A Promise for Ellie

Lauraine Snelling has taken us yet again to the community of Blessing, North Dakota. This time the story focuses on Andrew, Ingeborg's younger son, and his fiance Ellie. The two have known they would get married ever since they were little. When the pair have to postpone their marriage due to circumstances beyond their control, Andrew is angry at the delay, while Ellie accepts the wait. She wants to learn what it'll be like to have a home with Andrew. However Andrew keeps growing more sullen and distant with her. Then tragedy strikes making the couple having to rethink their relationship and especially their upcoming marriage. I love the Bjorkland family and I'm glad that we are able to again join with another generation of the family. The original series, Red River of the North, was excellent as was the second series with Thorliff. I love how there is so much detail about prairie life, this time new and old worlds collide as Thorliff's wife is now the doctor of the area. All the familiar faces are still around, making cameos at least. I really liked Ellie. She was practical, reasonable, patient, and understanding. She was able to stand up to Andrew even when he was being completely stubborn. Andrew's temper has been brought up in past books as a forewarning that it would get him into trouble someday. I kind of got annoyed with him sometimes. I know that he loved Ellie and wanted to be with her, but his actions and attitude were very childish. When his father tried to give him reasons about why he should wait a bit for the wedding, which IMO were very reasonable, Andrew throws a tantrum. He gets mad that Ellie wants to go to her own bridal shower. He keeps thinking she's cheating on him. When the climax happens, I know this sounds sadistic, but I'm glad Andrew finally realizes he's gone over the edge and now has to pay the consequences. I never got bored reading this book, I love the historical detail, I love all the background stories from the characters. I can't wait for the next book in the series. At this rate Lauraine will never leave the town of Blessing which is perfectly fine with me!

Lauraine Snelling's A Promise for Ellie tugs at the heartstrings with a story of young love and the raw emotions that erupt during tragedy. Life is never easy, but it's worth the glorious journey.

If you have read the Red River of the North, you must add this to your collection. If you have not read the the Red River Of the North you are missing out on a truely amazing, wounderful, true to life series! Lauraine Snelling is a wounderful writer, with easy to read stories. All her books have made me laugh out loud and cry untill my heart ached. Once again, the tears came pouring out while reading this one. I am not going to give anything away, you MUST read it to the suprising end! And as with all her stories I finnish feeling uplifted, closer to my family and appreciate the little things in life.

Lauraine's fiction enables you to pull up a chair with your bowl full of garden peas to shell, or thread your needle at a quilting bee, and listen in as turn-of-the-century Norwegian immigrants dispense wisdom. An engaging story line pulls you along in this tale of a young couple urged to delay their long-awaited wedding. But along the way you'll catch snippets of practice advice--like young Ellie deciding the best way to help her husband-to-be Andrew with his dark problems is to pray. The Norwegian side of my ancestry helped make Lauraine's book especially fun to read. I'm never disappointed when I pick up one of her titles for leisure reading.