title: Search for the Whole Heart: Restoration
author: Sherrill, Ellen
description: Victoria Landon's life as a popular Boston socialite comes crashing down around her when she learns the true circumstances of her birth while reading her deceased mother's journal. She feels compelled to find the woman who gave birth to her, a search that leads her to young Dr. Jeremy Sutherland who is surprised to realize that he has the information Victoria seeks. Still reeling under the news in regard to her birth, Victoria is further devasted when she learns that her wealth that was to sustain her for life has now disappeared, along with the accountant who handled her mother's affairs. Forced now to support herself, Victoria's only option is to teach school. Jeremy persuades her to leave Boston and come with him to Dodge City, Kansas where she can teach in the first school on the western frontier. Upon her arrival in Dodge City Victoria meets the handsome Lieutenant Sam Rushing and is thrown into a whirlwind of emotions She comes face to face with her birth mother, Emeline Harrison, but fear keeps her from revealing her true identity. Within days of coming west she finds herself entangled in a web of deception as she tries to recoup her fortune, ignoring the potential danger of her actions. Living at the "big house" where the school is conducted, Victoria is drawn into the warm and friendly group of people who call themselves family. Never had she heard people talk of personally knowing God and she longs for that relationship too. However, the deception in her life creates a barrier that keeps her from God and from the people she loves. All of Victoria's lies come unraveled as dangerous men interfere with her magical evening with Sam at the military ball. Will God protect her, although she has insisted on doing things her way? Can Sam forgive her dishonesty? Victoria wonders if she will ever have the mother-daughter relationship with Emeline that she longs for. Can even God restore her broken life and the wasted years?