Love's Reckoning

Laura Frantz
2012
Fiction/Historical
Revell Books

While historical is not a favorite genre of mine, I have to say Laura Frantz makes it so enjoyable.  I love her style and her characters, they become very real to me.  She is a very talented author and always look forward to her books.  This book was no exception.
Plotting and scheming is the way of Liege Lee and his daughter Elspeth.  This time they are hoping however that time is on their side, that the illegitimate baby that Elspeth is carrying will arrive before the new apprentice arrives to work in the blacksmith shop.  If the baby comes before he arrives, it means that Elspeth can pass the baby off as her mother's child, thus enabling her father to ask the apprentice to marry one of his daughters, a common practice in that day.    Fortunately the apprentice arrives on the day of the birth, after the baby had arrived.  Eden Lee is as different from her sister as day is from night, she has a love for the Lord, that is not allowed in her home, where her father was kicked out of the Quaker meeting house.  Soft spoken, she works hard and she has a thirst for knowledge, she is also as beautiful as her sister Elspeth, but in a totally different way. 
Silas Ballantyne is a skilled craftsman and the scheming of Liege and Elspeth takes on a different approach, running their prices up and making lots of money off of Silas's work.   Silas however has a plan for his life, and it is not to stay in York, he has a heart for going west to Fort Pitt.  He resists the great attraction he feels toward Eden, often treating her coldly and sternly, while other time he is kind and considerate. 
A wonderful story that you will not want to miss.  432 pages US $14.99 4 stars
Available September 2012 from your favorite seller of Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. 
This book was provided for review purposes, no payment was received for this review.