About the Book:
Washington State 1893
When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?
Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first, but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother.
Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?
MY REVIEW:
This Christian western takes on an enemy bigger than a gunslinger. Mary Davis, in The Widow’s Plight, shows the reader the tragedy and human ruin caused by domestic abuse. Ms. Davis doesn’t just tackle the most obvious, the physical abuse, but also shows the emotional abuse.
I, personally, had a difficult time reading this as I worked through the ramifications of the two kinds of abuses. Both were perpetrated on children (although the one also involved the heroine), and I wanted to enter the pages of the story to somehow help the victims recover faster.
I loved the characters and their portrayal of loyalty, forgiveness, and support of those who needed their help. I think I really fell in love with the children: Toby, Estella, and Nancy; and their resilience more than even the hero and heroine!
A terrifically sad statement, caused by continual abuse, is made of Lily, after the stampede: “She had succeeded in not feeling what she felt.”
Why is this such a great novel? How does it affect us today? Aunt Henny and Edric never gave up loving Lily and Toby. Those who truly love others CAN bring about healing in broken people, with God’s help, but that love may have to be extended again and again until it is accepted and healing starts.
I gratefully received a copy of this book from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinions, which are solely my own. I was not required to leave a positive review.
About the Author:
Mary Davis
Born and raised in Washington State, Mary now resides in Colorado with her husband of over twenty-seven years, three twenty-something kids, and four pets. She earned her college degree in elementary education and has taken an advanced course from the Institute of Children’s Literature. Mary leads two critique groups, one in the local Colorado area as well as an on-line critique group. She regularly attends the ACFW conference as well as her local writing chapter in the Springs, and she has spearheaded a writing contest for youth for several years. Cascades is her fourteenth book, which contains three previously released novels.
Mary enjoys writing contemporary and historical inspirational romance. She loves reading romance, fiction, mystery, and fantasy books, as well as playing with her cat, Buffy.
Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions 