Abbie Ann

Title: ABBIE ANN
Author: Sharlene MacLaren
Publisher: Whitaker House
April 2010
ISBN: 978-1-60374-076-0
Genre: Inspirational/historical

Abbie Ann Kane is the youngest of Jacob Kane’s three daughters. She works at the Kane’s store, teaches Sunday school, and leads the local women’s temperance union in promoting women’s rights and prohibition. She also helps abused women. Her causes aren’t popular and she keeps her brother-in-law, Sheriff Gabriel Devlin busy investigating threats directed at Abbie Ann.

Noah Carson used to run a successful shipworks in Connecticut until his business partner cheated him out of his share of the business and stole his wife. Now divorced, Noah is hoping for a fresh start, so he moves with his six-year-old son to the west shore of Michigan to join a window business.

An unexpected accident propels Noah into Abbie Ann’s life, and they are immediately attracted to the other. But Noah doesn’t want anything to do with a God that allows bad things to happen—and Abbie Ann is a very committed Christian woman. What will have to happen to bring this couple together?

ABBIE ANN is the third book in the Daughters of Jacob Kane series, but it easily stands alone. I enjoyed getting to know Abbie Ann and Noah (as well as his young son) and revisiting the other characters from other books.

Set on the shores of Lake Michigan, I know the area where the fictional town of Sandy Shores well, and it is one of my favorite areas, even in the winter, the season the book begins with. The author did an excellent job letting me feel the blustery wind and the heavy lake effect snow that accumulates fast.

If you are looking for a good historical book, pick up your copy of ABBIE ANN or any of the other books in this series. A preview of another book by Ms. MacLaren is included at the end. $9.99. 525 pages.