Daughter of joy is a Christian fiction romance set in the 19th century. Abigail Stanton lost her husband and son within two years, and she needed some time to step back and to have a more private space to grief. But this happened in the late 1800s, so she couldn’t just get a ticket to Italy like Elizabeth Gilbert did. What’s a widow to do in that time? Applying for a housekeeper position in a working ranch in different town of course.
In Culdee Creek, she met a thirty five years old Conor MacKay, father of two. His wife deserted him more than a decade ago and he fathered a daughter from a Native American woman whom he cared deeply for but never married to. She died and his son ran away after first robbed him blind. So yeah, he had all requirements for tormented heroes in a romance novel. Bitter, angry, distrust for others, and don’t get him started on the subject of love and God.
Daughter of Joy was a bittersweet story about loved ones lost, betrayal, and ultimately, faith in God. At times I thought the author tormented the characters more than necessary, especially the heroine, by placing her in a very precarious situation and demanding almost the impossible from her.
But then I remembered in the Author’s note that she wrote this book after losing her youngest son so unexpectedly, and how she had drawn from her own personal experience of grief and lost in describing what the heroine went through. I often got a sense that sometimes the feelings poured out in writing is that of the author’s, and the grief was still so raw.
For me as a reader, the level of faith told in this book is theoretically wonderful, but in reality I know that I still have a long way to go to get there.
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