Redemption
Jake McPherson is a mean-tempered hermit, and his nine-year-old motherless son, Jason, has run wild for long enough, so schoolteacher Alicia Merriweather decides to intervene. She pushes her way into Jake's house, ignoring his snarls and growls, and ends up taking both McPhersons under her benevolent wing. Davidson's latest historical romance was written in response to the demands of readers enamored withTheWedding Promise (1998), and this continuation is set in 1880 in the same small Kansas town. The hero is a double amputee and the heroine is Junoesque, leading to Davidson's unflinching inquiry into the serious issues of the day, including the difficulties faced by veterans wounded in the Civil War, bereavement and its effect on entire families, blended families, and, in her characters' unwillingness to expose their perceived physical flaws to each other, the boundaries body image imposes.Lynne WelchCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved