Monday, March 29, 2010

Love Finds You In Homestead, Iowa


Love Finds You In Homestead, Iowa. Melanie Dobson. 2010. March 2010. Summerside Press. 320 pages.

The morning fog lingered in the alleyways and draped over the iron palings that fortified the row of saloons along Harrison Street.

Another book set in the Amana Colonies. (The other being Somewhere To Belong by Judith Miller.) Jacob Hirsch, one of our narrators, is a desperate father when we first meet him. His daughter, Cassie, is very sick. The two were meant to be heading East. But the Pullman strike and the economic depression (1890s) have altered his plans. It's a miracle that the two were able to make their way out of Chicago in the back of a freight train. The two make an unexpected stop in Iowa. Liesel, our other narrator, appears as an angel (of sorts) to the delirious Cassie. She's a young woman living in one of the Amana villages. Her willingness to help a stranger sets in motion a chain of events that have long-lasting implications. Jacob's daughter is seriously ill--diphtheria--and she shares close quarters with father and daughter during their quarantine. Tending to Cassie like she was her own. But is she becoming too close to this Outsider? What will the future hold for them all?

I liked this one. But I didn't love it. Personally, I found it a bit too dramatic.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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