Helpful Score: 1
This is an unusual story about two people attracted to each other but 16 years apart in ages. Linnea Bradenborg, 18 and fresh from teacher training, arrives at Alamo, North Dakota.
Wheat farmer Theodore Westgaard arrives at the depot to take the new teacher to live in his home. Everyone is shocked that L.I. Bradenborg is female. Teddy pitches a fit and refuses to keep her, even though he has kept all previous teachers (who were male). Teddy soon finds that he has no choice and Linnea moves into the home.
Eventually, we learn that Teddys wife left him and their young son many years before. Theodore is fairly hostile towards women. At the opening of the story, Teddy is 34 and his son is only a year younger than the new teacher.
In no time, Linnea starts to change the Westgaard household in various ways often unintentionally. She receives an education of another kind she learns just how hard life is for farmers and their families.
The relationship between Theodore and his brother is beautifully written. The whole book is a step back in time and the reader feels the emotions the characters are expressing.
Teddy and Linnea fight against their growing attraction for each other. On the side of logic, the reader agrees with Teddys feeling that he is too old for Linnea. On the emotional side, this reader feels that they cannot stay apart.
This is an emotionally satisfying tale that will stay with the reader a long time. They grapple with issues that are still important today.
Wheat farmer Theodore Westgaard arrives at the depot to take the new teacher to live in his home. Everyone is shocked that L.I. Bradenborg is female. Teddy pitches a fit and refuses to keep her, even though he has kept all previous teachers (who were male). Teddy soon finds that he has no choice and Linnea moves into the home.
Eventually, we learn that Teddys wife left him and their young son many years before. Theodore is fairly hostile towards women. At the opening of the story, Teddy is 34 and his son is only a year younger than the new teacher.
In no time, Linnea starts to change the Westgaard household in various ways often unintentionally. She receives an education of another kind she learns just how hard life is for farmers and their families.
The relationship between Theodore and his brother is beautifully written. The whole book is a step back in time and the reader feels the emotions the characters are expressing.
Teddy and Linnea fight against their growing attraction for each other. On the side of logic, the reader agrees with Teddys feeling that he is too old for Linnea. On the emotional side, this reader feels that they cannot stay apart.
This is an emotionally satisfying tale that will stay with the reader a long time. They grapple with issues that are still important today.
Helpful Score: 1
Loved this book. Step back in time and experience a young girl's growing up in the harshness and beauty of the wheat fields of North Dakota in 1918. It was a time when life was a struggle and family was everything.
In my opinion, one of Ms. Spencer's best books. The people and their lives come across as so real - including the struggles against the hard land of the upper midwest. I loved the family aspect of the novel, particularly the relationship between the Westgaard brothers.
Helpful Score: 1
A very satisfying story of a young woman's trip to the plains of North Dakota to teach and find love - an unlikely love. I really enjoyed the book - one of Spencer's best.
Helpful Score: 1
18-year-old Linnea Brandonberg has traveled to Alamo, North Dakota, to start her first teaching job. She is met at the train station by Theodore Westgaard, a 34-year-old wheat farmer who is not happy to meet her. Teddy was expecting a man. The teaching job includes room and board at the Westgaard farm, and the teachers have always been male. With no way of pawning her off on another family, Teddy takes her to his home where his mother and teenage son live.
Linnea soon has her eyes open to the farmers way of life. The boys work in the fields and have no time for school until the wheat has been taken care of. She and Teddy clash over his son's schooling. But when the fighting turns to attraction, Teddy does everything in his power to keep her at arms length.
This is a wonderful historical romance that was very hard to put down. I'm usually not a fan of older man/younger woman romance, but I certainly loved this one. Linnea is a great heroine who cares about her students and wants to fit in with the people in the small town. Teddy is a fantastic hero whose wife left him and his child years ago. He never thought he'd have another chance at love. This book is also a tearjerker. There are a couple situations where I had to set the book aside to grab a kleenex. My rating: 4.5 Stars.
Linnea soon has her eyes open to the farmers way of life. The boys work in the fields and have no time for school until the wheat has been taken care of. She and Teddy clash over his son's schooling. But when the fighting turns to attraction, Teddy does everything in his power to keep her at arms length.
