Rating: 4 stars ~ Genre: Christian Romance ~ Pages 208 ~ Publish Date: 23 Jul 2024
The dedication is to those of us “who have endured the cruelty of a mean person”. The kind of mean that stays with you and is intended to do just that. The mean can be words or actions that hurt to our very core. That years later still whisper it in our ear. Author Heidi McCahan reminds us we are stronger than we know. We all have the slings of barbs and arrows. And we can’t always avoid the people who use them. Her Alaskan Family is about that. There are no horrible scenes with yelling and screaming. Just a woman who figures out how to live with those whose words and actions hurt, even in a small way.
I had a bully in high school. We had no classes together but we rode the same bus every day. I only felt safe if I sat right behind the bus driver. It gave him great satisfaction to know I was scared of him. His bullying was with words, but I was scared actions would follow if he got the chance.
And what voice does Savannah hear less than 20 minutes after returning to her Alaskan hometown of Opportunity? The person who bullied her throughout her childhood. And in a round-about-way announces that Savannah was fired from her teaching job and that’s why she is back in Alaska.
She also runs into her high school crush, Jasper Carter, his brother Levi, and a little girl named Wren. Wren is a foster child in Levi’s care. No wife. There should have been a wife, but she dropped him and … Nope. Can’t tell you more. It’s important when you read Her Alaskan Family, you learn what makes up the Carter family and how Savannah fits in.
Little Wren is bright but so unhappy. She doesn’t know where she belongs. She doesn’t trust because no one has been that trustworthy. Levi is doing his best but feels like he is dropping the ball. Savannah knows what it feels like. And Wren eventually nicknames her “Savvy”.
Savannah plans to interview for the art teacher position at the high school, a job that has not been posted yet. So how did someone apply already? Before the job is posted. Will she even be considered?
This clean, Christian story is an easy read, the first of a new series “Opportunity, Alaska”. I think you will enjoy the scenes with Wren the most. I liked this book. A lot. But will I want to re-read it again? I don’t think so.
I received a complimentary DRC (digital review copy) of Her Alaskan Family via NetGalley from the publisher, Harlequin – Romance | Love Inspired Suspense. A positive review was not required; the opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
Rating: 4 stars
Series: Opportunity, Alaska #1
Cover: Wren in an Alaskan summer.
Pages: 208.
Publish Date: 23 July 2024
#HerAlaskanFamily #NetGalley #HeidiMcCahan
