Happy Monday! It’s time for (another) review! This one is Lauraine Snelling’s To Everything a Season, the first book in her new “Song of Blessing” series.
Summary: Trygve Knutson has been promoted from well drilling to heading a construction crew for the fast growing town of Blessing, North Dakota. Though devoted to the land and his family, he sometimes dreams of other 
horizons. But is he willing to leave Blessing permanently?
Miriam Francini hopes to become an accredited nurse in a large city hospital. She is simply tolerating her assignment at the hospital in rural Blessing because it will give her the experience she needs to accomplish her goal. She can’t wait to finish her training and head to New York to begin a nursing career.
Then Miriam meets Trygve Knutson and all her plans are suddenly in a jumble. She quickly realizes she doesn’t want to live without him, yet she’s a smart, independent woman–she’s even a suffragette. She can’t let anything get in the way of her own plans, even if she’s in love. Or can she?
I’m not one to enjoy writing negative or critical review, but this story just didn’t “click” for me (this is just my opinion- you may love it!). Being a huge fan of Lauraine’s “Dakotah Treasures” series (that was one of the first Christian fiction series that introduced me to the genre), I thought revisiting this author at the start of a new series would be a good idea. I think most of my complaints stem from the fact that I’ve not read her previous series set in Blessing, so I was unfamiliar with many of the returning characters.
One other issue I had is that the plot was not exactly what the synopsis depicts. Though we meet Trygve (pronounced trig-vee) Knutson early on, Miriam’s character doesn’t enter the story until almost half way through. Instead, the story focuses on (returning) characters Dr. Astrid and her mother, Ingeborg, with other minor characters getting some story time, too. I still enjoyed their stories – they were entertaining and spiritually encouraging, but I think I was just expecting a different storyline.
With that said, I did really like Miriam and her character’s growth. To me, the latter half of the story, after we get to know Miriam, was better than the beginning. If you’ve read Lauraine’s other stories set in Blessing, ND, I’m sure you would enjoy catching up with familiar favorites and new people like Miriam. The book is well-written, even if the synopsis is a little off, and the characters are endearing and clearly committed to seeking God’s plan for their lives.
Note: Thank you to Bethany House Publishers for a complimentary ebook copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
The Green Mockingbird 