hope Mountain all their lives. Because of their grandmother’s warnings and irrational fears, they live in constant fear of danger and disease from the outside world. Their sanctuary is disrupted when Dave Warden brings his cattle up the mountain looking for new pastures. During their time together, Dave and Josephine bond over Bible stories and debate their very separate views of life, informed by Dave’s life as a rancher and Josephine’s life of seclusion. The sisters also share their hunting and healing talents with the Wardens, bringing both families closer. Connealy’s vivid prose nicely captures the atmosphere and beauty of the 19th-century American West, a natural world that brings the Nordegrens and Wardens together to expel the irrationality of the sisters’ fears. The numerous unresolved threads will no doubt be picked up as the series continues; this is a moving tale of the meeting of two faith-filled frontier families.
October 1, 2019
When Jo Nordegren discovers Dave Warden's campfire in October of 1873, it has been more than 10 years since she last saw anyone besides her sisters, Ilsa and Ursula, on the Colorado mountaintop where the women have spent their entire lives. They were raised by their grandparents after their parents' deaths, and their grandmother's dire warnings about danger and disease from the outside world have kept them in seclusion. Jo is curious and wants to help the outsiders, while her sisters, Ursula especially, are more cautious. The Wardens have been driven from their ranch down below and Jo helps Dave find pasture for their cattle. When Dave's Pa is shot and his brother, Mitch, comes down with a life-threatening fever, the sisters are conflicted about heeding their grandmother's warnings or risking their lives to help. The first in Connealy's (Unexpected Champion, 2019) Brides of Hope Mountain series is a fascinating blend of wilderness, romance, and faith set in the American West.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)