Steadfast Heart

Book Review: Steadfast Heart

Author: Tracie Peterson

Genre: Christian, Romance

Publisher: Bethany House Publishers

Publication Date: January 6, 2015

Rating: 2 (below average)

Pros: Sweet story, Abrianna’s entertaining character

Cons: Slow plot, boring, unrealistic romance

                Lenore Fulcher isn’t pretentious despite her spoiled upbringing. Her deepest desire at the age of twenty is to find true love. However, her father believes she’s wasted enough time searching for a suitable husband, and he wants to marry her off to one of his business partners—thirty-seven-year-old James Rybus. But the idea of marriage to a man so much older is out of the question for Lenore. Kolbein Booth, a lawyer from Chicago, arrives in Seattle looking for his headstrong sister who he believes may have answered an advertisement for mail-order brides. Sick with worry, he storms the Madison Bridal School, demanding to see his sister, only to learn she isn’t there. But Lenore Fulcher is, and something about her catches his attention. Is this the man Lenore has been searching for? She may not have long to find out…

            Lenore, searching for true love believes in an instant that she has found it in Kolbein Booth. Desperate to avoid courting Mr. Rybus, she informs her father of her desire to court another man. When her father gives her a deadline of one month, Lenore worries that her desire will be not granted her when her family goes on a vacation to San Francisco only one day after meeting Kolbein. In the meantime, Kolbein and Abrianna embark on a search for Kolbein’s missing sister, Greta, eventually finding her in the most unlikely of places.

            Steadfast Heart’s plot is slow and uneventful. My expectations were not met with this book, as I was anticipating much more from Tracie Peterson. The romance is dull, with the biggest conflict between the couple being a fight about their age difference which lasted about a day. Besides being boring, I thought the romance was unrealistic. After only seeing Kolbein once, she goes on her vacation where she believes she is in love with him—telling her parents that she is planning on having a suitor in the very near future while she had no idea of his intentions. The “love at first sight” theme along with their fast-moving wedding plans all seemed a bit unrealistic to me. Something I found odd is that the main character, Lenore, is brushed to the side and made a secondary character for the bulk of the novel. Abrianna takes over as soon as Lenore is in San Francisco. As she is a much more interesting character, I did not necessarily mind this. Abrianna, with her red hair and vibrant personality, reminded me of Anne of Green Gables. She is a complete opposite from prim and proper Lenore—she can’t sew or cook, she runs about the streets of Seattle helping the poor, believes she will never marry, and often runs off at the mouth in rather humorous speeches. Abrianna’s bright personality made me even more bored by Lenore. I found myself skimming over many of Lenore’s scenes. I did like the spiritual aspect of this book. Instead of making religion a main theme, or not portraying it at all, Tracie Peterson showed us the character’s relationships with God very realistically and down to earth. Again, Abrianna’s character was most developed this way. Her uncomplicated way of thinking allowed her to have a very clear and fresh relationship with God. Towards the end, Lenore realizes that instead of helping Abrianna fashionably throughout the years, she should have been learning spiritually from her. Tracie Peterson does well with developing the setting of Seattle, 1888. I never forgot what time period I was in. Everything in the book is related to the time. The bridal school was interesting, and something I have never heard of existing. The ladies who ran it were an entertaining bunch in and of themselves. Steadfast Heart may be entertaining for those who enjoy slow romances, although I would not read it again or recommend it to a friend.

I received a complimentary copy of Steadfast Heart from Bethany House Publishers through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The opinions stated are my own.

This review also appears on The Christian Manifesto at http://thechristianmanifesto.com/fiction/steadfast-heart/.