It's 1846 and Mariel, a young widow and indentured servant,
is one of a group of German immigrants who have come to
America to start a new life. Except, the group finds that
life in Texas is very different than in Germany and
certainly much harder than Mariel expects. Upon their
arrival, Texas Ranger Carson Quinn reluctantly agrees to
escort the group to the land that has been promised to them
in Comanche territory. When Carson gets a whiff of how
Mariel's employer is treating her (and what he wants from
her) his protective nature takes over. But he has no
intention of getting heavily involved, despite his
attraction to Mariel, because any day he knows he will be
called to war.
Lyn Cote does an excellent job of depicting a time in
American history with which many may be unfamiliar. So many
interesting historical facets come together in this romantic
suspense story -- the settling of Texas prior to the Civil
War, the fight by Indians to hold on to their land, the
battle between America and Mexico for Texan land, European
immigration and early German settlements in the U.S.,
American slavery.
As much as I enjoyed this story, I felt too removed from
Mariel. I was sympathetic to the situations she had to
endure, but didn't find that I was particularly enamored
with her character. Carson on the other hand was very
likable as was his entire family, an interesting bunch of
characters of varying degrees of mixed heritage. I imagine
some social mores that later became widespread, like not
marrying across ethnic lines, were quite blurred during the
settlement of the Western frontier so I found this group
particularly interesting and suspect some of their stories
are found in the first two books of this series. Also, the
spiritual arc of the story wasn't particularly clear to me
as Mariel and Carson both seemed to be quietly strong in the
faith right from the beginning. Yet all in all, HER
ABUNDANT JOY was a fascinating and likable read.
"In the final book in the Texas: Star of Destiny series, can
a beautiful German immigrant escape her painful past and
find peace in the arms of a Texas Ranger?"--Provided by
publisher.
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