While Love Stirs: A Novel (The Gregory Sisters)
Charlotte Gregory is a gifted cook whose headstrong personality brings her success in the kitchen but frustration outside of it. Irritated by the social norms of 1910, Charlotte meets her match when handsome Dr. Joel Brooks refuses to listen to her ideas for the hospital nutrition plan. Charlotte’s stubbornness threatens to disarm Dr. Brooks’ careful control of the local hospital and his emotions. When the scars of past loves are revealed, Charlotte and Joel must remember how to trust and experience the joy of not settling for less than their wildest dreams. Set in St. Paul, Minnesota, the second historical romance in Seilstad’s (When Love Calls, 2013) Gregory Sisters series is an artfully decorated period piece with details that transport readers to an era of street cars and suffragists. As her characters toe the line between pleasing others yet refusing to be manipulated by them, Seilstad expertly charts the balance of control between Charlotte and Joel over the course of  exciting and unexpected plot twists. --Kate  Campos