I loved this book. It
took a little reading before I was hooked, and that is what happened. This is a Historical Christion Fiction
Book. Geesie de Jonge was leaving
Netherland and traveling with her close family and one man who had worked for
her father. She was leaving friends and
relatives behind knowing she wouldn’t see many of them ever again, in order to
be free to follow her religious beliefs freely and not be forced into another. Fifty years later, part of the group that
developed Holland, She is writing her life story, she was requested to do by
this by the people putting together a celebration of how they came to be there
in Holland. She didn’t want to write
that story as it brings up so many emotions and memories of the past.
I remember my husband
finding information on his family that came from Germany and helped to develop
Frankenmuth! The docent in Frankenmuth
gave us newspaper articles in German, that had a picture of his people who came
here to what is now known as Frankenmuth.
There is a small street by the name of Rupp, a room in the hotel named
Rupp just small things to pay tribute to his family for settling in Frankenmuth
and getting it started and developed.
Much of the story which is fiction, is taken from true
stories of shipwrecks and history of the people who settled in Holland and made
that land the place that it became.
This book has many references to the Bible, surprising to
me, many of the things that were referenced from the Bible were things that I
needed to hear, they left me thinking long after the book was put away.
While Geesie was writing her long ago memories of traveling
by ship, at a nearby Hotel on the shore of Lake Michigan, a 23 year old Anna
Nicholson is trying to get over a broken engagement to a well to do Chicago
Banker. She meets a young seminary
student who is working at the hotel for the summer and she finds herself drawn
to him to get answers of her past. I can’t
say much more without telling the entire story but I can say the book really
resonated with me, the characters are well developed and very interesting, you
want to know their story and how things are going to turn out. It was a great read!
I received this book for free
as a part of Bethany House's blogging program. I was not required to like the
book, only to give my honest opinion of it.
Description as found on Good Reads:
Austin Returns with a
Multi-Generational Historical Novel
Geesje de Jonge crossed the ocean at age seventeen with her parents and a small group of immigrants from the Netherlands to settle in the Michigan wilderness. Fifty years later, in 1897, she's asked to write a memoir of her early experiences as the town celebrates its anniversary. Reluctant at first, she soon uncovers memories and emotions hidden all these years, including the story of her one true love.
At the nearby Hotel Ottawa Resort on the shore of Lake Michigan, twenty-three-year-old Anna Nicholson is trying to ease the pain of a broken engagement to a wealthy Chicago banker. But her time of introspection is disturbed after a violent storm aboard a steamship stirs up memories of a childhood nightmare. As more memories and dreams surface, Anna begins to question who she is and whether she wants to return to her wealthy life in Chicago. When she befriends a young seminary student who is working at the hotel for the summer, she finds herself asking him all the questions that have been troubling her.
Neither Geesje nor Anna, who are different in every possible way, can foresee the life-altering surprises awaiting them before the summer ends. (less)
Geesje de Jonge crossed the ocean at age seventeen with her parents and a small group of immigrants from the Netherlands to settle in the Michigan wilderness. Fifty years later, in 1897, she's asked to write a memoir of her early experiences as the town celebrates its anniversary. Reluctant at first, she soon uncovers memories and emotions hidden all these years, including the story of her one true love.
At the nearby Hotel Ottawa Resort on the shore of Lake Michigan, twenty-three-year-old Anna Nicholson is trying to ease the pain of a broken engagement to a wealthy Chicago banker. But her time of introspection is disturbed after a violent storm aboard a steamship stirs up memories of a childhood nightmare. As more memories and dreams surface, Anna begins to question who she is and whether she wants to return to her wealthy life in Chicago. When she befriends a young seminary student who is working at the hotel for the summer, she finds herself asking him all the questions that have been troubling her.
Neither Geesje nor Anna, who are different in every possible way, can foresee the life-altering surprises awaiting them before the summer ends. (less)
