Orphaned and widowed, eighteen-year-old Jubilee Stallings clings to her southern Indiana farm as her only refuge. The wilds of Gibson County are just being tamed in the year of 1850, and Jubilee ekes a meager existence. But when Rafe Tanner, a cousin of her abusive dead husband, shows up with the deed to her property, Jubilee’s dream of her own home dissolves.Rafe, stinging from his ex-fiancée’s … ex-fiancée’s rejection, offers a business marriage, throwing him and Jubilee together in an effort to make the farm successful. But scars from the past keep her in constant fear of her new husband. The pair masquerades as a love-struck couple at Rafe’s family farm, enduring the romantic notions of his family, and the jealousy of his ex-fiancée.
Once home, Rafe realizes his newfound love for Jubilee, and sets out to court her. Meanwhile, Jubilee fights demons from her past as her husband reveals his interest. Can Jubilee let go of her distrust and pain to embrace God’s plan of true love and finally find a place to belong?
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YOu will be drawn into this young owman’s life form page one. Great hisotrical fiction, clean read.
Imagine being 18 years old and starving, isolated, abandoned, and frightened of literally everything. Imagine being in that situation through only the actions of others. Being orphaned as a child, put out to work by the orphanage to learn life skills before you age out of their system and have not even a bed to sleep in. Imagine walking back to the only home you know after a late night at your work assignment and being kidnapped, sexually assulted at gun point, and then forced to marry your kidnapper. The same person who takes you away from meverything you know to a homestead near the forest, leaves you for weeks and months at a time and smacks you around pretty good when he is home. No safety, even in your dreams. No cozy memories to carry you through the long cold winter eating dandelion greens and wild onions. Then out of no where a new man shows up. Tells you your husband is dead and instills more fear as now even the shack shelter you know is becoming a wisp of what was. Until. . .read the synopsis people!
Obviously, this book has some pretty heavy themes which might be inappropriate for some readers. However, don’t let the heaviness alone turn you off as this book brings so much more than the darkness. It brings overcoming, for Jubilee and Rafe, it brings healing, and it brings light. But. . . yes it has to be said, it also brought a lot of frustration, at least to me personally. Is it wrong that I feel bad that Jubilee drove me batty? I mean, if anyone deserved to be scared by her own shadow it’s this girl. If anyone had reason to doubt the integrity of all the species of all the planets in all the universe it’s Jubilee. But. For. The. Love. Of. Grits. AND. Gravy. At some point you need to use your words girl. Talk. Yell. Anything. I’ve never read a book that was almost exclusively a love story that was only in personal thoughts and minimally of actual real communication between two people. As much as I was put off by her most of the time I also have to give her credit for overcoming. She slowly, painfully slowly, learned to reach out into her world. She learned to make room in her heart for others. She learned to accept that life was a balance and that everything wasn’t always bad. She eventually, sorta, found her words.
Rafe was frustrating as well. I mean, I get he was jilted by the woman he loved when he arrived at the homestead and finding a waif of a ball of fear was not on the expectation list. But he too needs to learn how to speak. I think he almost became more meek than Jubilee in fear of upsetting her. I can’t reiterate enough that this is the weirdest budding actual love and relationship that I have ever experienced. He didn’t share his thoughts at all with Jubilee, even thoughts not about falling for her just thoughts in general, but he had a lot of thoughts and they all stayed right in his head. I swear they were meant for each other with their thought bubble romance! However, Rafe (and Jubilee as an accompaniment) reminds us that sometimes what we have our heart set on wanting isn’t what our heart actually needs. And things lost that we long for are usually lost for the better. Perspective and time go a long way toward knowing that not all things lost need to be found.
I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by NetGalley. I was not compensated for this review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.
Good strong admirable male lead.
I loved this book
I Loved this book.
One of the best reads ever.
I enjoyed this book about a young women (Jubilee) who grew up in an orphanage, was abused by her first husband and is afraid to trust. Through many twists and turns Jubilee needs to learn to trust God and the people around her who want to help.