Beyond All Measure by Dorothy Love

Back of the Book


Unless she can trust God's love to cast out her fears, Ada may lose the heart of a good man.   

Ada Wentworth, a young Bostonian, journeys to Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, in the years following the Civil War. Alone and nearly penniless following a broken engagement, Ada accepts a position as a lady's companion to the elderly Lillian Willis, a pillar of the community and aunt to the local lumber mill owner, Wyatt Caldwell. Ada intends to use her millinery skills to establish a hat shop and secure her future.

Haunted by unanswered questions from her life in Boston, Ada is most drawn to two townsfolks: Wyatt, a Texan with big plans of his own, and Sophie, a mulatto girl who resides at the Hickory Ridge orphanage. Ada's friendship with Sophia attracts the attention of a group of locals seeking to displace the residents of Two Creeks, a "colored" settlement on the edge of town. As tensions rise, Ada is threatened but refuses to abandon her plan to help the girl.

When Lillian dies, Ada is left without employment or a place to call home. And since Wyatt's primary purpose for staying in Hickory Ridge was to watch over his aunt, he can now pursue his dream of owning Longhorns in his home state of Texas.

With their feelings for each other growing, Ada must decide whether she can trust God with her future and Wyatt with her heart.




My Review

I’m not entirely sure how I felt about this book. Was the story enjoyable? Yes, but within means. Ada, our heroine, wasn’t an entirely likeable character in the beginning, but her personal growth added to the story. Wyatt on the other hand, was a charming southern gentleman from the beginning. But there was the problem, he was annoyingly so. It was unrealistic to think that he could be so good natured and unwaveringly kind, even in times that the pair clash. And can I just say, what man calls a woman he loves my dear friend? That term of endearment slipped under my skin from its first emergence and every time is reappear, more often than I would ever wish it to, it just annoyed me more. Dorothy Love is a wonderful writer, but really Ms. Love, that is not romance. I want to rate this higher because I think it was beautifully written and the flow kept my attention despite the issues I had with the actual plotline, but it was nothing special. It fits the same formula of so many other novels, destitute woman with a dream who falls for a man that is different from everything she’s wanted, but has everything she needs. And in the end, they work past their differences and make it work. 

I was graciously given a copy of this book for free from BookSneeze® for this review, but was in no way compelled to write a positive review.

The Dragons of Chiril by Donita K. Paul

With her father having been missing for 15 years, Tipper has been keeping her family going by selling off the art he left behind. His sudden reappearance is less than joyful however, and soon a journey to find 3 statues she sold of years prior ensues. Tipper, her father, and a group of unlikely characters band together in search of the statues, realizing without them the world will fall apart.

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. It’s definitely one that is hard to describe without revealing too much detail or plot. I found it to be well written in the sense of flow and word choice, and the characters were likeable enough. Donita Paul has a talent for developing a well rounded cast of characters as well as a interesting plotline. I suppose it just wasn’t my type of story. I found it to be rushed at points, as if Paul was trying to hurry through the details to get on with the plot and whenever authors do that I often find myself confused. Sure, they understand entirely what’s going on, its their story, but the reader needs those added details to keep up. Maybe it was just me, but the last hundred pages or so seemed out of nowhere. Where was the build up? The little clues throughout the story that all tied up at the end?

To me, this novel was a ho hum kind of story. It wasn’t  a horrible novel, but I won’t go out and get the next book to continue the series.

I was graciously given a copy of this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review, but was in no way compelled to write a positive review.