Serena Miller

Dear Readers,

By the cover I wasn’t sure I was going to like Serena B. Miller’s newest book, A Promise to Love.  It looks much more like a romance than the Measure of Katie Calloway and I was worried she may have slipped that way more.  In some ways she did, but it is so much a part of the story that it doesn’t take away from the really good story she has written.

Once again her story is set in Michigan when lumber was king and the great pine forests we had were a big commodity.  Ingrid is a new immigrant from Sweden.  She was supposed to meet her brother in Detroit after he worked in a lumber camp to earn money so they could buy farm land and make a go of it in their newly adopted country.   When he doesn’t show up she decides to head to the Saginaw area in hopes of finding him. 

Joshua is reeling from the loss of his wife.  On the day that he is cleared of murder charges, his in-laws try to take his children away. The only way he can keep them is to find a mother for them and Ingrid volunteers for the job.  It looks like a relationship of convenience only, but Ingrid was hoping for more.

Once again Serena writes a historical story that includes a strong love story, but that is the nature of the story here.  You cannot have the story she wrote without the romance to it.  The historical part of the story was also very interesting and I even went and looked up some of the facts of the story that I didn’t know.  I had no idea that something like what she mentions happened in Michigan.  It was very interesting.  I am not going to say what it was as it would take away your pleasure of reading the story.

Happy Reading.

Serena Miller

Dear Readers,

I have found a new author that I really enjoy.  She writes under a genre that is not always my favorite, but I truly enjoyed this book.  The Measure of Katie Callaway by Serena Miller is listed as historical romance, not my favorites, but she writes them in an interesting manner.  I guess I probably liked it because the romance part of it is not the main part of the story, just a part of what happens.

 

Measure is set in the Bay City area of Michigan and that might be another part of why I liked it.  It is set in the time just after the civil war has ended and many men are looking to get back on their feet after fighting and a nation is looking to heal and move forward.  One of the things that drove the rebuilding of America was the lumber industry of Michigan. 

Katie is trying to hide from her abusive husband.  He owned a southern plantation and fought on the side of the South.  Once he came home he blamed Katie, a northerner, for all his problems and takes it out on her and her younger brother.  When Katie realizes he is trying to kill her so he can remarry a wealthy widow, she runs.

Katie's journey leads her to the wilderness of Michigan.  She is sure Harlen will never be able to find her there, especially when she takes a job as cook for a logging company.  9 months out in the wilderness seems like a great way to earn money and remain hidden.

That is what I liked about the book.  Learning about what it was like in the logging camps.  They weren't always pleasant places and men will be men, but they also were fathers, brothers and husbands trying to earn a living so their families could survive another year. 

I don't want to give too much away about the book, but one of the things that I did learn was that Michigan was not highly thought of around the country.  It was thought that it was one giant swamp.  People figured that it wasn't the pleasant penninsula that we talk about today.  It was covered in trees and it was a land where only the strongest survived. 

Now I know I complain about the weather here in the winter, but while reading this book I realized we don't get as cold of winters as they used to. At one point when asked how cold it was one of the lumberjacks replies, " It is two feet below freezing."  Now that is cold.

Happy Reading