Be Still My Soul by Joanne Bischof - Review of the 1st book in The Cadence of Grace Series

Shy, innocent and pretty, 17 year old Lonnie Sawyer is just biding her time at home until she turns 18 in a few months so she can go live with her Aunt Sarah, her mother's sister, and make and sell soap. Living high in the Appalachian hills, they are poor and Lonnie suffers from an abusive father. Gideon O'Riley is a ladies man and known in the area for being in trouble all the time.

One evening Gideon takes Lonnie's brother up on the idea of walking Lonnie home. They make their way through the hills and when he gets her home tries to steal a kiss. Lonnie refuses, something new for Gideon, no girl has ever refused his advances. Lonnie has a change heart and decides to let him have one kiss. When he tries to go too far, she hits him and runs off to the safety of her house, praying the whole way that her father didn't see.

A couple of days later when she returns from her Aunts house she discovers that her father must have seen the kiss because he's accusing her of being soiled and demanding that Gideon marry Lonnie. She tried to tell them that nothing happened, when she asked Gideon why he didn't speak up and tell the truth, he told her that he tried. Gideon fearful of being on the wrong end of her father's gun begrudgingly goes along with the wedding and Lonnie had no choice so they were married the next day.

Lonnie moves in with Gideon's family, where the home was already overcrowded, Gideon kicks his two brothers out of his room so they aren't too happy. Gideon's mother hates the Sawyer family but his sister really likes Lonnie. His father doesn't say much as his mother seems to run the household, except when it came to making Gideon marry Lonnie. It appears as if Lonnie may have gone from one abusive home to an unhappy home where she isn't loved or wanted. She begins to wonder if she will be just as bad off as she was at home.

After a short time Gideon decides to take off for Stuart to fulfill his dream. They have little to eat, it's cold and it's taking longer than Gideon thought it would when they meet Bert. Bert brews and sells moonshine so he shares some with Gideon and they get drunk, when Bert starts making insinuating remarks about Lonnie, Gideon chases him off. The next morning he awakes with a hangover that's when Jebediah Bennett comes upon them and points his rifle at him, he doesn't know what he's gotten them into now.

This was a book that grabbed and held my interest. The farther I got into the story, the less I wanted to put it down. I think this may have been the first book I've read by Joanne and I am looking forward to reading the second one, Though My Heart Is Torn due out in April of 2013.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BloggingforBooks.org <http://www.waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”