Angel's Embrace

In 1876 Missouri, good friends Billy Bristol and Emma Clark are at the altar about to marry. He has doubts, but she is sure. So when nine-month pregnant Eve Messena from nearby Richmond arrives, he is relieved while Emma is upset. Eve insists that the father of her unborn is Wesley Bristol, Billy's vanished outlaw brother and that she was looking for any of his kin. When she goes into labor right there in the church, a nervous Billy delivers the newborn. Everyone believes the baby girl born in the church has to be an angel. Billy feels a love towards his niece that he has never felt towards anyone. Billy is attracted to the mother, who shares his growing love, but she fears those feelings having been hurt by a Bristol brother once before and he is unsure of such an emotion; however both love the baby angel and are not afraid to show it. This is a terrific Reconstruction Era romance that sub-genre fans will enjoy as the inspirational elements are interwoven into the plot so that they are inclusive not intrusive. The key characters are fully developed so that the reader understands their deepest feelings including why they fear love. Using historical tidbits and the vernacular of the era, Charlotte Hughes provides a wonderful nineteenth century Americana tale. Harriet Klausner

Angel's Embrace is the third in the inspirational romance Angels of Mercy series, by Charlotte Hubbard. The first book details Mercy Malloy's story, the second, Christine Bristol's. Christine and her brother, Billy, moved with their mother to Abilene, Kansas after a gang killed their father and Billy's twin, and they lost their farm. Their mother left them with Mercy, who raised the children like her own. Billy lived for the day he can return to Missouri and avenge the deaths of his brother and father. Angel's Embrace tells how he learns his brother was not killed, and what he does with the information. At the beginning, Emma Clark is buying material for her trousseau in 1876 Abilene. After grasshoppers destroyed her father's crops and contributed to her mother's death, Emma has designed a happier ending to the year. She's maneuvered Billy Bristol into marrying her. Things are looking better for Emma, until she picks up a piece of mail addressed to Billy from Eve Massena. Eve knew Billy's family when they lived in Missouri. She insists she must talk with him. Eve's language sounds familiar, and out of pique and fear, Emma tears up the letter and an enclosed painting. Thinking the matter over, Emma is shocked when Eve shows up during the wedding, collapses on the floor of the church and proceeds to have Billy's niece. Thanks to the unexpected "guests," Billy escapes marriage to the controlling Emma. Eve stays with the Malloys, and--like Billy before her--learns the true meaning of love from Mercy and her patchwork family. Billy returns to Missouri where he meets his brother and uncovers a few surprises. Soon thereafter, he and Eve know what God intends for them, and they move forward with confidence and love. Angel's Embrace is a fine inspirational romance, like A Patchwork Family and Journey to Love. I'm looking forward to the fourth in the series.