The Christmas Prayer
Kindle Edition, 176 pages
Published September 1st 2018 by Shiloh Run Press
Genre: Historical Fiction,Christmas fiction,Christian fiction
Book Summary
Beloved, bestselling author of Amish fiction, Wanda E. Brunstetter takes readers on a journey in 1850 along the California Trail. Only the brave—or foolhardy—would attempt a cross-country journey late in the season. Three wagons meet up in Independence, Missouri, in April 1850, and their owners decide to keep forging ahead despite many setbacks and delays. December finds them in the Sierra Nevada Mountains when a sudden snowstorm traps them, obscuring the trail. Cynthia Cooper is traveling with her mother and the man she has promised to marry. But as Christmas is upon them and they are hunkered down in a small cabin, she is forced to reevaluate her reasons for planning to marry fellow-traveler Walter Prentice. When a widowed father heading to a California ranch and a gold prospector both show an interest in Cynthia, she weighs her dreams for marriage alongside her responsibility to care for her mother. Can love win over her timid heart?
My Review
The Christmas Prayers is a novella that was first published in 2014 in Barbour's Christmas Collection titled,The Westward Christmas Brides Collection: 9 Historical Romances Answer the Call of the American West. I love Barbour collections and this was one of my favorite novellas in it. Cynthia Cooper promises to marry a man many years older than her named Walter. Now this will not be a love match on Cynthia's part but rather a match to ensure her and her mother have security financially and otherwise. Her mother,Mable encourages this match because she will be taken care of as well. Late in the season 3 wagons set out on the way to California and the wagon Walter is leading with Cynthia,her mother and others falls behind and becomes separated from the other wagons. They do their best on the journey but tempers become short as food runs low and after falling behind so much they run into snow. Finding what they think is an abandoned cabin in the woods the members take shelter for weeks before the cabin's owner comes back. After their explanation he understands why they were there and when it's warm enough they move on. Walter reveals a secret to Cynthia during their time in the cabin and all are happy. It is a Christmas Prayer that leaves Cynthia's heart filled with joy. Pub Date 01 Sep 2018 Thank you to Barbour Books for a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own.