Book Review: A Worthy Pursuit

A Worthy Pursuit. Karen Witemeyer. 2015. Bethany House. 352 pages. [Source: Review copy]

I loved reading Karen Witemeyer's A Worthy Pursuit. This historical romance is set in Texas in the early 1890s. The heroine is a school teacher--a head mistress to be precise-- named Miss Charlotte Atherton. The novel opens with some disturbing news: Sullivan's Academy for Exceptional Youths is closing mid-term. One might think Miss Atherton is rightfully worried about finding another job, but, soon one realizes differently! Miss Atherton isn't too concerned about finding another teaching job. No, she is extremely concerned about the fate of two or three of her students. Namely, a little girl named Lily, and, a young boy named John Chang. Lily's mother made Miss Atherton Lily's guardian, but, she knows that it wouldn't really go that smoothly. Lily's grandfather wants to be the one to raise her. And Lily's grandfather means business. Fearing the worst, Miss Atherton takes Lily, John, and one other student, Stephen, in the middle of the night. (Stephen's parents are traveling in Europe.) She suspects that it will just be a matter of time before someone appears threatening to take Lily…so she's always on her guard.

Stone Hammond is the hero of A Worthy Pursuit. He has been hired to find a kidnapper, and to return the little girl, Lily, to her grandfather. What he finds surprises him, Miss Atherton isn't exactly the monster she was made out to be in the grandfather's description! The children look wonderfully happy, like a loving family. When Miss Atherton shows him the paperwork proving that Lily's mother made her legal guardian of Lily, he doesn't know what to think! So he agrees to wait and see…

I loved everything about A Worthy Pursuit. I loved the characters. I loved the story. I loved the romance. I definitely recommend this one!

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible