Wonderful. A delightful tale of how love helps to overcome all hardships - including moving to a remote backwoods town far from your family. ( )

This was a relaxing read. There was not a lot of suspense or action, not a lot of highs and lows, but a good story to begin the "American Quilt Series". Johanna Shelby is a young lady home from school for the holidays. "Deep inside, there was a heart hunger she couldn't explain or even understand. A need for something to give her life meaning and purpose." She will meet Doctor Ross Davison and together they will both recognize a longing that they each have for one another. But Ross is from the mountains and Johanna is from a prominent family in Hillsboro, North Carolina in the year 1839, where your status in society does make a difference in who you will marry. Johanna will have to fight her parents and most everyone else to get permission to marry Ross. And when they move back up into the area Ross grew up in, Johanna will have a whole new life she will need to learn how to live in and people she will have to get to know. As it says on back cover of this book, " She could not have known then how love for the young, rough-hewn, mountain doctor would cause her to turn her back on her privileged lifestyle, threaten to estrange her from her family, and bring her to the wild mountains of Appalachia."

I enjoyed watching Johanna grow up, take on the new challenges and become a woman of great value. I also liked the deep and abiding love these two people had for each other. But Johanna will be reminded by someone that Ross cannot always be the one that fulfills her life, she needs daily communion with her Lord to keep her strong and ready for any and every situation. A good lesson for us all. I look forward to book two in the series, "The Pledge". ( )