After her parents deaths, Susannah feels she has no choice but to become a mail-order bride. She begins corresponding with her pastor's brother, Jesse. After a proxy marriage ceremony, she travels to Dakota territory to meet her husband. He is thrilled to meet his wife. But. If he could change just one thing about his new wife, he would make her more talkative. He likes--or loves--so many things about her, but, she's so very, very shy and hesitant and reserved. Like she's afraid to talk to anyone. Still, the two try their best to make their marriage real and loving.
Spring for Susannah reveals just how hard it was to be a pioneer, to live so far away from civilization, to be at the mercy of nature. (Fires, storms, grasshoppers, locusts, etc. The list of potential devastators is long.) One truly has to rely on God and God alone.
Spring for Susannah had a few surprises for me. I wasn't expecting it to go the way it did. I was expecting it to be a bit more predictable. Still, it was an interesting historical romance.
While some historical romances are safe to give younger readers (middle grade on up), this is NOT one of them. (For example, all of Janette Oke's historical novels are good and safe reads for 8+) Spring for Susannah definitely has more mature content. It is more mature in content and presentation than most of the christian fiction I typically read, perhaps with the exception of Julie Lessman's novels. I think some readers will like this openness about intimacy. Others perhaps not as much.
I didn't love Spring for Susannah. Instead I just liked it.
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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