I really enjoy Lynn Austin.
I didn't think anything by her would be as good as the "Refiner's Fire" series, but this book is their equal. In fact, in some ways, I like this better than her Civil War trilogy (Refiner's Fire) because she gets her points accross about recovery from childhood abuse and trauma, grief, survival, overcoming, and forgiveness, and, of course, love, without over-preaching it. (This did happen every once in a while in the Refiner's Fire books.)
It seems that in every one of her books that I have read so far, the authors emply a slightly different format or style to get her plot across. In "Hidden Places" the author uses flashbacks to tell the stories about the each character's childhoods to show where their conflicts tie in to the present delima, which is, on the surface, how will a widow, her three children, a injured hobo, and an elderly excentric Christian aunt save the faimily orchard from foreclosure during the early days of the Great Depression.
Often flashbacks confuse things, but, in this book, the stories from the past are well woven into the action of the present.
The characters are well-developed, approachable, and human. The prose is fairly fast paced with good descriptions and detail. The plot is fairly complex. Altogether, I find this a good, thought-provoking read.
I didn't think anything by her would be as good as the "Refiner's Fire" series, but this book is their equal. In fact, in some ways, I like this better than her Civil War trilogy (Refiner's Fire) because she gets her points accross about recovery from childhood abuse and trauma, grief, survival, overcoming, and forgiveness, and, of course, love, without over-preaching it. (This did happen every once in a while in the Refiner's Fire books.)
It seems that in every one of her books that I have read so far, the authors emply a slightly different format or style to get her plot across. In "Hidden Places" the author uses flashbacks to tell the stories about the each character's childhoods to show where their conflicts tie in to the present delima, which is, on the surface, how will a widow, her three children, a injured hobo, and an elderly excentric Christian aunt save the faimily orchard from foreclosure during the early days of the Great Depression.
Often flashbacks confuse things, but, in this book, the stories from the past are well woven into the action of the present.
The characters are well-developed, approachable, and human. The prose is fairly fast paced with good descriptions and detail. The plot is fairly complex. Altogether, I find this a good, thought-provoking read.
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