This is a wonderful story...before you read it though, start with The Red River of the North and do the complete series. You won't be sorry. Lauraine Snelling does such a great job with the history weaving a story, of a wonderful Norweigein family and their faith in God, and their struggles with a new country. I hope there is a Daughters of Blessing #5, I'm looking forward to it.

















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I bought this book for my 94-year old mother as a continuation of the "Daughters of Blessing" series. She's read many books by Lauraine Snelling and has enjoyed them all because she can relate to the setting and the characters. Plus, they're Christian books that aren't too preachy.

NOTE: The review on the Amazon webpage is clearly NOT about this book, there is no "Thomas Ollenburger" or any other Mennonite characters, nor does any part of the story take place in Kansas or Boston.

Now for the real plot: Rebecca Baard wants to start an ice cream/soda shop in the town of Blessing, but her brother thinks it's nothing but a foolish dream. She travels to Bismarck to visit her cousin Penny and has the chance to visit an ice cream parlor and learn how to run it, and meets a nice young man after a skating mishap - he encourages her to stay in Bismarck longer but she insists on returning to Blessing as planned. Upon her return to Blessing, she is shocked to learn that Mr. Jeffers, the despicable new owner of Penny's former store in Blessing, has been telling everyone that he and Rebecca are engaged because her brothers gave him permission to court her. The brothers refuse to take responsibility for their actions and force her to confront Mr. Jeffries to say she's not interested, but he turns on her (thankfully, a friend hears Rebecca scream and stops him in time). Most of her family and friends know it's not Rebecca's fault and are ready to defender her, but Mrs. Valders, the town gossip, tries to put all the blame on her.

My favorite parts of this story is are Mrs. Valders' adopted son Gerald, who dislikes confrontation, willingly stands up to his mother after she publicly declares falsehoods about Rebecca, and Gerald's brother Toby, previously the school bully, is instrumental in making everything work out right in the end.