This is a wonderful historical romance that was very hard to put down. I'm usually not a fan of older man/younger woman romance, but I certainly loved this one. Linnea is a great heroine who cares about her students and wants to fit in with the people in the small town. Teddy is a fantastic hero whose wife left him and his child years ago. He never thought he'd have another chance at love. This book is also a tearjerker. There are a couple situations where I had to set the book aside to grab a kleenex. My rating: 4.5 Stars.
I love this book and have read it many times.It's a sweet love story between a young woman and the older man she falls in love with.I love how the story unfolds between the 2 of them.This is one of my favorite LaVyrle Spencer books!
This was the first love story I have ever read, and it remains my favorite! Teddy and Linnea are magic in old fashioned Romance ways!
My all time favorite book!!
This is an outstanding book by LaVyrle Spencer. It's by far my very favortie! I say a MUST read!
Entertaining and romantic
Eager to begin her first teaching position, Linnea Brandonberg stepped off the train looking as grown-up and wordly as he eighteen years would allow. Alamo, North Dakota is very different from the life Linnea has back East. Teddy Westgard, a farmer, is a hard, bitter man who thought he'd never find love after his wife left him and his infant son eighteen years before. Linnea must survive he harsh winters, the coldness of Teddy and Teddy's decision that he is too old for him. Much heartache along the way, but also laughter. Setting = 1917
Linnea's first real job is a schoolteacher in 1917 in Alamo, North Dakota and she is determines to brave its challenges. A story of passion, heartache and a way of life - with people and places as real as the emotions of the heart
Loved it, typical Lavyrle Spencer...sad but with a happy ending.
The sweeping plains held the promise of a lifetime.
Sweet and loving story of Linnia and Teddy. They go through a lot to be together. Love wins out in the end.
Really enjoyed it! Great vacation book!
In September 1917, 18-year-old Linnea Brandonberg steps off the train in Alamo, North Dakota, eager to begin her first teaching job. A town girl, she is not prepared for the dour reception of the Westgaard family, with whom she is boarding. But rather than let people and circumstances master her, she singlehandedly changes them, including Theodore Westgaard, a bitter widower of 35 who never thought he would fall in love again. Spencer has done a splendid job here in making this more than a story of two people enamored of each other. She describes the growth of Teddy and Linnea's love with sensitivity and refreshing candor and brings all the residents of Alamo to life in a way that makes the reader care about their satisfactions and heartaches.
Historical Fiction
Very good Story
Very good Story
Another good Laverle Spencer book
Great! Just like all her books. I love reading historical books from another era.
This book is the classic love story-- it was hard to put down once I got started-- it was both sad and funny. Good book!
This was a typical LaVyrle Spencer book. Great, Suspensival and with many twists and unexpected events to keep it interesting. Loved it.
I really enjoy LaVyrle Spencer stories. There is a formula she uses which is similar from book to book, but she develops characters that you can really relate to & care about.
The cover shown makes it look a little trashy, but it's a wonderful, heartfelt story. One of my new favorites.
Linnea Brandonberg, an eighteen year old teacher in 1917 finds life hard during the coming years in North Dakota but she was determined to stick it out. A story of passion and heartache in a time that will be remembered.
As World War I threatens to take those she holds dear, a lovely schoolteacher grows to womanhood in the arms of a man who'd given up on love.
This is one of my all time favorite books!
Very interesting characters....good story!
Eager to begin her first teaching position, lovely Linnea Brandonberg stepped off the train looking as grown up and worldly s her 18 years would allow. The golden fields and fragrant wheat of Alamo, North Dakota, were as new and different as the Westguard family with whom she would live. Farm life in 1917 was hard and bitter, but tiny spirited Linnea was determined to brave its challenges. And as World War I threatened to take those she held dear, Linnea grew to woman hood in the arms of Teddy Westgaard, aman who thougth he'd never find love.
This ISBN is actually a hardcover book.
Beautiful tradesize
Never read by me, but bought used a while back for a gift and then forgotten. It is a bit yellow but still in readable condition.
