Review: An Untamed Heart by Lauriane Snelling

 

I loved this prequel!
Young Ingeborg thinks she is doomed to be an old maid. After losing her love to a tragedy, she accepts life caring for her family in Norway. Her mother, however, sees a future for her in America. While Ingeborg is interested in life in America, she has not money for the voyage. Roald Bjorklund is a young widower who is heading for America, and is willing to marry Ingeborg and take her to America as is wife and new mother to his son. 

Ingeborg must decide if she is content to stay in Norway with few options, or start a new life in a new land with a man she barely knows.

Readers who have read the other books will enjoy this look at young Ingeborg, the events that shaped her life, and even some of the family members that we meet in later books. The traits the make her uniquely her are developed in this book, and she is as easy to relate to as ever. Like most of Snelling's books, this is rich in historical detail and descriptions of daily life in another time. 

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The story moves along at a very nice pace, and isn't too predictable - which seems to often be an issue in prequels.

If you have read any of the other novels, don't worry - start with this one and you will fall in love with Ingeborg too :-)

I must mention that I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.

Review: An Untamed Heart

Book Description:

Twenty-year-old Ingeborg Strand is certain she is destined to be an old maid. She's had several suitors but none she deemed worthy of spending her life with. That is, until she meets a university student from Oslo, and feelings stronger than friendship begin to develop between them. But tragedy strikes, and the future begins to look bleaker than ever.

Grief settles heavily over Ingeborg, and her mother suggests that she leave Norway and start afresh in America, as so many others have done before her. But how will she accomplish that with little money and no one to accompany her?

It isn't long before she meets Roald Bjorklund, a widower who has been planning to go to America for some time, lured by the promise of free land. He's a good man, a hard-working man--and he has a young son who desperately needs a mother. He's clearly interested in Ingeborg, but is he the answer to her prayers? And what about love? This isn't how she's always imagined it.

Ingeborg Strand has a heartrending decision to make...

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My Review:

I loved this prequel! Ingeborg is one of my very favorite fictional characters, and I loved getting a glimpse at the young woman that becomes the woman we all know and love from the Red River of the North series, and subsequent series. The traits the make her uniquely her are developed in this book, and she is as easy to relate to as ever.

The story moves along at a very nice pace, and isn't too predictable - which seems to often be an issue in prequels.

If you have read any of the other novels, don't worry - start with this one and you will fall in love with Ingeborg too :-)

I must mention that I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.

Preview it:

An Untamed Heart by Bethany House Publishers