Courting Emma

A Book Review: Courting Emma - Third in the Little Hickman Creek Series By Sharlene MacLaren/Whitaker House April 2008 ISBN-13: 978-1-600374-020-3 ISBN-10: 60374-020-1 Trade $9.97 Beautiful 28-year-old Emma Browning runs a boarding house in Little Hickman, Kentucky, filled with six hooligans who are not unlike her alcoholic father Ezra, the town drunk. She's tough, stubborn and resistant to all advances from potential beaus, including the town's new pastor and a childhood friend, Jon Atkins. He sells his house, donates the proceeds for building a church, and moves into the boarding house. He affects Emma and her boarders with his devout faith and strong convictions. She wants nothing to do with God and hangs onto a lifetime of bitterness toward Ezra until a miracle takes place--the conversion of her abusive father.Letters start arriving from a mysterious person who knows about her and her father's past. At the same time, she's flattered to receive the attentions of both Jon and Billy Wonder, a suave traveling salesman. Jon desperately desires to court Emma, but he wants to obey the commands of the Lord and not marry outside the church. Will Emma ever forgive her father? When will she begin to experience God's transforming power in her life?Ms. MacLaren keeps this third novel in the Little Hickman Creek series appealing, with honest-to-goodness characters and genuine emotions. Humor, romance, and mystery team with Christ's love to make this a positive reading experience for all ages.

After reading and absolutely loving the first two books in Sharlene MacLaren's Little Hickman series, I could not wait to read the final story. The storyline for "Courting Emma" stood out to me more so than the first two for some reason, so when the book arrived on my front porch I could not wait to get started. Sharlene did not disappoint! "Courting Emma" is the best book in the series. MacLaren's writing and storytelling just gets better and better with every book. I loved watching Jonathan demonstrate his love to Emma, even though she wanted nothing to do with him (sound familiar?). I loved seeing Jonathan minister to Emma's father to show him Jesus with tear-jerking results. I loved watching Emma slowly warm up to Jonathan against her will, then realize she couldn't live without him. This is a fabulous story, one that I will read again and again.

Courting Emma is the third book in Ms. MacLaren's Little Hickman Creek Series. I didn't read the other two, but if they are anything like this one, I certainly want to. The back cover blurb says: Twenty-eight-year-old Emma Browning has experienced a good deal of life at her young age. Proprietor of Emma's Boardinghouse, she is "mother" to an array of beefy, unkempt, often rowdy characters. Though many men would like to get to know the steely, hard-edged, yet surprisingly lovely proprietor, none has truly succeeded. That is, not until the town's new pastor, Jonathan Atkins, takes up residence in the boardinghouse, affecting not only her with his devout faith and strong convictions, but her clientèle as well. Emma clings desperately to her stubborn ways, refusing to acknowledge God's love until all of Little Hickman witnesses a miracle -- the conversion of her abusive and alcoholic father, Ezra! Only then will Emma begin to experience God's transforming power at work. This blurb doesn't do justice to the depth of emotion in this book. I don't normally cry while reading a novel. Movies, yeah, but it takes a lot in a book to make me cry. Well, I did toward the end of this one! Also, this blurb doesn't tell you about the romance in the book and how wonderful the characters are portrayed. Emma and Jon are real people with real problems and pasts that are not so clean and shiny. They share a common, abusive past, but where Jon let God open his heart and learned how to forgive even if it was after his father's death, Emma stayed bitter and angry at her father, who, in her mind (and the mind of some townspeople) is unworthy of any kind of gentle feeling or compassion. She only deals with him when she has to and refuses to let anyone help her, believing that her father is her problem. Jonathan, who she knew as a child, took a different path and ends up helping Emma with her father, regardless of her bitterness and out right anger at the idea of a loving God. Jon's example and refusal to back off from his beliefs eventually soften her heart and allows her to see God's love and her own worthiness. An excellent book and one I would recommend to anyone interested in reading a wholesome inspirational that doesn't paint life as always rosy and sweet. Real people dealing with real problems and finding God through it all. Wonderful!

COURTING EMMA, by Sharlene MacLaren Reviewed by Marion Kelley Bullock It's 1893 in Little Hickman, Kentucky. Twenty-eight-year-old Emma Browning runs a boarding house full of hooligans--six, to be exact. She's tough and stubborn. She doesn't want help from anybody, least of all Preacher Jon Atkins. He sells his house, donates the proceeds for building a church, and moves into the boardinghouse. Emma fears he'll try to hammer the gospel into her and her boarders. She wants nothing to do with God. She hangs on to a lifetime of bitterness toward her father, the town drunk. Emma has begun receiving letters from a mysterious someone who knows about her and seems to know secrets about her father's past. At the same time, she's flattered and a bit discomfited to receive the attentions of both Jon and Billy Wonder, a suave traveling salesman. She tries to keep her mind off the handsome preacher. Jon finds Emma lovely and fascinating. But he wants to obey the still, small voice of God. He sets out to reach the unreachables. And right alongside that desire is his desperate wanting to court Emma. Will Emma ever forgive her father? Will she find God's perfect plan for her life? Ms. MacLaren's novel is sweet, but not syrupy. Real honest-to-goodness characters with genuine emotions people its pages. They live and breathe in my mind. I feel as if I might walk down Main Street and encounter some of them. Humor, romance, and mystery team with Christ's love to make this reading experience one you won't want to miss.

I love a book that totally transports me back in time and removes me to a place and a people that I come to love and care about! Sharlene MacLaren has done just that in her book, Courting Emma! Although I've not read the first two books in the Little Hickman Creek Series, I have truly come to love Little Hickman, Kentucky and I hope to make repeat visits! Sharlene MacLaren takes two very different people, Miss Emma Browning and Pastor Johnathan Atkins and casts them as lead characters in her story. At first, the reader cannot imagine any two people more different, but the story tenderly reveals that their pasts are more similar than even the two of them knew. Sharlene MacLaren tells this story so beautifully and tenderly that it is easy to understand God's grace and mercy in every circumstance of our lives. Jon Atkins becomes God's hands and feet in the community and he shows Christ to them in a way so real that God's love becomes irresistible to many on whom the town had given up - Emma's father Ezra among them. I don't want to give anything at all away in this tender love story. I will say that Sharlene deals with many issues like loving the unlovable, forgiving those who have hurt us, reaching out to those in need....timeless issues that are gentle reminders to all of God's children. I loved the way she used God's word to speak to the hearts of Little Hickman and I love the way each situation was bathed in prayer - knowingly or not. This really is a very special book, and I highly recommend it to everyone! What a testament to God's love and grace!! Thank you, Sharlene, from the bottom of my heart. I look forward to reading your books for a very long time!