When his wife dies in childbirth, Zambian conservationist Simon Hartley pours his life into raising his daughter and his orphan elephants. He has no time, or desire, to fall in love again. Or so he thinks.Wanting to escape English society and postpone an arranged marriage, Lady Abigail Chadwick heads to Africa for a year to teach the children of the Good Shepherd Orphanage. Upon her arrival she … arrival she is left stranded at Livingstone airport…until a reluctant Simon comes to her rescue.
Now only fears born of his loss, and secrets of the life she’s tried to leave behind, can stonewall their romance, budding in the heart of Africa.
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Orphaned Hearts (Heart of Africa)
Another unputdownable book by Marion Ueckermann. This book had so many emotions, such a wonderful story. I love the characters and the the amazing ephelants.
This is a feel good Christian love story. Its setting is most intriguing. The orphans are both children and baby elephants and the owner of the elephant orphanage and the teacher from the orphanage connect and sparks fly,but as perfect as it sounds there’s problems that keep the reader enraptured!
Orphaned Hearts was such a delightful story it had me captivated by the very first page. I loved learning about the elephants and Africa. The characters were amazing and very easy to fall in love with. The storyline was great and unique. This was another book of Marion Ueckermann’s that I did not want to put down. She did an amazing job with this book and I hope that there is more in this series.
Orphaned Hearts from Marion Ueckermann is one. clean romance. The book is a heartwarming story of a brave woman with a big heart who goes to work in an orphanage in Zambia for a year. It is a well written book based on Christian principles. The adventure takes you to this beautiful environment it is a story that will keep you captivated until the end.
You will enjoy your time at an African orphanage and at the Elephant Project International. I admired Abigail for leaving her nobility status behind in England and volunteering at the Good Shepherd Orphanage even though it means culture shock! I liked learning about caring for orphaned elephants. Widower Simon runs the Elephant Project and cares for his young daughter. I recommend Orphaned Hearts to others. I received a complimentary e-book from the author. This is my honest opinion.
Maybe I had expectations that were too high going into this book. The blurb and comments by other readers made me think that this would be an engrossing, clean, Christian romance. But I was disappointed with the lack of realism and the focus on physical looks, especially the hero’s focus on the heroine’s body parts.
While there is a scene of redemption, it felt contrived and fake, seemingly changing his mind for no reason. And the romance felt quite fast, too, after only a week.
Unfortunately, I also have to mention that the editing was not up to par. There were several wrong words used, punctuation errors, and overly dramatic descriptions (e.g., “the sun glared down with the vengeance of hell” because he forgot his shades).
I also didn’t like the head-hopping, changing thoughts between hero and heroine within the same chapter, and near the end even within the same scene. I know some people have no problem with third-person POV doing that, but it drives me batty.
I did like the secondary characters and the realistic way that Simon and his daughter Chloe dealt with their emotions. But I won’t be reading this again anytime soon.
Favorite quotes:
“How was it possible to experience opposite emotions at the same time? Joy. Sorrow. Like oil and water, they didn’t mix.”
“The afternoon was supposed to be about cute baby elephants kept in captivity, not being captivated by the cute baby elephant keeper.”