The Brooch (The Marylanders Book 2)

HISTORICAL: After time spent as a prisoner with the Indians, Miller Mackintosh has a festering wound and a broken spirit. Promises to the dead impale the living as Mac’s promise to Thomas McQueen hinders his own life and his path toward Thomas’s wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Mac heal together, and find their way to the altar just in time for Mac’s first wife, Janie, long thought dead, to return—pregnant. The church nullifies their marriage, and Janie’s dying wish, that her twins be returned to their Indian father. This further tears Mac and Elizabeth apart. With the marriage nullified and Elizabeth pregnant with Mac’s child, the Indian who murdered Thomas attempts to kill John, Thomas’s son. Will Elizabeth find love again and save her family to find peace?

The wonderfully written characters and the pain they endure during difficult times are relatable. Both the main characters have had terrible losses in their lives they need to overcome, and each responds to those losses differently. Elizabeth’s steadfast faith slowly restores Mac’s own, and through both love and faith, they are able to piece each other back together, only to be separated by fate. At times in the beginning, the jumble of languages of English, French, Shawanese, and Gaelic makes the reading somewhat cumbersome, but it smooths out and is more comprehensible towards the end. There are slight hints of sexual violence, no details are shared. The historical references and behavior of the church are detailed and seem accurate. A true Christian writing where some prayers are answered, and some are left unanswered.

Amy Rubottom