Hello everyone!
So this blog post will be about three books instead of just one, as it's a short book series in a much grander scheme of things, but I figured I might as well talk about the lot of them since, if you read them one by one and not as a whole, they would make zero sense at all, specifically this series because it was literally cut in such places that makes it almost impossible to comprehend if you don't immediately pick up the next one and carry on from where you left off.
I'm talking about the 'Home to Blessing' series by author Lauraine Snelling. I had a blog post way back where I talked about the first book in this world she has woven into her stories, about a family of Norwegian immigrants who cross the Atlantic to move to America and then proceed to farm the land in one of the Dakota regions. I think these three books are the ... fifth series in the whole? The Red River valley is basically home to many families by this time, an established and prosperous community, and I did enjoy the return to it. Not to mention, there are some other books to follow as well, which is fine by me!
These three books follow the life of Astrid Bjorklund, the youngest child and only daughter of Ingeborg and her husband Haakan, who has been trained from early teens by the resident doctor (and her sister-in-law as a matter of fact) to become a doctor herself. She had initially wanted to become a nurse, but the plan was vetoed as Elizabeth (said doctor) believes that the help is sorely needed and two educated doctors would mean much to Blessing, their hometown. Astrid deals with the pressures and demands of her chosen study admirably, going to Chicago to continue her studies with the same staff that Elizabeth studied under, and then, after completion, returning to Blessing to help with an Native American reservation that had been riddled with measles. Throughout the three books, we follow her education, her struggle to remain true to God, and her love life, which is actually exciting in the sense that there seem to be two men vying for her affections. That's about it on the exciting part, though.
Now, don't get me wrong - I did enjoy the series as it brought back the beloved characters of Ingeborg, Haakan and the others, and I enjoy these series so much because of the way life is described and pictured, making me wish I could actually see it more than just in my mind's eye.
But.
Yes, there are a few glaring buts with this. For one thing, Astrid showed very few of the characteristics that described her in the previous books - where, even at a very tender age, she was capable of providing breakfast for the menfolk if her mother had to rush to an emergency, being skilled in healing, and generally helping around the farm. But then she is put to the center of the story, and half the time she can't seem to make up her mind what she wants. The most glaring are two aspects: her vocation and her love life.
I've said that she goes in for doctor training, and that's fine, but right before that, a visiting minister preaches at her home church, and all of a sudden, Astrid is convinced God is calling her to Africa. Before anyone gets up in arms, I have nothing against the influence of God in these books. In fact, that's what makes them quite special, and even though I don't necessarily share the same beliefs, in the previous novels, it was never something that bothered me. Here? The way I understand it, is that praying to God will eventually bring you some sort of closure as you make a decision or accept it, and therefore you'll be able to live your life in peace. But no matter how many people tell Astrid that Africa might not be what God has in store for her, I got the feeling she went along with that plan simply to spite everyone and be stubborn, because she was NOT at peace, she couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat, and obviously, her body was giving her the resonant answer to the 'should I go' question, but she was just too irritating to even get through that on her own. I had the feeling that even in the end when circumstances had her staying in Blessing, a part of her was still going 'yes I'm at peace now, but what if ...' It made for an annoying monologues as this took two books to resolve!
And then the love life. In these books, the emphasis when describing love interests is that, either they are perfectly suited for each other but the timing is wrong, or they have some things to work out before they get to the perfect part. Here, it was confusing, as the main romantic lead, Joshua, and Atrid were dancing around the subject for almost the whole trilogy, with Joshua obviously committing and even building a house for them already, while Astrid was so indecisive (and preoccupied with the Africa thing) you'd think she would marry the continent and not a man eventually. And then bam! just before the ending, there's separation, and a completely new guy is introduced who is suddenly perfect for her, and they marry. So instead of having the originals confide in God, as the others previously did, and let Him guide them, and work things out, the author basically abandoned the story she kept putting in for the whole duration, and changing it up.
The ending was definitely disappointing and felt rushed, and the main character was flawed, but everything else was readable and enjoyable and for that reason, I will return for the new series that is in the works, because I've fallen in love with most of the characters from these books!
xx
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